#Optimism March 7
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March 2026 marks the 75th consecutive month that Jeff Neelon, Jaclyn Donovan, and I have completed a 30-Day Coach4aday Challenge. For this milestone month, we’ve chosen to focus on teaching. Each day for 30 days, we will share one lesson, principle, or insight gained from the previous 74 challenges—calling it the 30-Day Coach4aday Teach It Challenge. For each of us we believe that our own personal growth increases when we share it. Today it is a lesson I learned in writing a letter to my younger self-titled OPTIMISM.
In March 2023 I along with others participated in the 30-Day Letter Writing Coach4aday Challenge. On March 30, 2023, my letter was on the value of optimism in discovering “Who You Are”?
“Teach It” 30 Day Challenge Guidelines
In past challenges, we invited others to join us, though participation has been limited. This month, the three of us will return to January 2020—the very beginning—and move forward to the present, reflecting along the way and sharing a life lesson or insight from any month with one another.
Here is how we will do it.
- Identify the principle, insight, or lesson from a previous 30-Day Challenge-identify the Challenge also.
- Teach that lesson to each of us.
- Share the conversation by posting on social media with the hashtag #Coach4adayChallenge
Day 7-Optimism’s role in Who Are You
Back at the end of March 2023 the last letter I wrote to myself was on the importance of optimism in discovering Who Are You? That post is something I’m proud of. It forced me to reflect and be vulnerable, but it captured what I was attempting to tell my younger self.
Here is that letter
March 30, 2023, Letter
Dear Younger-Day Dan,
When you begin your journey as a coach, you will travel through countless practices, games, seasons, and eventually an entire career. Along the way, it helps to pack something essential for the trip—personal optimism—to carry with you through every experience.
From the day you are born, you start moving through seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, and years. Each moment stands on its own, yet together they form the whole of who you become.
Every journey is filled with decisions. The accumulation of those choices will, hopefully, instill lessons, values, and principles that shape your life. As you finish reading the last of these 30 letters, I want to leave you with a reflection on a timeless philosophical question: Who are you?
The answer depends on who you allow to respond. You likely won’t find it in a song by The Who or the lyrics of Pete Townshend. To truly wrestle with the question, you must consider the most authentic and genuine version of yourself. Don’t be surprised when others—or even your own mind—try to convince you that becoming that person isn’t possible.
The final lesson of the 30-Day Letter Writing Coach4aday Challenge is this: don’t let the objections to becoming your true self become your answer. Even if it’s only for a moment, begin today by forming the habit of pursuing growth toward your best self. Rather than dwelling on perceived limitations, reach for the countless opportunities that lead you toward your authentic destiny.
Thousands of practices, games, and experiences have taught you this: you are living a once-in-a-lifetime story. When you weave optimism into your journey, the story becomes richer and more meaningful. And the beautiful truth is that optimism can be added at any point.
When you choose it, you’ll discover a one-of-a-kind answer to the question: Who are you?
Grown-Up Dan
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