Embracing Life's Challenges

Today was one of THOSE days. That cheerful morning when you walk out the door and life is ready to wipe that smile off your face. Which it does, and does it with a little too much glee. That is life, right? Some days the snack machine is going to eat your last bit of change and not give you the snack. Your car will not start before you have to get on the road to an important meeting. S#!% happens, and then it keeps happening. That is life. The deals flow slow, or the data comes slow, or the seller will not make up their mind. There is always something, it seems.

What Can You Do?

What can you do? There are a million distractions that will gladly sidetrack getting past these hurdles, as we all know.

These are not the answers we need. We need to push. My mom said "push" was an acronym for “Praying Until Something Happens.” So in this outfit, we push and push hard. We keep on doing our best and doing the right thing. We endure the hurdles and keep on making our way to the next great mountaintop. That is where the best views are, right? We push and we endure what others hate; we endure what scares others. We know it isn’t all wine and roses. If it were all easy and perfect, we would think it was a trap. The only thing that comes easy is something that would be barely worth having.

The Journey Ahead

With that being said, we know the journey is sometimes uphill, treacherous, and littered with loose rocks ready to come down on us. “Damn the torpedoes” is how we roll. Fortune favors the bold, and the bold take a beating some days. So we embrace the adversity and let it strengthen us. The Navy Seals have a saying: “The only easy day was yesterday.” This saying is true based on the premise that you made it through alive and are still on the game board of life playing when others bowed out or just took an L.

So today has been a hard one, and the last week wasn’t much better. Honestly, I have to say I am glad. Maybe it is the realist in my soul, but if I didn’t have a bad few days every now and then, I wouldn’t enjoy the good days or the little things that make life so awesome. I don’t mean just random “oh man that’s awesome” kind of awesome. I mean the real awesome things in life.

The Spoils of Victory

Those spoils of the victorious! The perfect cup of coffee, or a good conversation that makes a real connection. Closing a deal and making some cash flow for a few decades or so. Seeing your kids succeed or seeing a friend do well. When a fish takes your bait and you set that hook, or when you get to go to your garden for the first harvest of the year—damn, those are the best tomatoes on earth! Do you remember holding that first check with your name on it that left you speechless? Those wins are the things dreams are made of, and they are our wins.

Why do we get to win so hard? Because we take the road less traveled and PUSH forward and endure the raging storm. We push past fear and pain and onward to the other side—to success. We know discomfort is the price to live a life full of moments that will take our breath away when we remember them. I hope you have some of these moments in your life; they are my greatest treasures for sure.

Money is great, but living a life that leaves others in awe is the real reward. I hope you have gained this kind of treasure in your life, and if you haven’t, I can only challenge you to get into the game and take a beating or two. Crack the bones of life and suck that marrow out. Live right past fear, and you will be surprised at the value of discomfort. Truly rich rewards are there for the taking, and I hope you go after yours.

Stay safe, but not too safe.