When was the last time you had an amazing workout? You know, the kind that leaves your legs feeling like jello and your arms like noodles, yet still somehow you leave feeling energized and unstoppable?

At Black Finch, we have found that experiencing intense physical activity leaves you with a profound sense of accomplishment. You’ve either finished your last round of reps, reached the peak of a mountain after a 5-hour hike or you’ve even finished your first week of intense workouts in the gym. No matter what the exercise, you’re experiencing the benefits and they’re undeniable.

In our experience, these types of workouts have helped us perform better in our demanding and strenuous jobs. They’ve given us more energy to spend with the family and reduced our overall stress levels. In our careers only the driven prosper, and those who are driven to be successful most likely exercise regularly in order to create a peak physical mental state that positively affects all areas of your life.

In the day-to-day grind of work, life and pursuing your goals, the benefits of working out can be easily forgotten. We understand that it is easy to use lack of time as an excuse, however, in life, people make time for what is important to them. If you make exercise a priority, you can find time to exercise even with a crazy work schedule. Social media has become America’s greatest pass-time, but the truth of life remains the same: physical activity is essential to our overall health and well-being. 

“Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.” – Edward Stanley, Earl of Derby

Although most driven, passionate and successful people make exercise a priority, the following three reasons will give everyone the extra motivation, drive and inspiration to improve your physical and mental well-being.

1. Great Mental Toughness and Grit

Self-discipline is one of the traits that is key to your success. It is the grit and determination to stick to a goal despite the distractions that you face. When you exercise routinely you are building new habits of discipline.

 Every day will bring new challenges. One day you might go all-out and have a really hard work out. Other days you might not even want to work out, but as long as you are physically active day-to-day, you are building habits that will set you up for success. When your determination out ways your motivation, you will come to a crossroads and in that moment, when you choose to do the one thing you didn’t want to do because you know it is what is best for you, you have sharpened your mental edge and improved your self-mastery. Over time your determination will become passion and you will become an unwavering, focused and unstoppable machine when it comes down to pursuing what is important to you.

2. Increased Mental and Physical Energy

Do you know what you want your life to look like? Do you have goals? Have you thought about the different stages of your life and what you want to accomplish? Have you ever thought about what your life would be like if you never experienced exhaustion? If this were the case, how would your life change? Would your quality of life increase? 

Whatever you pursue in life will always require two things: time and effort. These two things depend on your energy levels, which depends on your health and fitness. When you eat the right foods for your body, get enough sleep and exercise routinely, then your mind and body become less fatigued and save energy like the energizer bunny.

When your fitness is in alignment with your eating habits and sleep patterns, you increase mental energy and continue to stay at your peak level. Getting tasks done will seem less like a chore, productivity won’t feel like such a stressful work and grogginess will no longer exist. While these things are mostly work related, that is because we spend most of our time at work and we often align our success with our working status or title.

3. Your Health is EVERYTHING

In life, the majority of the general public confuses the meaning of being selfless. People generally believe that putting others before themselves or doing a lot for other individuals is what makes them better people and ultimately determines what they get out of life. At Black Finch, we believe the opposite. We know that in order to best serve the people around us, whether it is at work, with a group of friends or even our own families, we HAVE to serve ourselves first. If we’re not at our best, if we don’t feel great about ourselves and our purpose, then how can we enhance the lives of others around us? Taking care of others, means taking care of you.

We’ll leave you with this: The only things in life that we can control is our attitude and our effort. It doesn’t take superior talent to control either of those. Find your motivation, turn it into dedication and it will become your passion.

 We Know You Have Grit

 

Black Finch evolved from our passion to succeed. It stemmed from our drive to persevere. Black Finch evolved with Grit.

Motivation is often the reason entrepreneurs start a new business, but motivation is not what ultimately makes them successful. “Grit” is a positive, non-cognitive trait based on an individual’s perseverance of effort combined with the passion for a particular long-term goal.

Because we refuse to ever give anything less than 100%, we have found success in pursuing our dreams of being business owners. In today’s day and age, where there seems to be so many “overnight successes” it is important to remember that these big wins didn’t come on a whim or by a stroke of luck. Just like you spent 4-8 years in school to become the professional that you are, entrepreneurs that succeed have been working towards greatness for longer than it seems.  The entrepreneurs that become a success possess similar qualities, including determination, resilience and optimism, but the one thing that sets them apart is grit.

