When trouble rocks our world, our first response is often disappointment, anger and frustration. We might even feel like God is cursing or punishing us for some reason. The thought often farthest from our mind is to say a prayer of thanks for this blessing! In life, things are not always as they appear. The […]
Healing is not quick or easy. It involves facing brokenness head on and pressing through the stiffness and soreness of body and spirit to find a new place of wholeness. Where does brokenness come from? There are three sources: Your own stupidity Good work you’ve done The mistakes or evil of another We all know what […]
“Two men looked through prison bars, One saw mud, one saw stars” (Oscar Wilde). What do you do when you feel like your circumstances have created a prison like atmosphere in your life? At 23 weeks into my recovery, I looked at my situation and even though physically I was coping with the pain and […]
People have asked, “How do I prepare for the adversity I know will come into my life? It`s going well right now, but I know it won’t always be smooth sailing.” To answer that, let’s look at two explorers who treated preparation quite differently and with shocking results. Amundsen busy planning In October of 1911, […]
When it comes to change, no one motivates you to change (long term) except you. Your mother can’t, your spouse can’t, your doctor can’t, your boss can’t, not even your coach or therapist can. There are however influencers that can increase urgency for change. Those influencers are like a thermostat that triggers a change in […]
“People change when they hurt enough that they have to, learn enough that they want to, or receive enough that they are able to.” John Maxwell People change for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the face of change looks stressed (“My body will never be the same again!”) while other times the face of change […]
When you are faced with adversity and trouble, what is your response? Dance around it? Dance through it & fast? Dance with it? How you choose to dance, changes everything! When I woke up two days after my motorcycle accident I was a mess. My bones were broken, my body was bruised and I was […]
“He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how” [Friedrich Nietzsche]. One of the writers who has influenced my thinking and living these past several months has been Viktor E. Frankl. He was a psychiatrist who spent the years from 1942 to 1945 as a prisoner in a German concentration camp. […]
Have you ever found yourself trying to remain optimistic while at the same time feeling swamped by a wave of trouble so high you don’t know where to turn? You may be ready to embrace the Stockdale Paradox. The story is told of Admiral Jim Stockdale who survived an eight-year imprisonment from 1965 to 1953 […]