The Power Of Perspective: Turning Your Challenges Into Purpose With David Cooks

 

When we hit a wall or encounter seemingly insurmountable struggles in our life, it can be difficult to move forward. Rodney Flowers’ guest in this episode is here to prove that regardless of whatever life challenges we face, we can shift our mindset and turn those challenges into opportunities. David Cooks is a T-6 paraplegic who is also an international speaker, business coach, and award-winning author. Today, he talks about the power of perspective and shares how he turned his paralysis into purpose and put that purpose into action by helping others. Need encouragement and inspiration? This conversation is a must-listen.

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The Power Of Perspective: Turning Your Challenges Into Purpose With David Cooks

I have a very special guest in the studio with me. He is the author of the book From Paralysis to Purpose. His name is David Cooks. He is a T-6 paraplegic and an international speaker. He’s a business coach and an award-winning author. He encourages people to keep moving forward regardless of life challenges and to put purpose into action by helping others. I’m so honored and so excited to speak with the man who has turned his paralysis into purpose. He is here to teach us how to do the same. Let’s welcome David Cooks to the show. Welcome to the show, David.

Focus on the possibilities. The very first step in moving forward is to find something that’s possible. Click To Tweet

I’m excited to be here, Rodney, and looking forward to spending whatever time we have together. I think it’s going to be a great journey for us.

Talking about journey, you’ve been on one. You have demonstrated what it means to turn challenges into opportunities. Given that we’re in a time like now, turning challenges into opportunities is more of a skill set. People are struggling and dealing with a lot of challenges. You seem to be cruising through with so much grace and experiencing so much success. People are turning to you on how to deal with challenges, find purpose in paralysis, and figure things out in tough times. I want to get into that conversation with you. How do we do this? How do we learn the skill sets? What skills could you transfer to us in the time that we have together that will equip us with what we need to succeed in a time like now? I’m excited about that conversation.

As we talk about converting paralysis to possibilities and all those types of things, the name of my book is Getting Undressed: From Paralysis to Purpose. We all get undressed and do it on a regular basis. Getting undressed is more appropriate now than ever. Now they call it pivoting but back years ago when I had to relearn how to live, getting undressed was that pivoting moment for me. It was a rebranding or a starting over. The clothes that I was putting on were representing where I was heading, and the clothes that I took off was the past. That is one of the keys to understanding moving forward. It’s that you have to literally move forward.

That starts with three things that we can probably touch on. One is your perspective, the other thing is perseverance, and the third thing is partnerships. For me, my journey from literal and physical paralysis to purpose was filled with those things. I do think as we identify paralysis, it does not have to be physical. It can be psychological, financial and emotional. It can take on so many forms. It can be a pandemic. Anything that keeps you from functioning fully is a form of paralysis. COVID-19 has paralyzed everybody in some form. It has leveled the playing field too. If we all now are starting from a place of paralysis, then the opportunities that are there should be somewhat equal as well.

Let’s talk about how you do that because that’s not an easy thing to do. I’m preaching to the choir because you’ve had to deal with paralysis yourself as a T-6 paraplegic. Taking that step forward or moving when you can’t move, that first step or that first inch forward, sometimes it’s the hardest one because you don’t have any momentum with you. We’re all in this together, so help us. How do we make that first step? How do we move from where we are right now?

The very first step I took was through understanding and being inspired by someone else. Let me tell you what I mean. I’m going to take you back many years if I can, in the rehabilitation center after the spinal aneurysm and having a roommate who was a quadriplegic. That guy’s name was Tony. I didn’t understand anything at the time about what my situation was. I saw that he couldn’t do what I could do, but he worked so hard. His attitude was so strong. He was always talking about going home, going to college and becoming a doctor like an MD doctor, not a PhD doctor, with very limited mobility. We were on a mat in rehab and we were rolling and doing the things that you have to do. I thought for that one moment, he would give anything to be able to do the things that I could do.