 

What Is Grit?

Here is a definition of grit from psychologist and researcher, Angela Duckworth:

 “Grit is passion and perseverance for long-term and meaningful goals.” – Angela Duckworth

Grit is both a skill and a trait. It’s the ability persevere when you face obstacles that don’t appear to have a solution- ones that the general public would quit before solving. It’s having direction and commitment with an intense passion to succeed. When you have this type of passion, you find ways to stay committed to a long-term goal or task that may be difficult or boring.

Along with passion, grit is about perseverance. It’s sticking with it and continuing to work hard even after experiencing a difficulty or failure. The ability to be gritty is an essential trait of success, but just because someone is talented or intelligent, doesn’t mean that they have grit.

“Even if some of the things they had to do were boring, or frustrating, or even painful, they wouldn’t dream of giving up. Their passion was enduring.” – Angela Duckworth

 

Why Is Grit Important?

Grit is a driver of achievement and success that is independent of what talent and intelligence contribute. Everyone can agree that being naturally smart, talented or athletic is awesome, but to truly succeed in all aspects of life, we must possess the ability to persevere. If you lack grit, being smart and talented may simply leave you on the outside of your full potential.

Duckworth’s research shows us that it wasn’t IQ and natural talent that made the biggest difference in who was successful and who wasn’t – it was all about effort. Duckworth came up with two equations to explain this concept:

1. Talent x effort = skill
2. Skill x effort = achievement.

Angela Duckworth explains that talent is how quickly your skills improve when you invest effort. Really, effort counts twice as much for what we want to achieve. Our potential is one thing, but what we actually do with it, is another.

Duckworth explains, “The attraction of thinking that people are gifted or special in a way we aren’t, call it the “X” factor or call it “genius,” is derived from our insecurity, really. Because if I say that Einstein’s a genius, then you don’t have to compete with him because he is not in your category. When you say ‘You know what? A lot of that success comes from dedicated hours of practice and thought,’ then you are a little bit responsible to see how well you can do.”

Duckworth continuously challenges that by having confidence in grit relies on us, as individuals.

 How To Develop Grit?

As mentioned earlier, grit is both a trait and a skill. This means you can still acquire grit over time. It can be taught, and you can train your grit over time.

Here are three ways to develop and strengthen your grit:

1. Embrace challenges and failures that come with passion
2. Join a team
3. Be patient

 

At Black Finch we are, Committed to the Gritty! Join the revolution and stop wearing scrubs and start wearing Black Finch.

5 Habits Of Highly Successful People and How to Incorporate Them Into Your Life

It is safe to say that everyone wants to be successful in life. However, not everyone is quite ready to do what it takes in order to make that happen. At Black Finch, we believe that we have what it takes to be successful and if you’re reading this, you probably do too. If you’re doubting yourself, just understand that you’ve taken the first step in reversing that doubt! 

We’re committed to the driven and strive to create a supportive community that is focused on helping professionals navigate the mental and physical aspects of working in the healthcare industry. With that said, we’ve taken the time to compile information we have learned from books, articles and our own experience. From our research, the list below is of the five most common habits of highly successful people and how you can incorporate those habits into your life.

1. Create A Morning Routine

Successful people start their day by waking up early. It is proven that people who wake up early tend to be healthier, more alert during business hours and have a higher productivity rate than people who oversleep.

Our mornings always start with a workout. At Black Finch we are committed to living healthy lifestyles and continually motivate other to do the same. Exercising is a huge factor in making ourselves successful. It boosts our metabolism, chemically motivates us to eat a healthier diet and kickstarts our productivity for the day.

In a study published in the journal Medical & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers analyzed the brain activity of women while looking at pictures of food and flowers. Women who exercised for 45 minutes in the morning were less fired up about the food images than those who didn’t work out. In addition, the people who didn’t exercise consumed more food over the course of the day.

After we workout, we begin to review our calendar for the day. The morning gives you time to focus on important tasks while the rest of the world continues to press snooze. It seems counterintuitive because you have just woken up, but our brains are proven to be more alert in the morning than any other time of day.

