Strength Through The Struggle

A conversation with Lex Robinson and Brandon Mancine during which we discuss the vital characteristic that is resilience - and how to go about developing it for every aspect of your life. 

Mark and Lisa, a staff member at his Martial Arts School, shares a story about a tragedy that hit Lisa two years ago. 

Lisa talks about the celebration of life of her son, Leo, and how she remembered the happy times about his life.

Today’s episode is about the two different but powerful meanings for Strength Through the Struggle that you can use in your life. Let’s get right to it.

Hello everybody! Thanks for taking the time to tune in and listen to this episode. I really appreciate your time and energy. While this episode isn’t specifically about martial arts I’m going to use them as an example.

When I came up with the name for this podcast it was the result of wanting to be truthful about life. At least my experience with life. And what I’ve learned about it from my childhood, into the military and as a career martial artist and student of life.

I wanted people who were looking for solutions to life’s challenges to be able to find honest answers, inspiration, and motivation.

The first thing that STTS means to me is that we all actually do have the Strength to get through any Struggle that crosses our path in life. Those can be struggles that were thrust upon us through no doing of our own as well as the challenges we create with our choices. You know what I mean, problems of our own creation.

There have been a few times in my life that I didn’t know if I had the strength to do what needed to be done when confronted with a problem in my life. One of those times was when I found out I was going to be a father.

My own internal dialogue was very negative concerning how I saw myself. I couldn’t imagine anything good could come from me. More specifically, my seed. I grew up with so many experiences in childhood that I wasn’t worthy of anything good or that anything good could come from me that I spent my adult life trying not to become a father.

That wasn’t the truth but it was what I believed. And we tend to behave in alignment with what we believe regardless of whether the belief is true or not.

I ended up trying to be the best father I could and overall, I’ve done a fair job of it. Not perfect by any means but pretty good most days. And that is with the added challenges of raising a child with multiple disabilities.

Even though I didn’t believe it the start, I had the strength to do it. The truth was, I had the Strength to get Through the Struggle the whole time.

I bet you can think of times in your own life where this has been true for you. It could be anything. The ending of a relationship. Getting through school or going on and getting a degree in college. What about sickness or injury? The death of a loved one in your life? A financial crisis. The loss of a job. What about that choice that you made that brought on the difficulty in your life that you didn’t think you could overcome or get through.

You see. You had it in you the whole time. You made it through. You did have the strength to get through that struggle.

The second meaning and one that lines up with the martial arts is, we get Stronger because we go through Struggles. As a matter of fact, we CAN’T get stronger without resistance, without something to struggle against.

If I want to make my body stronger, I must find something to push against. For instance, a floor to do a push up against. If I’m standing in the middle of a room pushing against the air, my body is not getting stronger. There isn’t anything in opposition to my arms. There isn’t anything for me to struggle against.

I have to get down on the floor and push against it. The floor and my bodyweight work together to give me something to struggle against which in turn creates more strength in my body.

The same is true for events in our life that are a struggle to get through. Those events are what give us an opportunity to get stronger on the inside.

When my son Josh was hurt in the hit-and-run with two semi-trucks, it created all kinds of opportunities for me to get stronger.

The struggle of dealing with both a life-threatening and ultimately life-altering event made it possible for me to have to dig deeper than I ever had to in my life. I had to develop a stronger Faith in order to keep going with everything that was required of me and Joshua. I developed more patience and new perspectives of understanding that have made me a stronger person.

I had to come to terms with the idea that I can’t control everything in my life which made me stronger. A new level of compassion was required for my son but also for myself and others in this world has ultimately made stronger as well.

I have a deeper level of perseverance now and can endure (which is another type of strength) difficult things if I must. All of this is as a result of the struggle, that ended up in my life.

It wasn’t easy and I’m not going to pretend that it was. I didn’t enjoy going through it. It was hard. But I do enjoy the strength that I gained from it. Without the struggle, I couldn’t have gotten stronger.

What about your own life? What have you gone through that has made you a stronger person? A better student, employee or boss. What are the challenges in your life, the struggles you have gone through that have made you stronger as a husband, wife, father or mother? That’s right. You have all kinds of examples of how much stronger you are because of the struggles you had to figure out.

So let me tie it all together.

1 – We all have the strength to get through any struggle in our life even if we don’t believe it.

2 – We all can gain new levels of strength because of the struggles we go through in life.

Pretty impressed with yourself now? You should be! You’ve been getting stronger and showing strength your whole life.

I hope that helps. Thanks again for listening and remember, if you want any coaching to reach out at markgoblowsky.com. Let’s get you unstuck and moving again.