It changed my perspective on what I saw. I didn’t see anymore what I couldn’t do. I begin to focus on the possibilities. The very first step in moving forward is finding something that’s possible. It doesn’t have to be huge. It can be a small step. Sometimes when we get caught in these situations and get overwhelmed because the mountain is big, let’s keep it real. I’m not saying it’s not substantial, but it’s got to be a baby step. For me, learning how to get undressed was that first baby step after I learned how to get dressed. If we can identify a small thing and measure it, anything that you don’t measure is not worth it. You’ve got to measure everything in your life. You need to measure your finances, relationships and growth.

If you can somehow say, “Today, I did this.” It may not be much to anyone else but to you, you’ve accomplished something that day. Maybe it was filling out an online application. Maybe it was taking an online class to develop some skillset that you didn’t have before because you now recognize that the future is driven by technology as you are in this pandemic. Now you have to get another skillset. What do I do? I’m going to take one class. That’s one step. That’s sometimes how we can move forward in making these changes.

I appreciate looking at what’s possible versus what’s seemingly impossible. We’re dealing with a lot of uncertainty right now. One of the things I like to tell people is that uncertainty is like a blank canvas. You look at it and there’s nothing there. You’re uncertain of what it could be. Place your vision on that canvas. That’s where you start. I get that. That’s your vision. It’s in your mind. This is what you would want to have. There’s a lot of uncertainty around whether or not that can come forward, but something is there. It’s possible. You need to work towards that. I love your point here about perception because perception is everything. If you’re not careful, that perception can make or break you.

It will either cause you to move forward and keep you paralyzed because of a perception. I’m sure you can relate to being in a place where it’s perceived that, “Because I’m paralyzed, I’m not going to be able to do this or that.” All the thoughts that come with being paralyzed. There’s a lot that comes with that thought. There is another side to the coin. There’s another side to the paralysis. A lot of times, you got to get through all of that minutia and those negative thoughts first before you can see “Here’s what can happen. This is the picture that has been painted from other people’s experiences. This is what I’m choosing.” It comes down to that thought process, perceiving something different than what is presented in front of you.

There are a couple of things you mentioned. Number one, at some point, the possible was impossible. We need to understand that. At some point, some of these things were deemed impossible until they were done. Now they’re possible and it allows for us to engage in the possibility. You made a choice. You had to filter through all the noise and some of that noise is reality. You’re not giving that reality the right to keep you from living, so you choose to go beyond what you see to what you want to see. What you want to see is what you pursue. That’s where that perspective can take you to the right place. Nobody else has to see it but you. We need to understand that. You may not be able to see it. It’s like love. Sometimes I look at some people and I’m like, “Why did they marry that person?” You can’t see it but you don’t have to because that’s their marriage.

It’s the same thing with your dream and your goal. It’s yours. You have to believe it. That’s your belief because I still am convinced that one of the greatest gifts given to mankind is the ability to believe. What you believe dictates everything else in your life. When you talk about the power of perspective, I’m convinced that perspective drives performance at every level because what you think about it dictates how you approach it. How you approach it dictates how hard you work at it. There’s the perseverance kicking in, but it’s all driven through what you see and how you view adversity and obstacles. I don’t think that obstacles and adversity were ever designed to redefine us or change our purpose, goals or passion. They redirect us. That’s what they do.

When you’re driving in a car, there’s an accident on the road, and the GPS will reroute you, it still knows where you’re supposed to get to, but you’re taking a different route now because there’s been an accident on the road. That’s what adversity and obstacles are designed to do, to still get you to your expected end, but maybe take you a different route to do that. That takes patience and understanding. I love the game of basketball. I wanted to play high school ball. I never wanted to play college ball because I want to be a banker and make a lot of money, not knowing that that wasn’t the guarantee. When I became paralyzed physically, my love for the game and my passion to interact with people didn’t become paralyzed. That was still living. The thing that is in you, the gifting, passion and desire die when you die, not when you become paralyzed. That’s a different conversation.

That’s worth saying again because far too often when something like a pandemic or an accident happens, the dreams die because there’s a loss of hope and what we would consider the energy of possibility. I love what you said about redirecting, understanding the purpose and the obstacles and adversity play in our lives. I did a talk about how when you understand the experience that happens in your life. You are better equipped to use that experience to serve you. A lot of times, when these things happen, we have a perception about them happening. They can lead to some deep emotions like, “There is no God. Woe is me. My life sucks. I have no purpose.” All of these things can come up.

