Every once in a while you get dealt situations that might break you down. Maybe reshape some perspectives you have. Break you. Build you. The usual stuff you’re used to hearing by now.
Reading about it is one thing, and being able to relate is another. Let’s see if you relate to me.
While I won’t go into specifics to respect the privacy of everyone involved, I’ll give you the important parts.
I became a single father over the summer and of course had to get some things straightened out with that through the courts.
There’s consequences to every decision you make, don’t ever forget that, and I certainly received mine.
Financial, emotional, and mental consequences.
I actually started Struggle is the Blueprint when this all first kicked off. It made me feel better about myself knowing I was trying to help others even if my future was uncertain at the time.
Years ago, I thought I conquered demons that would never come back. They always do, though. They wait for the right storm. And when the stress hit, they walked right through the front door like they owned the place.
Stress and anxiety will do that to a man… they warp your thinking, twist your reactions, and make every day feel twice as heavy. Your brain turns into this chemical battleground, and suddenly you’re dealing with problems you thought were buried years ago.
So in actuality, the situation itself was rather anticlimactic. Thankfully. Although, when it gets drawn out over the course of a few months it can take a toll on you.
Obviously I dealt with stress/anxiety as mentioned as well as feeling depressed, overwhelmed, unmotivated, and self loathing. Any bad feeling you can feel I probably felt at least once needless to say.
I wanted to quit and just wallow in defeat. I was pretty close to doing so actually, but you should know better by now that yours truly isn’t about that.
Here’s what I did: the exact same things I had already been doing.
Why?
Because they were the things that a future version of myself would do. The successful well respected version.
I won’t sit here and tell you it was easy, or that it felt good in the moment.
I knew the situation wouldn’t last forever, so it was about outlasting it. Building through the hardship. Gritting my teeth and not letting a series of unfortunate events shape me as a person.
If I wanted to have any chance going forward, it’s what I had to do. Not what I wanted to do, but what I had to do.
Believe it or not, as time went on, things started to mellow out and get better. I didn’t lose any time or any progress because I stayed the course. I worked, stayed in the gym, continued this page (more or less the socials I know), and tried my best for my son.
There will be more situations in the future. I will not quit, and I bet you won’t either.
Forever learning. Always building.
-Ethan