What’s the opposite of “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas? I’m here to tell you in this episode of the STTS. Let’s get to it.

If you live in the United States, or possibly other countries as well, you may have seen the commercials advertising a visit to the city of Las Vegas. There are dozens of commercials, all about 30 seconds long with different storylines.

Each commercial, regardless of the storyline, promote the idea that as long as nobody back where you live knows about what happens, then do whatever you like in Las Vegas. Because What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas.

It’s a bit of a wink-wink, nod-nod approach to life. If nobody knows, there’s no crime. No knowledge = no harm = no foul, is not the actual outcome. Now, I totally disagree with that mentality but that is an episode for another day.

I grew up with a similar philosophy in my home. It went like this, “What happens in this house, stays in this house.”

I distinctly remember hearing this from my mother one summer day. The neighbors severe alcoholics and parents were raising hell with each other. But the message was clear. Do not repeat what goes on inside this house, outside of this house. To anybody! Ever.

Now my mother did the best she could trying to raise us kids. Given, her own upbringing, which was ugly to say the least, the deck wasn’t stacked in her favor. She, and her three sisters suffered many types of abuse at the hands of my grandmother who was mentally ill for most of her adult life.

We will never know exactly how my grandma came to be mentally ill and abusive. Rumors have it that she was raped and miscarried a child in Italy while my grandfather came to the United States to find work and a house for them.

The abuse my mother experienced growing up along with being married to my father, who wasn’t the best of role models in town, gave her more work than she could handle with five children all under the age of five at once.

When my mother told me, “What happens in this house, stays in this house,” I couldn’t understand why she said it. What was so bad about what happened in our house? I mean it wasn’t perfect but it wasn’t the worst place on earth as far as I could tell.

As I got older, I started to see there were some houses where things weren’t much different. There were other homes where things were very different.

What I couldn’t tell though was just how far off of center our home actually was. My mother knew something wasn’t right. I felt something wasn’t right but I couldn’t define it in my childlike mind. My mother also felt helpless to do anything about it. We are talking about the 1960’s and life was very different back then when most mothers didn't work outside of the home.

So what does all this mean? In my life, I’ve found that things done in the dark and/ or kept in the dark are there because nobody wants them to see the light of day. I get it that our bathrooms and our bedrooms are private places. I’m not talking about bathroom habits or somebody’s sex life.

Certainly there are conversations, and things that happen in a home where there is no need for them to travel outside the family circle.

I’m talking about things like abuse in all its forms. Physical abuse, mental, abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, financial abuse, spiritual abuse. When these things happen, the perpetrator does not want you tell anybody about it. The reason is they are all harmful things at the very least, but many are also criminal as well as unethical or immoral.

When I need to keep something in the dark, so the deed remains unknown to the public including authorities, that is for the person doing the abuse to stay in the clear and out of trouble. Things that went on when I was a child, frequently were swept under the rug or given a shrug of the shoulder and a comment like, “It’s none of our business.

There are numerous things I and many others lived through that if they happened today, in 2019, people would be arrested for them and likely do serious jail time.

The only way to deal with the darkness in this world is to shine some light on it. Light doesn’t allow things to hide. Light allows us to see things for what they really are. Light heals. Light provides one thing that is absolutely necessary for almost everything on earth to grow.

It’s safer to be out during the day in the light than it is at the night in the darkness. It’s safer to drive during the day than it is at night. I have more reaction time because my vision isn’t impaired by the darkness. Many crimes are committed in the dark for the very reason of keeping people from seeing something illegal is going. Darkness hides the truth.

Truth needs to be stated and shared where people are being harmed. I encourage everyone listening to this to bring the darkness out into the light and let the light do its job of providing an environment of healing and growth.

Before you go, thank you again for listening. It means a lot to me. Would you please share this episode with others. It can’t help if it’s not heard. Thanks again and I’ll see you soon.

My wife and I are on vacation in the Dominican Republic. This episode is not about how I live some amazing life, although it is amazing in many ways. It’s not about who we live a life of luxury, traveling to exotic places and living where we want and how we want. It’s about how change for the positive can happen when the environment for it exists.

Six years-ago Teresa and I were at the very same resort in the DR. We arrived the second day it was open. We opted to take the trip then because the price was outstanding by virtue of being new.

At the time the staff was not that fluent in English and we weren’t fluent in Spanish so sometimes we had a little language barrier. Also, there were many things all over the resort that weren’t completed or ready.

Some of the restaurants weren’t open that first week and many of the listed resort activities weren’t ready. The beach was in good shape and the pool was in good shape and while we aren’t much for drinking, it seemed the bars were all fully staffed and fully stocked.

