Become Your Best Self: Stop Workplace Bullying, Overcome Addiction, & Embrace Resilience

My friend, this is episode 307.

Welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00: Yo, are you ready to flip the script on life?

Because those bad days, they're just doors to better days.

And that's exactly what we do here at Great Race and Inspiration.

Your host, Kevin Lowe, has been flipping the script on his own life, turning over 20 years of being completely blind into straight up inspiration, motivation, and encouragement just for you.

So kick back, relax, and let me introduce you to your host, Kevin Lowe.

SPEAKER_01: If you caught my conversation with Marcy Lingba inside of our previous episode, then you heard her story.

Her story of dealing with horrible bullying as a child.

Her story of being born with a cleft lip and palate, having multiple surgeries, many surgeries throughout her childhood.

She battled addiction starting in just middle school.

And yet, somewhere along the way, she would develop the resiliency to one day rise above it all.

I feel it's safe to say that Marcy, her story, it's a beautiful example of resiliency in the face of adversity.

And her story, it's what inspired today's episode.

And more specifically, it's what really got me thinking about these three important aspects of her story bullying, addiction, and resiliency.

And in this episode, that's what we're diving into.

As we unpack the aspect of each one, and the fact is true, bullying, it's not just for children, adults experience it too.

So this episode is relevant for anyone and everyone.

But before I continue, my friend, I gotta invite you.

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Again, that phone number is 33777, and you are going to input summer 2024 as your text message.

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Kicking off my three biggest takeaways from my interview with Marcy is the topic of bullying.

But the fact is true is that bullying, unfortunately, it happens in adulthood also.

It happens in the workplace.

It happens in our circles of friends.

Unfortunately, it kind of seems like the bullies in school sometimes continue to be bullies as adults.

And I feel like Marcy's story, it addresses this so well.

Well, in the fact that it brings it to light.

This idea of bullying.

Now, the bullying that she experienced was in school and it was horrible.

Being born with a cleft lip and palate, she didn't look like everybody else.

And as we know, for some reason, as children, when somebody is different, they don't look like everybody else, they don't sound like everybody else.

There's something a little bit different about them.

For some reason, as children, we want to pick on them.

We want to make fun of them.

I don't know why this is.

To be honest, I've had this conversation with many people of what is it in our childhood that takes us from being firstborn, innocent, with no meanness in us, to then all of a sudden we go from a small child who's laughing, giggling, playing, learning to just love this life, to then all of a sudden picking on other people, making fun of other people.

I don't know what it is that happens.

I'm definitely not the person to figure that one out.

But I know it does happen, but I wish it didn't.

And I want you to realize that if you've ever experienced bullying, whether as a child or as an adult, I want you to realize that you are heard, you're understood, and that I want you to know that I'm sorry that you've dealt with it.

But I hope you'll take inspiration from Marcy.

And the fact that through pure grit and resiliency, you can get through it.

I guess the biggest thing that I took away from her story is the fact that we need to speak about it more, as adults, especially, to let it be known that bullying it's not just on the playground.

It happens in our office.

It's probably happening at your workplace, whether you know it or not.

And maybe you do know it.

Maybe you're not the one being bullied, and maybe you're not the bully, but you still stand by silent.

Well, I hope that today in the story of Marcy, I hope maybe it can be a little inspiration for you to stand up, to point it out, and to not let it happen.

Because it's not right, no matter who it's aimed at.

Yeah, it may come across as innocent fun, but the fact is true.

If anybody's making fun of somebody else, and you know when it crosses the line, I hope that you have the courage to stand up for that person.

That's the only way that bullying will ever stop, is if we all take care of one another, stand together, stand united.

And when done together, I feel like we stand a chance at making a difference.

The second little takeaway from Marcy's story that I feel is unfortunately all too common in today's world is addiction.

And as we learned in her story, addiction can take many different shapes and forms.

It's not just alcohol or drugs.

It can be working too hard, being obsessed over your physical health.

Anything that has you so wrapped up in it that you forget about everything else.

You forget about taking care of yourself.

No, you're just addicted to the work, you're addicted to the drive, you're addicted to the drug.

Whatever it is, it's there.

It's tempting and it's difficult.

Fortunately for Marcy, she would finally reach a point when she hit her breaking point.

And once she reached that point, she got out of it.

She went through AA, she did the 12-step process, and she got out of her addiction.

I want you to realize that if addiction is affecting you, I want you to realize again that you are heard, that you are understood, and I want you to feel comfortable here on this podcast, listening today.

I want you to realize that nobody's judging you.

And more than anything else, I just want to send you a big hug right now.

And I want you to know that it will be okay.

If you need to go back and listen to her interview, please do it.

Get that inspiration from her, a woman who's overcome it herself.

If she can do it, so can you.

I know you can.

Let this be your moment to take action, to start making a big, massive change in your life right now.

And then, of course, there comes the third point: resiliency.

In order for us to overcome bullying, to stand up for others, for us to overcome addiction, for us to fight through it, to get past it, we have to develop resiliency.

Now, you may think to yourself that you are not resilient, but I promise you, you are.

I believe we all have it in us.

We just have to find it.

We have to tap into it.

Marcy, my goodness, does this woman have resiliency?

We saw it in so many aspects of her story.

Just the fact that as a child, she had to deal with adversity right off the bat.

Being born with quote unquote, something wrong with her, being forced to face surgeries, 18 different surgeries, by the time she turned 18 years old.

It was relentless.

And yet, she was resilient.

Whatever you're going through, whatever life throws your way, you will get through it too.

Because you also are resilient.

Resiliency.

It's not you stopping yourself from getting knocked down.

No.

It's you being able to pick yourself back up.

Because the fact is true, this life, it's tough.

It's hard.

And it's going to knock us to our knees more times than we can count.

But every time you get back up, every time you keep charging forward, in spite of it all, you build on your own resiliency.

That is the key to it all, my friend, is resiliency.

And Marcy, my goodness, did that woman give us a masterclass in being resilient.

To round out today, I want to remind you, if you heard Marcy's story, which again, if you did not, I highly encourage you to go back and listen to her interview.

So, so very powerful.

But when you listen to it, you're going to feel sad.

You're going to feel sorry for her.

All that she went through.

But there's the ending.

There's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Or maybe better said, there's always a rainbow after the rain.

And that, well, it came in the way of triumph.

It came in the way of love.

It came in the way of overcoming, of being resilient.

Such a beautiful representation of what is possible.

It's not what happens to us, it's how we react to it.

It's not about yesterday, it's about tomorrow.

It's about you charging forward.

If she can do it, so can you.

Remember, if you want to take advantage of that free coaching call, or heck, you know what?

Whether it's summertime or wintertime, if you have something you're dealing with, struggling with, because you're here listening to this podcast, you reach out to me.

No matter when it is, my contact information is inside of every episode's show notes where you can reach out to me directly.

I am more than happy to be here to help you.

Remember, the only way that any of us are going to get through this life is if we do it together.

So I hope that can start right now.

With that, I encourage you to stay inspired, to be empowered, and make the most of this day.

This is Kevin Low, and this is Grit Grace and Inspiration.