I’ll use this as an example. I remember specifically me feeling that way. I didn’t have a purpose. My life was over. Because if I couldn’t do what I wanted to do, then I felt like there was no reason to live. I didn’t realize at that time that it was the greatest opportunity to do something, not only that I wanted to do which was having an impact on the world, be of an influence, make a lot of money and be happy and all of those things. I was able to inspire so many more people than I would have impacted as a football player. I was able to experience much more reward doing what I’m doing now than I feel that I would have experienced as a football player. Most importantly, I understand my true contribution as a human being versus being a football player. I love football, but what I love most and what’s most rewarding for me in life is to be able to bring my contribution forward.

That’s why I love the subtitle of your book, Getting Undressed: From Paralysis to Purpose, because I understand the purpose. That’s what we all are searching for. We want to understand our purpose here in life. We develop some idea of what that purpose is on our own, and then when life happens to us, something occurs and that is disruptive, it can take the life out of you. It can make you feel like what you thought was your purpose is not your purpose. Going full circle now, back to understanding the role that adversity and challenge play in our lives, and that is going to get you to your purpose.

Now you understand the hit on the field. You get hit and it stops you, but it’s not the end of the game. It’s a part of the game. That hit serves a purpose. It’s going to make you call another play. Even calling another play for a lot of people because you can’t win the game of life running the same play all the time. You got to be able to switch it up. You got to have some variety. The universe loves variety. Look around. There are all kinds of things that you can look at. I’m in so much agreement with you in terms of understanding the roles that challenge and adversity play in our lives.

You said so many profound things there but the one thing that stood out was the understanding of how to take everything that you are given and put it in the recipe for your success. Everything matters. Nothing is insignificant. One of the things that I hear as I listen to you is from paralysis to purpose is a journey. There’s a maturation process that takes place along that journey where you begin to understand who you are and your purpose. The other significant thing is not only does your purpose serves you, but I would submit that it’s not a purpose if it doesn’t serve someone. I’m not even sure what I would call that because I don’t know what that is.

I can speak on that. There’s the chapter in the book, Get Up! that I wrote. I called it, “Don’t do it for you. Do it for those that need to see you do it.” I truly believe that the challenges and obstacles that we face are not for us. They’re for someone else, but you are given that charge to go through that. You have the DNA that’s going to get through that. What you’re doing is demonstrating. You’re an example. What you go through, now you get to share. Here’s where this is important.

We’re all in this field of adversity. We are all playing this game. I may be a running back. You may be a wide receiver, so you’ve got to run your route and play your position. I’m a running back, so that’s what I do. I’m not out there catching passes and running 40 yards to catch a ball and doing all of that. I don’t know how to catch a ball. I don’t do that. I run the ball. That’s what you do. That’s your game. There are things that are going on in your game that I’m not even aware of. I may not know how to do all of those things, but you have to do this because when it’s time for your play to get called, we need you to be ready to catch that ball. That’s going to help the team win.

Everything matters. Nothing is insignificant. Click To Tweet

How does that relate? We’re all in this game together. We all want the same thing. We’re all trying to get to the same place. We all want to win. We all have a purpose here to fulfill, which is to bring our contributions forward so that we all can experience and make the world a better place. That’s what we all are here for to bring love, light, peace, joy, happiness and all of those things. When we talk about how challenges and obstacles direct us, they’re here to serve us. This maturation process that you’re talking about, it’s important.

I was talking about how the universe is all about moving upward and outward. It’s all about generating, fulfilling and creating more life, fulfillment, joy, happiness and all of the goodness of life that we’re here for. Whatever you’re doing and bringing, it’s not just for you. You’re here to serve and support that upward and outward flow. There’s something about you that you can bring, some contribution that you have that’s going to support. We need that fruit from you to support that mission. When you understand who you are on the team and what your role is, that’s what we call purpose. When you get to that place of purpose and you understand, “This is how I support.” Everything else is a distraction. If you’re not focused on running your route, play your game, understand that there’s going to be hit, bumps, bruises and all that stuff in your position, but that’s the nature of the game. You got to get over that to bring your contribution forward.

