How to Overcome Anything

For the past two weeks I received messages about how either you or a loved one is struggling.

Heavy stuff: Depression. Addiction. Anxiety. Chronic illness. Suicidal thoughts.

You have reached out and said that this blog has comforted you or helped you.

Honestly…I don’t know what to say.

I mean, if Write on Fight on helps you– in anyway– then that feels pretty damn good. Thank you.

In August 2018, when I was training for a 5k–a defiant, athletic way to prove I could overcome my brain damage– I got hit with migraines and vertigo which prevented me from running.

This was tough.

So I wrote a note to myself about how to overcome anything and I’d like to share it with you:

1.Make a Declaration

You have a Problem. A Problem that has manifested into an uncomfortable truth.

When living with an uncomfortable truth– illness, addiction, financial hardship, depression, anxiety, confusion, damaged relationships– the first step is to make a declaration that exposes your wound.

I have____________.

I am _____________.

Take your time– the declaration isn’t easy. When the time is right, it has to be declared in your private heart before it can be announced publicly. And when declaring it to yourself, you have to declare with as much conviction and volume as if you where standing on stage, behind a microphone, in front of a stadium packed with a noisy audience.

Understand, the declaration is as much for you as it is for your audience. Your audience, like you, wants the truth. And when you demonstrate the strength to announce the truth, something magical happens. Your audience feels closer to you then ever before and your audience, in a way, will be seeing you for the first time.

2. Ask a Question

Ask yourself: “So I’m wounded, now what am I going to do about it?”

If the declaration inspires acceptance.

The question inspires action.

You can do two things:

1.Do nothing.

Which most people do. Which I have done. Complain and moan and wish things were different and better but in the end we do nothing.

And by doing nothing the Problem gets bigger and stronger and faster– as if the Problem found some steroids and joined a gym. And before long, the Problem is the biggest guy in the gym, walking sideways through doorjambs, grunting through reps, flexing and smiling at his muscles in the mirror, and intimidating you.

2.Take action.

The amount of the action we take is inconsequential. The important thing is that you take action, which is defined by the audience as “having courage”. Even if you have terminal cancer, you still have the ability to do something. Write a letter. Have a talk. Sing. Smile. Hold a hand.

The important thing is that you do something.

Doing nothing drains energy. Doing something creates energy. Energy that is essential to deal with the Problem.

Your Problems will die when your body dies. But your actions will outlive your body and shape the lives of the living. Your actions are how you will be remember.

So today–do something.

And if you do–you’ll be able to overcome anything.

Be well,

Jay

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