We were told by the staff not to drink the tap water as it had the possibility of making us sick. We appreciated that bit of info about the water and took it seriously using only bottled water to drink and went so far as to use bottled water to brush our teeth as well.

That was all OK. We are pretty easy going and understand the world isn’t perfect. complete. We had a great time relaxing on the beach, jumping waves in the ocean and enjoying the delicious, fresh fruits, vegetables and wonderful meals that were prepared for us.

Being a new resort, the surrounding decorative vegetation was just being planted. There was more dirt to be seen than plants and flowers. The property, because the vegetation that was planted, was only planted recently did not have the time to grow to its normal beauty.

As my wife and I walked the property she mentioned how she wondered what it would look like had it all been filled in and the plants had time to grow and mature. Needless to say, it didn’t happen by the end of the week that we were there.

Here we are six years later. The difference is profound. Every square inch of the property is absolutely beautiful and filled with perfectly manicured flowers, bushes, ornamentals, and trees.

The four to six-foot palm trees newly planted in 2013 are now twelve to sixteen feet tall in all of the atrium gardens of each building. The fifteen to twenty-foot palm trees around the exteriors of the buildings are now thirty to forty feet tall.

The decorative gardens surrounding the buildings are perfectly manicured and completely filled in throughout the property. Purple flowers abound and you can hardly see dirt in any of the landscaping because they are so full of assorted greenery and flowers.

All of this happened in six short years because the environment was right for growth. Sun, warmth, rain, somebody caring for and tending to the needs of the plants.

In Chinese culture and martial arts, we would say that is Yang Sheng. Nourishing or Nurturing Life. As a matter of fact, I believe it is so important that we say it at the beginning and end of all our classes.

We say yang sheng in the spirit of not only nourishing our life but also the lives of those around us. Most of my students only spend a few hours a week with me or my staff. We say Yang Sheng when we train with each other multiple times throughout class at the beginning and end of each exercise, while looking each other in the eye, as a way of promoting what we want for ourselves and others.

The idea of nourishing or nurturing life is meant to be taken with us out into the world. Home, school, work, activities, hobbies. Everywhere.

This is also something you can do in your own corner of the world whether at work or at home.

What if you could start the day with the idea that I will nourish life at work or home or school or while out shopping for that matter?

How about starting with the idea that when I am speaking with my children, coworkers, husband, wife, in-laws, extended family, boss, coworkers, employees I started with the heart-centered idea of all conversations and actions start with Nourishing life.

This has made a profound change in my life. I’ve struggled with staying positive at times in my life. I always want to be positive but sometimes, when my load has been especially heavy it was harder. I would lose my place because of the challenges.

When I decided to be purposeful about reminding myself about Nourishing Life, mine and others, I became more positive, forward-focused and energetic. Framing my day, my work and my relationships with Yang Sheng helped immensely in making more positive choices and actions in my body, mind, and Spirit. It makes me feel better because I’m actually doing better by asking myself, how can I nourish life here.

I challenge you to do the same. Start your day and your activity with the Yang Shenging everything and everyone. You’ll be glad you did because your life will be improving anywhere you apply it.

Have you ever had a moment of absolute anger? What about Outrage over something? A little indignation maybe?

Maybe things didn’t go your way in a situation. Somebody hurt you. A person close to you won’t hear what you are saying. A person wronged you. Someone took advantage of you. You felt disrespected

I’ve been there. I’ve lost my cool over plenty of things that were small. True misunderstanding when the other person didn’t mean it the way I took it.

What about something that is righteously wrong. There is no arguing about it. It was unfair, unjust and unwanted.

Something sexual abuse.

People who abuse the elderly.

Wanton violence that has no purpose but to hurt another.

I have. I’m probably the only one though… wink, wink. Of course, we’ve all been there. We’ve felt the anger at something unjust. We have felt indignation when we see another has had to suffer some indignity such as sexual abuse.

What if when we see things that could lead us to anger or bitterness, we could, in turn, use it to go somewhere better?

One day I'm watching Josh struggle to get into the truck. Nothing really new. He's had to relearn to do things we all take for granted. Walking, talking, eating. Getting run over by a couple of semi-trucks when you are three years old creates challenges in your life.

Today however his challenges were compounded by a neon green cast that encased his left arm. The result of falling over while simply walking. No tripping. Nobody pushing him or falling into him. He simply lost his balance.

As I'm watching him trying to get into the truck and struggling to figure this new scenario out of living with a cast on his arm.

I'm trying to figure it out myself. And as I’m trying to figure it out, I also notice that I'm feeling frustrated over the whole deal. I realize I'm lamenting our situation. I’m angry because we have to go through this as the result of nothing Josh did to himself. But as the result of someone else. The driver of a semi-truck that kept on rolling.

