AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF)– For nearly 40 years, Brennan Francois has motivated, challenged, and inspired audiences as a speaker and life coach. He will empower you professionally and personally.
Brennan also serves as Associate Director of Pastoral Care at AU health and Augusta University. He’s the author of several books, which we will talk about a little bit later. But first we are just so pleased that he’s taking the time to be with us today, to inspire us as we start in the new year. And you know, it kind of feels like there’s a dark cloud over us because we know we’re entering year three of the pandemic, but we have to be able to get beyond that. And there is a lot of positivity and I feel like you can help us find the positivity despite the challenges.
“Well, thank you, Jennie. It’s a joy to be with you and to be with your audience. I always look forward to talking with you. Yes, we have faced multiple challenges with COVID and a number of other difficulties over the last couple of years, but I’ve come to realize that all of us have a choice and we can either choose good, or we can choose evil, both four letter words. We can choose to be up or we can choose to be down. We can choose to be positive, or we can choose to be negative. I’ve chosen to be positive. I’ve chosen to be or to look at life with, with great anticipation. And even though there’s a lot that we could be sad and down about, if we choose regardless of our circumstances and regardless of our situation, if we make a choice to persevere, we’ll get through and can get through anything.”
You know, the can do is such a big part of what you talk about. Another thing that you need to know about Brennan is that he is a mad man, and mad means making a difference.
“And so at AU health, I served as executive advisor for diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as associate director of pastoral care. In those areas, we have a chance to embrace people and help patients, staff, visitors feel accepted, embraced, and feel like they belong. I call it the web– where everybody belongs. And that’s a part of helping people get through the challenging times in life. When people feel disconnected, disenfranchised, when they feel like they don’t belong, it’s harder to get over the hills and the struggles of life. But when you feel like you’re a part of something and you’re embraced by that something, it gives you the encouragement and the power to get through. And so we do that at the hospital, we do it at our church. And so in every facet of life, I believe it’s important to make choices that position us to succeed.“
And what do you think people can do to intentionally go into this year and think I’m going to be my best self? What, what are a couple of things that we can do to really reinforce that?
“Everybody is somebody’s mom, dad, husband, wife, son, daughter, sister, brother, cousin. And when we approach people with that mindset and we invest in them rather than taking from them, it helps to give, give individuals that idea in that understanding that it doesn’t matter how dark the day is, how gloomy the Thai, how high the tide is. We’re going to figure out how to get through this. You’ve got to adjust as my first book says. Hannnnng in there. Because the longer you hang in there, you’re going to make it to the other side. The sun will shine again. The clouds will dissipate, you know, going through the darkness is a part of how we learn to appreciate the light.”
