The Challenge of life and 75 Hard

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Here is the secret to any life challenge you will face… keep going.  If you get off course, start again and keep going.  That’s it.  That can solve any and all life challenges for you.  But the question is how do you get back on track once life challenge kicks you hard enough to knock you down?

Two weeks ago I was ready to knock it out of the park with my side hustle.  I was ready to double down on working and making things happen.  A life challenge kicked me square in the head.  I thought I had my dream job in the bag after the third interview and it turns out they decided to hire the other guy.  Whatever… their loss.  So I was going to work double on my business and a couple of hours a week looking for another dream job.

Then, what always seems to happen when you are dealing with one life challenge?  Life does what it does and kicked me harder while I was down.

I got a call from my sister that my mother had gone into the hospital and it wasn’t good.  Cancer was the word of the day and we had to wait for one last test.  The test came back and that was it… she wasn’t going to make it. 

Two hours later at 8 pm I had my family packed up and we were on the road to California from Texas.  Flights where few and far between because of Covid-19.  I would have had multiple stops and layovers.  I could actually make it faster by driving 19 hours.  So on the road we went to drive straight through the night. 

About six hours from the hospital, she passed.  It was heartbreaking to make the overnight journey just to be late.  It felt like a massive failure.  One that I can never redo because she is gone.

I missed my sisters and father in the hospital but was able to meet them at my childhood home.  It was no longer mom and dad’s place… now it was only dad’s house.

I spent the last two weeks helping dad put his finances in order, cleaning up the house, helping my sisters, and doing all the things that need to be done when someone passes.  It sucks… a lot.

I’ve done very little to nothing to help myself or my immediate family.  I haven’t worked, worked out, eaten well, or even bothered to take my daily vitamin.  I was at my father’s house for as long as I can work, then headed to my in-law’s house to sleep.  Repeat.

This is the first time I’ve sat down to do anything.  This is the time when we make our break ourselves.  I want to make myself.

I want to be working again.  I want to be working.  I want to eat better.  I want to make time to take care of myself.  I want to take care of my wife and kid.  I want to spend time with close friends.  And I want to help my father and sisters. 

How do I turn I want, into what I am?  How do I find the motivation to make it a reality? 

How do you get back on track once life knocks you down?

I’ve found a simple way to restart life.  Just to do it.  I went to sleep last night and said when I get up in the morning I’m going to read a motivational book (currently 48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller) and then work on this post and podcast.

That’s it.  I set a simple goal and a time to work on it.  When I’m done here, then I will go over and help my father and sisters again for as long as I can.  Then tomorrow I will do the same thing.  I will get up, read, work on my side hustle, and then go help my family.

I put my extended family first for two weeks and now I need to put myself first.

You can only put others first for so long before you crash.  It might be years, but eventually, you won’t make it.  You have to do things to improve yourself every day.  Only a little bit, but every day.  If you don’t you will become a shell of what you could be.

If you want to learn how to make yourself be first, try the 75 Hard Challenge.  You can get a free starters guide here.

During this challenge, you will put yourself first and figure out how to make yourself better.  During that time you will learn the mental toughness to keep going and reach small goals.  Those big goals take time and are easy to set as dreams.  The small goals take work and the hardest part is starting on the first day.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Ben Branam