Tag Archives: depression

Inspiration

Learn to take in the ‘now’

By DAVID TEPERA | Posted: Tuesday, June 21, 2016

I’m sure everyone has some form of stress in their lives. The only difference is how we deal with it. It’s so easy to let our minds get overwhelmed and give ourselves different levels of depression.

I too, will sometimes catch myself dwelling on negative situations that occurred in the past, including forecasting negative stress that might not even occur in the future.

Lately, I’ve been training myself to take in the “now.” It’s right now where life is the best. I’m as healthy as possible for a 54 year old man. My kids are happy and experiencing the life I’ve created for them. My medical job has crazy stress, but I’m fortunate to make a decent living.

The emails I receive from you readers gives me an overwhelming sense of worthiness to people outside my family circle. I share most of them with my kids to which it has tremendous impact on their desire to help others as well.

You might not realize it, but all of you out there are helping me raise teenagers to be compassionate adults.

I don’t want to go back in time because I’m so much wiser, humble and love all people more than I could ever imagine.

I know a man in his mid-40s who still whines and complains from a dysfunctional mom he had growing up. To this day, he uses that excuse as a reason for all his misbehaviors and inability to find happiness and success.

I told him that it’s impossible to re-ring that bell. Nothing can change the past, but you have complete control of the now. You get to write your own destiny.

Think of all the situations that could be worse and appreciate the now. Don’t even think about tomorrow. Overwhelm yourself with the emotions of how incredible life is right now. Go-ahead, make yourself laugh, cry or both. Take deep long breaths and feel the presence of the now.

Recently, my son Dylan had his first flat tire on his car. It occurred during all this crazy rain we’ve been experiencing. I thought of this moment as a great learning experience to which he learned to change a flat in adverse weather conditions.

To me, it was a cool moment because I was taking in the now. I blended in with Mother Nature and enjoyed every drop.

No matter what is going on in your life, you are here today and this is the now.

Inspiration

In what chapter of life are you?

By DAVID TEPERA | Posted: Tuesday, March 22, 2016

We all go through different phases and chapters throughout our journey of life. What chapter are you experiencing today compared to yesteryears?

I’m in my mid-50s, and today’s chapter is completely different from my 40s and beyond.

One common denominator is that I’ve always maintained a decent diet and exercised frequently. As I progressed through my 30s and to date, my knowledge and experience in these categories excelled. That’s because I understand keeping a healthy body is important for a better quality of life.

Hopefully, as you get older, you are recognizing this as well.

But really, most important is our character development. Over the past 10 years, I started a personal campaign to become a loving, caring and compassionate person to all mankind. This has drastically changed my life.

I learned to forgive those who wrong me by understanding their reasons and through time, was able to erase it from my daily consciousness. This mental action relieved me from tremendous unnecessary stress. Plus, it opened the door for peace and relaxation.

We get caught up stressing over negative situations that should be in our pasts.

Once, my daughter Daylyn had another student say some very hurtful words to her. I found Daylyn crying in her room and asked about the situation.

After a brief loving father-daughter talk, I asked when this had happened. To my surprise, it occurred more than a month ago.

I told Daylyn, “Don’t you realize, only in your mind this person is still being mean to you because you’re letting it? I guarantee the other student has moved on with their life and doesn’t give you one thought. Forgive their immature idiotic behavior and be the amazing happy little girl everyone loves.”

Can’t we all relate to Daylyn’s situation?

Just know, if someone is being ugly to you, it’s because there is something about you that makes them jealous and envious. If they are comfortable with themselves, they wouldn’t care.

Come on, let’s all write the same new chapter in life for character development to become compassionate toward others. We are in this journey together, and hopefully one day, we will cross paths.

Inspiration

Don’t quit when the ball rolls between your legs

By DAVID TEPERA | Posted: Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Several years ago, my son Dylan and I were watching a Little League Baseball game. His team was to play the winner on the following day.

Well, the game was in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs and the score tied. The batter hit the ball into right field and the outfielder let the ball roll between his legs.