I will say a couple of things about that because that is all so true. You are the only person equipped to fulfill your purpose, nobody else. It’s what you were talking about in terms of the role you fill. Your purpose is your purpose. If you don’t fulfill your purpose, the earth will be void of what you were supposed to contribute because nobody else can do what you’re supposed to do. I coached basketball and I know a little bit about football. From a coaching perspective, it was my responsibility to put players in the position for them to succeed based on their skillset. If I did that, we would have a winning culture. That didn’t mean we win every game because losing is a part of winning. Losing is growing. That’s that upward, outward thing that you talked about. If we can understand that along the way, let’s get it clear, there are some days I don’t feel like doing this and this is hard to do. I have to go past that because I understand I’ve got a game to play and be involved in.

I’m a huge believer that as long as there’s time on the clock, there’s an opportunity not only to impact the game but also win the game. I was giving a talk and I shared it with the people, one of the things that people need to know on the team is their value and that they’re valued. Everybody, I don’t care who you are, what profession you’re in, you want to know what your value is. What’s my worth? You want to feel valued. That comes with reinforcement, an attaboy, and when you make that touchdown run or you hit that free throw to tie the game. Understand that everybody’s contribution in life is a million-dollar contribution. There is no contribution that is less or greater than anyone else’s. It’s the same and is highly valued. If we could monetize it, you wouldn’t be able to. People need to know that.

I appreciate that because we live in a society where we put a lot of people up on a pedestal. When we talk about value, we look at certain people and we value them because of their accomplishments. When it’s time to look at ourselves in the contribution that we’re bringing, we don’t look at ourselves in that same light.

That’s right and that’s a mistake. Why do we keep coming back to perception? Because it’s everything.

It’s the foundation of it all. We can change this world if we wanted it to go a little bit deeper and talk about imagination. We can talk about vision. These are all interchangeable words but can mean the same thing. I like to tell people when I’m speaking to not just see with your eyes, but to see with your heart. When you can see with your heart, you can look past the distractions and what’s seemingly impossible. You’re viewing things from a more heart-centered spiritual light. Your physical can only take you so far, but your imagination and vision can take you anywhere you want to go.

Close your eyes and see because vision has nothing to do with your eyes being open or closed. If you close your eyes and you can still see, that’s that depth that you were talking about in terms of vision and imagination. Einstein said imagination is the precursor to the future. If you can imagine it, you’re futuristic in what you’re doing. There’s always a place in the future for you. That’s what’s so crazy. Past today, there’s a place for you tomorrow.

There’s more than one reality. We stop at what we can see, but your vision is real. When you close your eyes and see, what you see is real. You can bring that forward. Even though it’s not in a physical form, but when you close your eyes and see it, that’s a real form. There are different forms of reality. Look at the water. When water evaporates, it still exists. It’s just in a different form.

 

That whole vision thing is wonderful. It’s what drives everything. If somebody at some point had a vision about the air conditioner, it had never existed. It was cool to take the blocks of ice, cool your house down and everything else and it functioned, but Mr. Carrier changed the world with something that didn’t exist in the eyes of everybody else except him. That’s what we’re talking about. That’s a different level of living. That’s why we coach businesses and people. It’s because we all have blind spots. There are some things you need others to help you see that’s a part of your function and purpose. Because you can’t see it doesn’t make you a bad person, ill-equipped or inadequate, you just can’t see it. If somebody can help you see it, and then you see it, then you’re ready to go. It’s like, “I never thought of that. It was sitting here right in my hand and I could not see it.”

That goes to the partnership aspect of what we’re talking about, where you don’t have to take this journey by yourself. Those who want to do that, I applaud you but I’m not that guy. I am not a self-made man. I’m a help-made man. I learned to do the things I can. The things that I would like to do that I struggle with, I will get assistance with that. The older I get, the more I let people hold the door for me. When I was a young cat, a young dude, “I got it. We’re good.” Now, “Sir, can we help you?” “Absolutely. How much do you want to help me?” I’ll let you help me until I have to do very little because it still gets me to where I’m going.

