The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Build the Bounce, One Habit at a Time

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

When your plan falls apart, your recovery starts with the habits you've built before things went sideways. In this Foundations Friday episode, Build the Bounce, One Habit at a Time, we focus on simple actions that help you reset, refocus, and respond, rather than react when life punches first.This week’s anchor point is mindfulness and movement. It’s not about being tough. It’s about being trained.Topics Covered:Why daily habits matter more than perfect plansHow to mentally prepare for the unexpectedSimple resilience-building practicesPersonal reflections on bounce-back momentsOne actionable habit you can start todayRelated Episode: “When Your Plan Gets Punched in the Mouth” – Listen here: https://peopleprocessprogress.com/2025/07/14/when-your-plan-gets-punched-in-the-mouth/For Stability: Own your mind. Move your body. Anchor your spirit.For leading: Hold on to hope. Make a plan. Take action.Godspeed, y’all.

If you're ready to lead better, live stronger, and stay grounded, you're in the right place. Welcome to People Process Progress, where we share real tools to help you own your mind, move your body, and anchor your spirit. We hold on to hope, we build better plans, and we take bold action together. I'm Kevin Pennell, veteran, project leader, and author of The Stability Equation. Now let's get to work. But welcome to this foundation's Friday, which is a follow up to when your planning gets punched in the mouth this week.

We're talking about building the bounce one habit at a time because we all take hits, plans get wrecked, routines get disrupted. Sometimes life just swings hard when we least expect it. The real question isn't whether you'll get knocked down, it's how quickly you can get backed up. It's really hard, right? Sometimes we're exhausted, but that resilience isn't about pretending everything's fine,

it's about having something solid underneath when things aren't, right? So I've mentioned both in my book, Disability Equation on this podcast, talking with other folks, I had hard times, but those hard times prepared me for what I knew was coming when my dad was sick. My breakdown a bit, my stress and my anxiety prepared me for when he got really sick and then passed. And that's what building resilience is like, right? That foundation, it's built with small consistent habits, right? And it's what

we trained for before chaos starts. Same thing with jujitsu, I'm very comfortable with people grabbing me because they do it all the time. Whereas folks that don't train in a martial art, particularly when we actually physically spar people, aren't used to being grabbed so that violence shocks them and you can see it all the time. But we need to be ready for when chaos happens, whether it's a confrontation or at work, right? So this week, let's lean into mindfulness and movement. Not just buzzwords, but real tools. It's how we're going to prepare for that punch we

didn't see coming. It might be five minutes of breathing in the morning, throw on YouTube, look up Wim Hof breathing technique, or maybe a walk at lunch. I went for a couple mile walk this morning. It was great. Try and do it by not sitting there looking at your phone. Look around you.

Take in the environment. Pay attention. It's both safer and sitting there looking at your phone. Look around you, take in the environment, pay attention. It's both safer and it's better for your brain. Right. It could be showing up on those jujitsu mats or lifting. Even when your head's full, just focus on what you're doing in front of you. The truth is you don't bounce back because you're strong in the moment. Right. You bounce back because you've built that strength over time. Cold exposures help me calm my mind down when I'm in an uncomfortable situation.

So did getting quiet, right? Praying more, moving more, and worrying less about perfect plans. Especially when we're early in our project management career or early in being asked to lead something in whatever industry, we think it has to be perfect. The documentation's got to be just right on. Well, what has to be right on is the communication and working with the people, right? That's what's most important.

But learning that lesson, exposing myself to hard things is what's helped me make my recovery faster when life's caught me slipping. And that's either from recovering from a failed plan or something happens in the world or recovery from my body and my mind from just pushing it hard, right? So let's pick one habit that grounds you.

It doesn't have to be big. Just one thing that you can do today that helps you recover faster next time things fall apart. Could be stretching, it could be journaling. Maybe it's sitting in silence. Just start, just start today. And as a closing prompt, ask yourself, what am I doing today to prepare for the punch

that I may not see coming? Right, if you missed last week's full episode, go check out When Your Plan Gets Punched in the Mouth, share this one with someone who's in the middle of a reset, and keep showing up for yourself. That's it for this episode of People Process Progress. Until next time, keep owning your mind, moving your body, and anchoring your spirit. Hold on to hope, make make a plan and take action. You can find me on X and Instagram at Penel KG on YouTube at Penel 5 Fit which is the

Penel 5 Fitness Club and visit PeopleProcessProgress.com to read more listen to back issues take your own seven pillars quiz to see what you need to work on is it ownership is it sleep is it boundaries is it all of them and certainly you can buy the book through the website as well. Thank you so much for listening. Please share this episode in the show with others you think would help and Godspeed y'all.