When the outfielder turned to retrieve the ball, he was only half jogging because, in his mind, the game was over because of his mistake.

Dylan and I looked at each other in shock because it was obvious the outfielder should have at least given some effort. He not only gave up on himself but on the team and everyone in the stands.

Now, I know that’s a harsh statement since he’s only a kid, and it happens to every baseball player.

But here’s the lesson in life that I explained to Dylan.

Just like in sports, there will be times in life where you’ll let the ball roll between your legs. You’ll want to give up and walk away because it’s easier than sucking it up and fighting your way back in the game.

The one thing we can all do — is quit. But, what truly separates winners from losers is the will to never give up.

We are not going to win every game. We will have failed relationships, experience the death of a loved one and face unemployment. Believe me, I’ve experienced all three.

Yes, I wanted to curl up, give up and hope everything would just fade away. But, I had many long talks with myself in the mirror challenging my character. I had the responsibility of being a single parent, and there’s more at stake than my selfishness.

There are many of you currently dealing with these challenging life experiences. Look, take a few deep breathes and allow internal wounds to heal.

Take these situations and make it strengthen your life.

So come on, don’t half jog, and start sprinting to the ball because you’re going to make the winning throw in this game of life.

Inspiration

Be the hero in your movie

By DAVID TEPERA | Posted: Tuesday, March 1, 2016

So, I’m writing my first screen play based on a true story from my soccer coaching experience. As I’m finishing the story line, it made me realize, as we go through life, we are all writing our own movie.

Now, think about that for a moment. Each one of our lives is a “true story” movie. But the best part is, we get to write our own script.

We all experience conflicts, self-doubt, tragedy and defeats, but we also feel the emotions of rewards, victory, conquering and self-confidence.

As of today, your storyline is based on all those experiences. I hope everyone is living a fairy-tale life, but there is the reality of being human.

You can’t change past decisions — good or bad. You might be out of shape, excessively overweight, made poor income choices, in a bad relationship along with destructive habits.

The good news is your story is still under construction. How do you want your movie to end?

Go through your day like a movie camera is following you around capturing all your kindness, good deeds, hard work and determination.

Think of all your actions, posture, mannerisms and facial expressions projected onto a movie screen. How would this change your daily life? How much more would you accomplish? How many more goals would be achieved? And most importantly, how much better would you treat people?

Right now, you should start hearing the “Rocky” movie theme song playing in your head. You should be feeling the excitement in your body and soul knowing that your life is changing at this moment.

It’s time to take on the enemy and self-demons and be the hero in your movie. The battle has started and you’re fighting to conquer all that crosses your path. Nothing can stop you from accomplishing your goals, your destiny, and the life you’re meant to have.

Today your movie script has taken a new direction in which you’re smashing defeat.

We should all ride into the sunset knowing we’ve done our best, done good will and left this world a much better place.

Inspiration

What’s your 10-year plan?

By DAVID TEPERA | Posted: Tuesday, January 26, 2016 

We’ve all made the statement, “if I could go back 10 years, I would do things differently.”

Wouldn’t we all exercise more and change diet choices? Stop abusing alcohol or prescription drugs? Get out of a bad relationship earlier? Pursue a different career path? Plus any other bad choices according to current situation.

Well guess what? Another 10 years are going to pass and you’ll be asking the same questions.

Mentally fast-forward your life 10 years. What, where and how do you want to vision your life?

Why not start making those positive and better choices now? Re-evaluate your entire adult life and start mending those bad decisions.

Personally, nothing is more important than your health. If you need professional help, then seek it now. There are countless paths of diet and exercise programs to help start a healthier lifestyle. If you need common sense ideas and inspiration then go to my blog davidtepera.com.

Maybe it’s time to eliminate the negative people in your life. If your friends are making bad choices, then more than likely, so are you.

If you’re unhappy with current occupation then start the planning process to a dream career. Why not? It’s your life and you deserve it.

Listen, nothing is holding you back — but you. We know success doesn’t happen quickly, but even the journey is remarkable.