There’s a lot to be said about that. I have to be open and vulnerable. As we settled when this show started, I’m a little younger than you. As a football player, I’ve been that guy. I’m very aggressive, very independent, independent in thought, physically independent. A lot of that has served me well to overcome such a traumatic accident. I had to have an attitude about this that wasn’t a passive attitude. I was aggressive in the approach and the pursuit of overcoming. With that came along this attitude and mindset of independence. I haven’t always reached out for help. It has been a struggle just to need help in general, especially as a young guy. It was a blow to my identity, who I am and the image that I had of myself. I can attest to what you’re saying about doing the partnership because you can’t do it all alone. There’s just no way you can do it.

The people that are blessed by helping you. The journey that you’re on. I believe in God. God is so smart and wonderful. It’s amazing. He’ll give you a vision. You have this vision and this desire to bring forth and it’s going to serve and help people. It’s going to be effective. You’re going to benefit from it, too. There’s this team that you need to bring that vision forward, and then things are working in their lives too. They’re here to help and support you and your vision, but it’s helping them. There are things going on in their life that are not only helping them, but other people are benefiting from them being a part of you and your vision. That’s why I love this whole team aspect of life because we’re all in this together. We need each other. If you don’t have the partnership, it’s like cutting off the flow of the energy and the support necessary to bring that vision forward.

Sometimes we have to pull back and remind ourselves that we’re part of a team. We say that all the time. Unless you’ve been on a team, you may not understand how interconnected you are with the people on your team and how you do need them for you to be the best player you can be on that team. If my point guard was not going to pass to my open big man, then it wasn’t going to work. We needed that to happen. The point guard got an assist. The big man got a bucket. You both benefited from doing what you had to help him do better. I love that we all can keep a score and it helps us when we help each other.

A purpose is not a purpose if it doesn't serve someone. Click To Tweet

One of the things that I love about what I’ve been able to do over the years and to share in people’s lives, I can’t tell you how much that does for me. I can’t quantify the joy when someone comes back and they say, “You probably don’t remember saying this to me, but you said such and such a thing. I never forgot it. It changed my life.” When they’d come back and tell you that, that right there is a win. That’s a big win and not a little win. We talk about purpose. I believe everybody is put on earth for the same purpose. You just have a different skill set to accomplish it. Your purpose is to make somebody else’s life better. I believe that. How you’d go about that will be based again on what your assignment is in this realm of the game. If we do that, what a great experience. We win.

When we can get that right, not only do we win, we also become champions.

If you’ve never been a part of a championship situation, let me tell you.

You have to experience it to understand it.

It is next-level satisfaction. The sense of accomplishment that you feel on the other side of adversity and becoming a champion deals with adversity, games, challenges, ups, downs, wins, losses, injuries, disappointments, teammates leaving, all of that. On the other side of that, the sense of accomplishment is remarkable. The story you can tell is unforgettable and the number of lives you can impact is immeasurable. It is an unbelievable thing.

You said something very key at the beginning of the show. You said that the world is paralyzed together or something like that because we’re all going through the pandemic. Everyone is feeling the effects of the pandemic. At the same time, we were dealing with social injustice and it was recognized globally. It was the first time that it had that much recognition on a global stage ever. At the same time, we’re dealing with adversity together. Everyone is feeling that.

When you talk about the team and the fact that we need each other on the team, I can’t help but think that this was a wake-up call to the world that now more than ever, dealing with what we’re dealing with, we have to put certain issues of the divide at rest because to move forward like this is a global movement and a global issue. We’re going to need everybody to win the game. This is not a one-sided type of game that we’re playing where this team is expected to win and they can win alone. That’s over. You need everyone pitching in. We need all hands on deck to tackle the issues that we are dealing with now.

