Significant Outcomes in the Face of Adversity

# Blog

## Afraid of the dark?

Posted by Dave Cooke on Aug 20, 2025 in adversity, Inspiration, Learning, Uncategorized | 3 comments

Always remember, the darkness is part of the light. When you have one, you can appreciate the other. It makes you whole. ~ Evan Sanders I love those days when I am happiest, have incredible energy, and have the clarity of mind to easily get things done. Those days are amazing. I am at peace, I feel productive, and it is easy to sustain momentum. Then, there are those days where my confidence is low, my energy is off, and I can’t seem to get things accomplished. I dread those days. I can feel the darkness around me. It always...

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## When You Let Go…

Posted by Dave Cooke on Aug 13, 2025 in adversity, Commitment, Focus, Uncategorized | 1 comment

Over the course of this current year, the foundation for most of my decisions, perspectives, and innovations in my life this year have been about embracing “trust.” This means that whatever is happening around me — directly or indirectly in my life — I am trusting that it is part of my journey. The decisions I make, the behaviors I engage in, and the way I manage conflict and stress is focused on embracing my commitment to trusting that this is the course for my life. In trusting, I am not focused on wants or...

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## Redirected in Iowa

Posted by Dave Cooke on Aug 10, 2025 in Accomplishment, adversity, Celebration, Uncategorized, Vision | 0 comments

Despite the best of efforts to plan a safe and concise route round West Des Moines this morning, I still ended up adjusting my route and found myself off course. As in life, these things happen. Click here for the story and my perspectives on...

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## Fearless and Invincible in Illinois

Posted by Dave Cooke on Aug 9, 2025 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Last night I had a great opportunity to catch-up with a distant high school classmate in the Chicago area. This morning we shared a 22 mile bike ride in the country outside Chicago. I had a great ride, a great conversation, and enjoyed much reminiscing of the old high school days (Graduated 1975). Now, it is 37 years later and a lot has changed. And, some things haven’t changed. Here are my thoughts on the power of the experience and the lessons in our life and what we can learn from being eighteen! click here to...

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## Reflections From My Journey

Posted by Dave Cooke on Aug 6, 2025 in Celebration, Uncategorized | 0 comments

I am officially in day twelve of my nineteen day journey. This trip has taken me across the country from Phoenix to Detroit via Albuquerque, Amarillo, Tulsa, Lake of the Ozarks, Effingham, and Columbus. With the exception of Lake of the Ozarks and Amarillo I have enjoyed a bike ride in each city. Despite the fact I didn’t ride in Amarillo, I was able to enjoy and celebrate a very unique twenty mile ride about 75 miles east of Amarillo in McLean, TX. The trip to Detroit represented a series of one night stops for seven days. My...

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## Energized in Effingham, IL

Posted by Dave Cooke on Jul 31, 2025 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

What a pleasant surprise! I landed on this stop as much by accident as design. I chose Effingham, IL as a stop because it was almost exactly halfway between Lake of the Ozarks and Columbus. What I experienced here was inspiring, fun, relaxing, and energizing. Listen to the story — click...

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## Humbled in Joplin

Posted by Dave Cooke on Jul 30, 2025 in Accomplishment, adversity, Focus, Humility, Inspiration, Uncategorized | 0 comments

As I headed across the Missouri state line on my journey to Detroit, the exits for Joplin, MO caught my attention. In May of last year Joplin was hit by one of the fiercest, deadliest tornadoes in history. Having heard and read the stories of the devastation and of the mindset of the community that this storm would not stop them, I decided to see what was going on in Joplin. When I first headed down the business route of I-40, I was wondering if I would even be able to find what I was looking for. A mile or so off the interstate...

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## A lesson from Amarillo

Posted by Dave Cooke on Jul 28, 2025 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

I didn’t ride the bike this morning. Allowed obstacles to distract me from my mission. As I reflected on this on my drive out of Amarillo, I pulled over and recorded them so I could share my lessons with you. Have a great day! CLICK HERE TO...

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## When You Are on Your Path…

Posted by Dave Cooke on Jul 23, 2025 in Commitment, Focus, Uncategorized, Vision | 0 comments

Like everyone else I have those moments in my life where I need some inspiration, too. Most of what I share with you via these posts are the conversations I have been having with myself. Instead of keeping these conversations private — between me and my head — I make them public hoping you will find an inspirational resource in them much like I usually do. Over the past few weeks I have had a couple of powerful experiences that reminded me in a not-so-subtle-way that I must continue to trust and stay on the path in my journey....

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## When You Understand Your Vision…

Posted by Dave Cooke on Jul 16, 2025 in Accomplishment, Celebration, Change, Inspiration, Uncategorized, Vision | 1 comment

Inspired transformational change involves living in passionate commitment to our vision. Life’s most inspiring choices and what leads to the most compelling results is when we realize that accomplishment is success by addition. Success by addition. I repeated this because I would like for you to think about that for a moment before reading on. People talk about realizing a goal, celebrating an accomplishment, or getting to an outcome all the time. Most of the conversations involve giving something up to get there. In reality, this...

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