I want to be a full-time writer and motivational speaker. I’m not there yet, but my journey has started and it’s brought amazing people into my life.

Don’t get down on yourself where you are today. Take a good look in the mirror and stare at that beautiful person looking back. Fall in love with that person because they’ll be with you forever.

Call me a crazy old man, but I actually look in the mirror every morning and give myself a pep talk. I’ve given up worrying about wrinkles and bald spots because it’s time to conquer the day.

Now go kick start your new 10-year plan, so when you reflect back, you can say, “I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Inspiration

Don’t look defeated, show determination

By DAVID TEPERA | Posted: Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Recently I attended my daughter’s volleyball tournament, and a few of the teams were more highly skilled than others.

During the tournament, Daylyn’s team played one of the higher-skilled teams. And quickly, the other team was dominating on the scoreboard.

Most of the girls, including Daylyn, were hanging their heads and had the look of defeat even though the game was only half way over. And yes, of course, they got slaughtered.

After the game, Daylyn told me she was embarrassed and disappointed with her and the team’s performance.

I told her, you will always face stronger opponents in everything you compete in, but don’t let them see you’re mentally defeated. Instead, show your opponents and teammates the look of determination.

Show everyone that you might be getting beat on the scoreboard, but you’re still going to out-hustle everyone on the court and give your very best.

Now, think about it. We all face challenging situations in our everyday lives. Sometimes, we feel like we’re getting beat up and want to drop our heads and give up. This will only make us feel more disappointed in ourselves.

Don’t let your opponents or situations know they are defeating you. Learn to create a game face with grit, determination and fight your way back into the game of life.

Just know, Daylyn was in that game situation again, but she had the look of a warrior and battled to the end.

If a 15-year-old athlete can learn life lessons, so can you.

Now, go look in the mirror, make the scariest game face imaginable, and tell yourself that no one will defeat you again. Take a mental picture and next time you’re feeling defeated, pull out that game face and win the day.

From this day forward, defeated is no longer a part of me. This world will only see determination.

Diets, Fitness, Inspiration

Just like in football, there’s a 2-minute warning in life

By DAVID TEPERA | Posted: Tuesday, December 15, 2015

We are all familiar with the 2-minute warning in the game of football. It’s when there’s only 2 minutes left on the game clock in the second and fourth quarter.

This time period is critical because teams must strategize according to the score, especially the fourth quarter since it will determine a win or loss.

To me, we all receive a 2-minute warning in the game of life. How many of you have serious health issues, and your doctor has told you to change your lifestyle or a major surgery or even death will follow?

How about an abusive relationship in which the last episode was one too many?

Maybe your employer is not recognizing your qualifications and experience and keeps passing you on promotions and pay raises?

It’s possible, that under certain circumstances, it’s not wise to make a haste decision by quitting or walking away too soon. The quick results could be devastating.

Now it’s time to keep a cool head, a wise mind and put a winning strategy in place.

If it’s pertaining to your health, seek out professional help to not only change your diet and exercise regime, but for mental support as well.

If its relationship issues, then reach out to family and certain friends and put a plan in place to remove yourself. Some or most of the time children are involved and your decisions affects their well-being.

Of course, it’s possible higher authoritative help is needed. Just depends on individual circumstances.

When it comes to occupational changes, it might be time to update a resume, join LinkedIn and start networking with people in your field of choice.

Now, this is your 2-minute warning. Start strategizing, work on your plan and win this awesome but challenging game of life.

Life is too precious, and we all deserve the best life possible.

Inspiration

Success comes with a short memory

By DAVID TEPERA | Posted: Saturday, December 5, 2015

One of the characteristics needed to be successful is having a short memory.

If you’ve watched enough football games, you would have heard this term many times about great quarterbacks.

All quarterbacks will make mistakes, creating interceptions, sacks and fumbles. But, the very next play could be a game winning touchdown throw.

The commentators will label these quarterbacks with short memories because they don’t dwell on the last play’s mishaps. Instead, they have enough confidence in themselves to pull out the winning play.