Now more than ever, the contributions, vision, skillset and ideas that you have, we need that to come forward. We need to be a more diverse and inclusive society and a world now more than ever before. We have to use this technology to connect and we have social media like people’s ideas and visions. When they are passionate about their vision, they can put that out on social media. They can share their contribution, vision and ideas with the world using this technology. I feel that that level of integration and that level of exposure can cause a movement and have such an impact on people on a global stage that will allow us to gather so much momentum, tackle issues, solve problems, hear from people that we wouldn’t otherwise hear from if we didn’t have these platforms.

Before, we would go to certain places for answers and that was it. People can come to your Facebook. They can go to your platform and look and see what David Cooks is talking about relative to adversity. Before, you would have to go down the street to Cece’s house if you wanted to get some good banana pudding. Now, Cece can go on social media. She could put her idea, vision, contribution and show you how to make this awesome banana pudding. You make an order and she can send it to you. How about that? We’re just living in a world where you can make your contribution and the thing about you available to anyone in the world.

 

The pandemic has caused us to do three things. It caused us to reflect, take time to think about what’s important and how do we make this work. You reflect, then you regroup. You get yourself back together after you’ve been shaken and traumatized and then you relaunch. We are in a stage now where the pause button has been hit. We’ve gone through some reflection. We’re trying to regroup ourselves, and now we need to relaunch as a new and better people and a better world. That’s where we’re going. Do you know what else adversity does, not just the pandemic? It eliminates the unnecessary and it accentuates the essential. What will last will be what’s lasting.

We’re filtering through things. The adversity and the obstacles help filter through some of the garbage and some of the distractions. Sometimes, it’s not very comfortable but neither is giving birth. Giving birth is messy. It’s uncomfortable. At the end of it, it’s a bundle of joy, but the process can be a little bit difficult. I’m going to say this. I know we’re getting toward the end of our time. If you’re reading this, I want you to understand that your ability to endure is always greater than your willingness to endure. I didn’t volunteer, neither did you for the adversity that we’ve had to deal with. If someone had told you in advance, “Rodney, at age fifteen, you are going to have a very traumatic situation.” You would have been like, “Wait a minute. I’m not too sure I want to get that.” I’ll take that adversity over there because that one was a little bit nicer.

It’s amazing if you allow yourself to go on the journey that there is an innate ability given into the human spirit that is greater to deal with these things than our willingness to do it. Whatever you’re facing and you mentioned it as DNA, you are fully equipped not just to survive but to thrive and overcome because survival is not living. That’s existence. I’m trying to overcome. Understand if it’s in your life, it’s there because you are equipped to make it into something great, not just for yourself but for somebody else.

David, how can people connect with you if they wanted to learn more about you?

You can catch me on social media. I’m on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, all of that stuff, @DCESpeaks. You can go to my website. It’s still up but we’re launching a new one which is DavidCooksSpeaks.com. Those are the ways to get a hold of me. I would love to talk with you and if you’re interested in the autographed book or something, I’d love to do that for you as well. I’d love to come to speak to your organization about life, how to turn it to a corner, rebrand, get undressed and put the right clothes on. I would love to do that for anyone that would have me.

As long as there's time on the clock, there's an opportunity not only to impact the game but also to win it. Click To Tweet

I appreciate the opportunity to be on Game Changer. This is a big deal for me. I’m sincere when I say that. When I talk about the significance of everything. I value everything as the only thing and right now, being on Game Changer with Rodney Flowers, this is crazy. I’m a guy from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin to get to do these things. That’s what we talked about before. When you are living in your purpose, it doesn’t take a lot to get you geeked up. That satisfaction level is always at a high level. That’s what I love about it. I don’t have to do great things to have great pleasure. I just have to do things, whatever that is. This here now is good. Thank you for that opportunity.

You’re welcome. Thank you for sharing. You have a wonderful story. I love the title of your book, Getting Undressed: From Paralysis to Purpose. It’s interesting how paralysis can lead to purpose. You are the epitome of that, David. You’re an example of what’s possible. That’s what the world needs because sometimes, we feel when we get in these situations, it’s seemingly impossible to get beyond it. We feel that way. It’s like you’re at the bottom of a mountain and then you’re looking up, “I know I’m not going to be able to climb this mountain. It’s not possible.” A lot of times, you don’t realize that it’s possible for you. When you’re on the other side and you’re looking back, you can’t believe that you did it. It’s taking that step and the willingness to climb.

