Disaster

Tell me if this sounds familiar. Everything is going great. Your job is more than manageable, it’s going strangely well, not extra stressful, and everything you do seems to land just right. Your relationships are firing on all cylinders, you and your partner are clicking in a way that you never have before. You physically feel the best you ever have, exercise and training does not feel like work, it’s fun. Life is moving along at a pace that you previously thought unsustainable, and yet you’re taking it all in stride. Truly, everything is great. Then something happens. The metaphorical penny on the tracks that derails the entire train. Disaster strikes and you’re forced to slow down, nearly to a stand still. It’s the worst thing that could happen, all that progress, all that momentum, for naught. Or is it? 

Disaster can take any form. It can be something entirely under your control, a direct result of your own decisions. Or it can be something so wildly unpredictable that nobody could have predicted it. It could be something that affects just you. Or it could be something that has wide reaching implications. An unexpected expense came up and now your entire savings is wiped out. The world came to a halt in 2020, without a doubt derailing millions of people. What it is, isn’t what matters. It also doesn’t matter whose fault it is. The only thing that matters is how you respond to it. You can let it break you, give up and quit. Or you can use the opportunity to your benefit and persevere through it.

Everything was going great. I had just landed a massive project at work and was gearing for a fun 6 weeks of travel. I was headed off to Oklahoma, Iowa, Las Vegas, and Amsterdam, all for work, and then finishing the stretch with a few personal weekends with family. Emotionally, I was in the best place I had been in since, I don’t know when. That carried over to my friendships and, especially, my relationship with my significant other. My emotional and mental health is tied closely to my physical health. It was in the best place it has been in, arguably ever. I was gaining healthy weight and my training for my next powerlifting meet could not have been going better. Then I broke my fibula and tibia.

It was a direct result of my own decisions and hubris. I got cocky and pushed myself too far. I bailed on a squat, what would have been a new personal record, something I have done a ton. This time though, my ankle took a bad twist and down I went. Old me would have jumped at the chance to wallow in pity and dip back into depression. Instead, I decided to take accountability. Trying to attribute fault, feeling sorry for myself, none of that is going to solve the problem. Nothing will change the reality I face. It is on me to own my situation and figure out how to best move forward, identify the lessons I can learn and how I can use this to keep making progress.

It’s weird to think about a broken bone (or bones in this case) and be grateful. It’s strange to look down at my foot in a boot and think to myself, “This is going to be fun.” It’s that perspective though that shifts the disaster to opportunity. It takes something that could be the catalyst for anger, resentment, and depression, and instead turn it around and channel excitement, hope, and change. Humans are creatures of habit. Even the most chaotic, unstructured of us still follow the same pace and rhythm day-to-day. It’s anxiety inducing to think about shifting to a lower gear and slowing down, or flooring the pedal and speeding up. Opportunities like this, when we are forced to operate at a wildly different pace than we are comfortable with, are rare. They are opportunities to be seized and cherished. Disaster can strike at any time. The more time you spend trying to find who or what to blame, or wallowing in self-pity only prolongs your progress. It’s on you to take accountability for your situation and find the vantage point that shows you a way through that you can grow and come out the other side stronger for it.