We all make mistakes on a daily basis with some more severe than others. It’s part of our maturity and life experiences. Sometimes, you have to shake off the dust and get back in the game of life.

I’m sure there are plenty of you still struggling to get your diet back in check from Thanksgiving holidays. Maybe you’re dealing with personal issues and you keep beating yourself up for not having control.

How about those of you who feel you’re giving this world everything you’ve got, but it seems to keep crashing down. It could be a job loss, bad relationships or any tragedy thinkable.

The good news is we are all born with the capability to conquer. It’s programmed into our DNA. You wouldn’t be alive today if someone in your ancestry didn’t dig deep to survive, and now, it’s your turn.

Take life’s challenges head on and forget yesterday’s defeats. Learn to turn defeats into opportunities, and let the experiences help you grow stronger.

When people try to take you down, laugh it off and keep your head high. Remember, you’re the best person you know.

Now, go score a touchdown and keep winning the day.

Diets, Inspiration

Reward yourself this Thanksgiving

By David Tepera – Posted: Tuesday, November 24, 2015

By now, you’re aware that if you’ve been dieting for a period of time, that I recommend to reward yourself with foods desired.

Well my friends, it’s Thanksgiving holidays and it’s reward time. I always indulge myself on vacation and Thanksgiving holiday.

Hopefully, you’ve been a good girl and boy and have been training consistently and frequently. This is the one time of year I’m going to tell you to throw the diet out the window. Enjoy every moment with family and friends and all the wonderful tasty foods.

I truly hope everyone is as fortunate as I with the blessing of an enormous holiday feast. It’s the biggest event of the year for my family, and we are going to nanna’s house for a major grub fest.

I will be pouring extra gravy on the turkey and dressing along with all the fixings, extra butter on steamy bread rolls, two scoops of vanilla ice cream on hot apple pie and pumpkin pie engulfed with whipped cream.

Later on in the day, after watching and sleeping through football games, I’ll take a little walk through the neighborhood to help digest my overstuffed belly. It helps create more room to shovel down more helpings of delicious homemade foods.

You and I should not feel any guilt for all the extra calories and the few pounds gathered.

To truly enjoy and embellish the rewards, you know that within two days, it’s back to a healthy diet and fitness training. It usually takes me about five to six days to lose the extra pounds.

Now that I’ve rang Pavlov’s bell and you’re salivating all over this paper, get ready to make an eating fool of yourself.

Most importantly, take the time to sincerely thank everyone who helped participate in the feast and express love for all.

As I’m getting older, my heart has grown softer and I emotionally love all the wonderful people around me.

Life is getting shorter my friends, so don’t waste time on unnecessary hate. There are others who love you, just show them love back. It’s a life changer.

Inspiration

Tap into your inner strength, overcome life’s challenges

By DAVID TEPERA | Posted: Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Recently, I visited my daughter at school.

As we were enjoying our lunch, I noticed a student with a long cane strolling along the walls feeling his way through the cafeteria. Daylyn told me he was deaf and blind, and this is how he maneuvers through school.

What was impressive to me, even though there was an adult supervisor, how he was still able to independently get his own food tray.

I told Daylyn to think about his daily routine. All the medial tasks we take for granted are his challenges, but it seems he has overcome them.

We can find unlimited stories and videos on YouTube with people who overcome their challenges to accomplish amazing feats of courage.

So this made me wonder, the only handicaps are the ones we accept of ourselves.

People we perceive as handicapped have learned how to tap into their inner strength and overcome life’s challenges.

We all have that same inner strength but chose to be complacent and lazy to glide through a boring and unhealthy life without any purpose.

I asked Daylyn, “why don’t we all attack the world with that type of determination and better our lives and those around us?”

According to Webster, the definition of handicap is “a circumstance that makes progress or success difficult.”

So, what about you? What’s your excuse? The only thing keeping you from progress and success is you. Accept it, embrace it, and do something about it.

Get off the couch and make a promise to yourself that now is the time. Take control of your life and be the person you daydream about.

Take that inner strength, bust through all barriers and make our world a better place because you’re in it. We need you.