It’s in you to do. If we are created in the image of the creator who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all, we can ask or think, “If we’re made like him, then we’re able to do more than we think.” Let that marinate. That DNA is in us. Thus, your ability to endure is greater than your willingness. Willingness is a thought. Ability is your ability. It’s your action and what you can do. Your thoughts are in you, the action, to get even that and more done, and to overcome. We need to be overcomers.

Hence, our limitation is in our thinking.

If you can’t think, you should not have a problem. If you can think, you have a beginning.

Thanks again for coming to the show. This has been amazing. I love you and I love what you’re doing. I’m going to get you back on the show because I feel like there’s so much more that we can dive into, but bite-size pieces. There you have another successful episode. I want you to think about your purpose. I want you to think about it here now, as it relates to what you’re dealing with.

There are a couple of questions I want you to ask yourself around the clarity of your purpose. I feel that sometimes whenever we are going through a challenge, things that don’t matter fall by the wayside because the essentials are being essential. I love what you said about that. We want to pay attention to that because what we want to do is purify. Sometimes when you’re going in the fire, it’s hot and it’s burning but it’s purifying. It’s getting rid of the things that don’t matter. It’s bringing a level of clarity to the purpose. That’s essentially beautiful verbiage. I love the verbiage that David used because that’s essentially what happened to both of us.

 

There was clarity in the challenge. That’s what we’re all going through right now. What’s important is that we get to that place of clarity because there is a relaunch that’s coming. We want to make sure that we clear it when it’s time to move out and step back out on the field. We’re in a timeout right now. We are reassessing, reevaluating, resetting and preparing for the relaunch. We want to make sure that when we step back out on the field, we are clear in what we’re going to execute. When we get ready to go back out there on that field and we execute, it’s a whole new game. It is a different level of play. We’re not the same players. We’re better versions. It’s all because of what we’ve been through. We’re evaluating the experience and harvesting the good out of that experience to be better players. That’s what game changers do. That’s what champions do. Until next time. Peace and love.

Important Links:

• Getting Undressed: From Paralysis to Purpose
• @DCESpeaks – Instagram
• Facebook – David Cooks
• Twitter – David Cooks
• LinkedIn – David Cooks
• DavidCooksSpeaks.com
• http://RodneyFlowers.com/Get-Up-Book/ 
• http://RodneyFlowers.com/Essential-Assertions-Book/ 
• https://RodneyFlowers.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=01f76a038256f77a6fbc93590&id=307d726734

About David Cooks

David Cooks, a T-6 paraplegic, is an International Speaker, a Business Coach and an award-winning author of the book “Getting Undressed – From Paralysis to Purpose”. In his book, David encourages the reader to keep moving forward regardless of life’s challenges and to put Purpose into action by helping others. David has shared the stage with Elizabeth Smart, Jordan Montgomery, Ron White and many others, providing inspiration and insights with audiences throughout the United States.

David’s basketball coaching career is distinguished. Highlights of his coaching career include serving under Coach Mike Krzyzewski at Duke University, representing the United States in Estonia and Finland with Coaches Frank Martin and Guy Rancourt (USA East Coast Basketball), and serving as the Head Coach at Marquette University High School. Most recently, David has served as an assistant coach at Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin. After leaving the corporate world, David spent nearly 25 years in Education, including 17 years at his alma mater, Marquette University High school, teaching Economics, and serving as the Diversity Director.

“David’s story is compelling. His outlook on life and his insights are practical and life-changing.” – Joe Sweeney, NY Times best-selling author (Networking is a Contact Sport).

David’s book, “Getting Undressed – From Paralysis to Purpose” is available at online outlets, including Amazon, and is also available at his website www.davidcooksspeaks.com …” Getting Undressed is inspiring and proof that you can win in life regardless of the circumstances” – Mike Krzyzewski, Head Coach, Men’s Basketball, Duke University. David earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and an MBA in Finance from Duke University. David and his wife MariPat reside in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.