2. Take Risks & Be Prepared to Fail

Risks involve uncertainty and change. If you have a drive to be more successful, it means that you’re at least partially unsatisfied with your current situation. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, has said, “the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” If you refuse to take risks, you will pass up every opportunity in front of you. 

It is crucial to recognize that failure is not just part of the process. For a highly successful person, it is a stepping stone to success. Most people avoid trying new things because the idea of failure is too much for them to wrap their mind around. Don’t be that person. Remind yourself that failure is powerful and can even be beneficial for you! 

As professionals in the medical industry, we don’t have the option of avoiding risk. Healthcare solutions are changing every day. If we want to keep up with our evolving world, we have to be willing to risk what we know, to learn what we don’t. Even if you fail, you’ll walk away with more experience and more knowledge, which can lead you to further success in other areas of your life and career.

3. Be Purpose-Oriented

Finding a purpose gives a person direction in their life. Without it, you’ll likely end up living in someone else’s dream, while they continue to build success. 

But hey! You’re an individual!

What’s more, you have capabilities within you waiting to be unlocked. Any vision you create in your mind’s eye can become the life you live. In order for this to happen, you need to have a clearly defined purpose- one that you will follow every day. Successful people have clearly defined their purpose in life based on what they want, not on the expectations of others. 

At Black Finch we believe our purpose is to enhance the lives of others. We’ve given everything we have to our professions and now, through Black Finch Scrubs, we have found a way to enhance the lives of the people whose career and purpose is to do exactly that for their patients! 

4. Build Confidence

Confidence is one of the top qualities of successful people across all industries. The truth is, you need to believe in yourself and your abilities long before you’re successful. Most people like to “fake it till you make,” but we don’t want to just “make it.” At Black Finch we prefer to say, “fake it till you become it.” It’s not enough to just merely make it there. We want to fully embody who we are and what we’ve set out to do. 

Confidence is not just a habit successful people practice. It is the state of mind we live in. If you believe it, you can achieve it, but the first person who has to believe it, is you. In fact, confidence has been proven to be the key to career success. 

5. Plan Your Next Day

Most often, highly successful people plan their next day before leaving the office. This allows them to manage their time effectively and continue to stay organized as the day progresses.  Having a list of key items that need to be accomplished can aid in keeping you focused on the task at hand, as lower priority things come up throughout the day.

Because you planned out your day, when you get home you can be present and stop stressing about what needs to get done at work. Even better is that planning out your day will allow you to sleep better! You won’t be worried about all the things you need to get done because you will have allocated time for it already.

As highly motivated professionals we understand the need to prioritize our daily tasks, however, we have moments where the day seems to get away from us because other tasks came up that steal our attention. Click here to learn how to quickly “check in” throughout the day in order to stay focused on the task at hand!

5 Inspiring Commencement Speeches 

A graduation is an exciting time for anyone, but for a medical, dental or nursing student it has a little more emotion behind it. This is where you are finally recognized for the dedication, determination and drive it took for you to tap into your full potential in order to complete the rigorous coursework. At Black Finch we like to say you’ve worked hard, made an impact and embraced the grind in style.

Whether you are in nursing, medical or dental school, you have sacrificed your social life, time with family and the freedom to do what you want, when you want. Now is the time to take what you’ve learned and put it into action. You’re now free to enhance the lives of others on the daily!

As you’re given your diploma and you walk down the aisle to your seat, you’re on cloud nine- just beaming with pride because you’re officially a professional in your field who gets to inspire leadership, health and perseverance! Speeches are given by students, professors and then there is one speaker who is there to simply continue inspiring the drive it takes to succeed, not only in your field, but in life.

Below is a list of Commencement speeches that continually emphasize what we believe in, which is cultivating a community of highly motivated, successful medical professionals.  These speeches remind us that what we have sacrificed to be able to live in this culture every day is it worth it.

Steve Jobs – Stanford, 2005

Steve Jobs said it right!

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.”

We wouldn’t be in this field is we didn’t love it. We wouldn’t be in this field if we didn’t expect to fail at some point. The beauty of being in this mentally challenging industry is that we thrive when life hits us on the head with a brick. We think on our feet and we’ve thought through every option and every outcome in order to ensure we stay at the top of our game.

