Gratitude "Podcast" Interview: Mark Caton

Well, hi, everybody. It's David George Brooke, that gratitude guy with another guest on my gratitude podcast interview, the pandemic. And as I was thinking about my next guest, it's just still shocking to me that I've known him 30 years. It seems like I just met him. And we're both so young. So I just can't know what happened

I had hair. I still have my hair there. Yeah, that's true. I cannot argue with that statement. Anyway, Mark

Katen out of San Diego, California. Mark, welcome to the podcast. Hey, thanks, David. Appreciate being on. You bet. You bet. So I'm asking people

I'm asking people several questions to get just sort of a flavor of how they're dealing with

what we're dealing with right now. So as you think about it right now, what is your best

coping mechanism in dealing with this pandemic? That's a great question. Well, I have two sons. And they are

are 17 and 19. And we've been cooped up together now for pretty much three weeks

So I think it's, and I, this must sound like a setup, but it's the attitude of gratitude

We have dinner together every night by ourselves, no television, no cell phones

in which we spent 45 minutes talking about what we did today and what we can do tomorrow

So how are we not hurting people and how can we help people

Right. That's good. That's kind of where how my coronavirus pressure cooker release

valve looks like. I like that and I think a lot of people are talking more and more now about the

silver lining that's coming out of this and you can't appreciate it up until you've seen down and

we're seeing levels of down like maybe never before in our life and so the comeback of the family

dinner I think I talked to you yesterday and we were talking about I was right around dinner and I was thinking wow what a great thing when you and I grew up it was just a normal thing he sat around the table and we talked about our days and there was no cell phones or no TV or anything too So there going to be some real this is tough to say the least but there going to be some real positives that come out of this

We played cards last night for the first time, I think, in their lives

Really? We sat down and I introduced them to a card game and we played for about an hour

I don't know if they'll keep it up. The computers are much more exciting adventure for them

But just some coping mechanisms we use to try to stay sane

In fact, I saw an advertisement on a TV the other day for the game of Monopoly from Hasbro or

it was like, man, that's still hanging on after all these years and video games and things

So sometimes the one is old as can sometimes be new as well. So clearly these are uncertain times

And whether it was now or before, what would you say you're most grateful for

my family without a doubt I have a very supportive family I think in times like this

it's important to have supportive friends secondarily family first my daughter has been

because of my young age she's been out shopping for me so I don't have to go out into

supermarkets and so forth so that kind of support you can't buy

or maybe you can, Amazon. I'm not sure. But she does my shopping for me

And then the boys have picked up a lot of the normal house chores

that they wouldn't have done because they were off to school. Yeah, excellent, excellent

And I look at somebody like you who's always been on the go, doing a ton of thing, cramming a bunch of stuff into one day, juggling a lot of balls

everyone will talk about it. So what thought or idea or tip might you have for somebody who is housebound

and not used to it in terms of things? to do while they're kind of sheltering in place

Well, I think number one is that we can always find things to do, but they're typically

things that are things we do all the time. We clean, we shop, we do laundry. You know

those are the household chores that we do I think it the we have got an interesting thing here because we can control what going on Right We don have any control over it We at the effect

Hopefully, the people who view this are abiding by the, you know, the stay-at-home orders

I know in Washington, for example, where you are, one of the first in the country to issue such an order

Right. If you listen to the scientists, that's what we need to do

but I think we need to take time out to take care of ourselves

Yeah. Pick out an hour. I don't know, whatever you can carve a house cleaning schedule and watch a movie on Netflix or I haven't

I've started to go through magazines that I have not, that are probably three feet high that I haven't looked at, you know, in a year

Yeah. That's cool. So I love that piece. I love that piece

It's sort of cut out for me that I can take care of myself

Take care of yourself. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. I've noticed, too, some of the things that were way down the to-do list are now

getting done because it was just never quite that important. But now you're at home, you might as well get it handled

Or like that stack of magazines is a good example, too. Yeah. It's amazing how far the list goes and you just never get to it because you're always

too busy or you're off on another speaking engagement or I'm off doing something. And so it just

sits there. So there are some things like backing up my computer. Holy macro. Changing

changing some passwords, updating some things that I haven't done in years. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool

That's cool. So last question. Does Mark Caden have a quote or a philosophy or sort of a mindset that

you've practiced that you use kind of as your mantra, if you will, throughout your life and

maybe as importantly as ever right now. Would you repeat the question? So do you have sort of like

either a quote that you could use or a sort of a life philosophy, if you will, that is that a lot

of people say, well, this too shall pass or they'll have something that they might use that kind of

has sustained you through tough times like this Hmm nothing that pops out immediately I I mean the first thing that comes to your mind typically is the first thing that comes to your mind

So, you know, when I'm out walking with my sons, it's treat others as you wish to be treated

the proverbial golden rule. I think if we all treat others in this could be a horrible event, it's a bad event now

but it could get substantially worse. And I always remember Cash is King

Yeah, that's true. So, you know, protect yourself, but treat others as you'd wish to be treated

And I think as fathers to three kids for you and two kids for me

and a couple of sons each is that, you mentioned that earlier on the conversation we had about Cash is King

but those are such great lessons that something like this maybe reminds us

that we want to pass on to them that are, flexibility or the conservative nature, whatever you want to call it, during a time of need

I talked to somebody earlier was talking about the Boy Scout thing, be prepared

They were talking about how much food they had and how I was kid you, of course, about Costco

But there's a lot to be said for being prepared. You know, the other thing is I asked my children at the dinner table one night earlier this week

what is it that you want to ask me? what are the things that you haven't asked me before about my life or things you are curious about

as we get older i want to pass on so that they have in their memory um a good picture of what i can

recollect myself uh and a good picture of who i was as a person yeah that's a good point and that's one of

one of those things that you just don't think about it in this go-go world, what do you want to

ask me? And you and I, as the parents, aren't going to be around forever and they're going to be

here long after we've gone. But gosh, when she doesn't want to be somebody's gone, you can't

ask them that question. So that's a great reminder. I like that. That's really good. That's

really good. Well, thank you, my friend. I so appreciate those comments and tidbits and thoughts and

ideas and so forth. And you and I will chat soon, but thank you so much for being on the podcast

Thank you for inviting me. You bet. Bye