Oprah Winfrey – Harvard, 2013

Get it, girl! You heard it from the Queen herself.

“No matter what challenges, setbacks or disappointments you may encounter along the way, you will find true success and happiness if you have only one goal, there really is only one, and that is this: to fulfill the highest most truthful expression of yourself as a human being.”

Black Finch is committed the driven and we believe that those who are driven and fulfill their purpose, are those who are living in the best version of who they are. In the healthcare industry, we spend a lot of time and energy putting everyone else ahead of ourselves, so it is crucial that we know who we are and what we stand for, so we don’t lose ourselves in our pursuit of helping others.

Admiral William T.H. McRaven – University of Texas, Austin, 2014

In Admiral McRaven’s Commencement speech he talks about making the world a better place. He says that if every individual can change the lives of 10 people within their lifetime, imagine how much better the world would be. We’ve taken this one to heart because we firmly believe that this is possible. We go out every single day with the mindset of helping others. In the medical industry there are days when we get to change the lives of 10 people in one day! There’s nothing more rewarding than knowing you changed someone or the better.

Alan Alda – Carnegie Mellon University, 2015

In his 2015 commencement speech at Carnegie Mellon University, Alan Alda speaks on the impact of uncertainty and how being uncertain will not be your downfall, but your uprising.

Please raise your hand if uncertainty devoured your mind for the majority of med school. Now raise please raise your other hand if you embraced that uncertainty and persevered through the challenges. If you have both hands up go ahead and wave them from left to right and do a little dance because you, my friend, have made it farther than most!

Jennifer Lee – University of New Hampshire 2014

You may not know who this woman is, but you will after this video. She is the CEO of Walt Disney Animations and the writer and director of the Disney hit, Frozen. In her 2014 commencement speech, Jennifer Lee discusses how releasing self-doubt will allow you to grow into the best version of yourself.

Self-doubt will be the kryptonite for anyone in the healthcare field. As medical professionals, we’re lucky. We have been taught to dismiss self-doubt. When the lives of others are literally in your hands, you don’t have the option of doubting anything. You are instinctual. You are logical. You are a doctor.

Black Finch is an organization that is committed to the driven. We believe that success comes to those who are ready to work hard and go all in, in all aspects of life. We know that what we do is not something everyone has the drive to do. We took the time to work our butts off. We chose to enter a field where most fail because our motivation and determination to make an impact on people’s lives overpowered the temptation of a nine to five job.

 

While we were in school, we knew that we wouldn’t be highly rewarded for what we were doing. We knew we wouldn’t even get a comfortable uniform to work in, but we did it anyways because we wanted to positively impact the lives of others. Black Finch exists because to the core of who we are, we believe that in a profession where you enhance lives and even save them every single day, you deserve to look good and be comfortable while you’re doing it. Stop wearing scrubs. Start wearing Black Finch.

Black Finch Presents a New Look for the Medical Industry

Committed to the Driven

Black Finch is a medical apparel company in Costa Mesa, California, providing next generation scrubs to health care professionals across the United States. They have created a product that gives a professional feel to a standard look.

In their pursuit to redesign medical apparel for nurses, doctors, surgical teams and dentists, Black Finch has evolved scrubs from the classic boxy uniform to an athletically bold style that is flattering, timeless and fashion forward, while still portraying a professional appearance. Their apparel provides the required comfort and durability needed for the long, demanding shifts within the healthcare industry. Their scrubs integrate an effortless unification of style, functionality and professionalism.

• Made with a four-way stretch from a wrinkle resistant, antimicrobial fabric specifically designed to enhance utility and appearance.
• Slim fitting pants that boast two strategically placed side pockets, two back welt pockets and one cargo pocket offering on-the-job versatility.
• Tops designed with one chest pocket with pen partition
• Rounded shirt hem allows for tucked or untucked styling, giving an effortless professional look.

 

 

About Black Finch

Based in Costa Mesa, California, Black Finch produces medical apparel for the healthcare industry. They provide a chic, fashion-forward style for the health enthusiasts, allowing medical professionals to move freely within the workplace. With a timeless style, Black Finch apparel can be worn to work or happy hour without feeling underdressed.

Check out our official Press Release

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