All the emotions of the past challenges and injuries and mishaps and disappointments come rushing into the present moment again.

My feelings of frustration for my son having to go through this are amplified from these events that exist in the past yet are haunting my present.

As I catch myself starting to feel bad about this, I realize I have a choice. I can see this as an ongoing tragedy with all the negative emotions and thoughts that go with it or an opportunity for me to reframe my own thoughts and meanings of the situation to something positive.

And I HAVE to choose. Consciously, I have to make a choice. Am I going to live in the past or the Present? See this as a Tragedy or a Triumph. Become Bitter or Better.

I decide to choose Better. To look for a Triumph. To see this as an opportunity to overcome a monumentally difficult situation that nobody would want in their life and turn it into something good.

The steeper the hill, the stronger the runner becomes.

I choose to be present. To stay relevant. I can't change what landed us here. I can, however, choose how I respond to it.

It took me a while to get to this point. I’m sharing it with you because I understand the emotions that go with life. They are all useful. Even the ones you or I would term negative.

Ones like bitterness, anger, rage. Those emotions point to something that is screaming for attention. Something that if we choose, can exist to make us better and stronger. Not angry and emotionally weaker.

I will never be able to serve my son while I'm limping around feeling sorry for myself or angry at the world. I can only be of value to him if I choose to live in the Present and help him to see his own situation in the best possible light.

I am not suggesting to anyone to sugar coat something. I mean if you take a pile of cow manure, put it in a box, put beautiful wrapping paper on the box and tie it up with a pretty bow, it’s still poop.

I can, however, take that horse manure, and with a little work and a little time, I can turn it into fertilizer and grow something beautiful or nourishing with it.

Bitter doesn’t move life forward. Bitter doesn’t leave us feeling good. Bitter doesn’t create positive energy in my life or yours.

This is our Path here on earth. This is our Journey. This is the road we travel on.

To hell with Bitter. I want Better.

When Your System in Life Isn’t Working

Welcome Back. What we are going to chat about today is how to overwhelm can get us off track and how to overcome that. Let’s get to it.

First of all, THANK YOU, to everyone who is hearing this today. I appreciate you and the fact that you took the time to listen in. These podcasts can only help if they are heard. Please share them with your friends and family.

Does it ever seem as if at the end of the day things are not going your way?

I mean you care.

You aren’t lazy.

You are working super hard every day.

When the day is over you are definitely tired.

You are trying to do your best with all of your responsibilities. 

But in spite of your best efforts, things aren’t going well or in the direction, you hoped for. Maybe things in your life aren’t changing for the better and you almost feel as if your wheels are spinning and you are stuck in place.

There was a time when I felt exactly like that. Actually, there have been a number of times in my life where I went through a period just like that.

A number of years ago, the grandmother of one of my students came in with her grandson Edgar. She walked over to me and asked if she could speak to me. They had been a part of my school for a number of years at this point. I had a few minutes, so I was more than happy to oblige.

She told me she had a book that I might find helpful. She said the reason she was asking was that she had noticed how tired, run down and stressed I looked all the time.

As far as how I looked, I had to agree with her. Inside I felt the way I looked in the mirror and to the world.

So this nice grandmother, who was a practicing Buddhist, handed me a book on Buddhism. I wasn’t surprised. People make all kinds of suggestions if they think they can be helpful. I was already familiar with some elements of Buddhism. And while I never practiced it, I had used some techniques in my own life.

The following week I read the book. It was good. I enjoyed it and it was helpful to me towards understanding all that I was experiencing in my life at the time. Grief from my son being hurt. Fatigue from caring for him. Frustration with dealing with his mother. Struggling to keep my business afloat. Fighting to keep my attitude positive. 

The problem was that I was a Christian who wasn’t practicing what I knew from my faith.

I didn’t have anything against Buddhism but it dawned on me, I wasn’t doing the things I already knew. What good would another system do me if I wasn’t using what I already had?

This isn’t me coming at this from a theological position. It’s about our psychology. You see, excluding any theology, it doesn’t always matter what system you choose to go through life with. But if you choose a system but aren’t using it, then you don’t get any benefit from it.

I wasn’t working the system so the system couldn’t work for me.

If I have a system for building a strong marriage and it works for others but I don’t use it, I won’t get the benefits.

It’s the same with food choices and exercise or finances.

If I have a budget but don’t use it, I exclude myself from its benefit.

If I have an exercise plan but don’t use it, I will continue to get weaker over time. Switching to a new program will only help me if I actually use the program as directed.

My problem was I wasn’t using the system, which was my Faith walk, to help me cope with and get through my challenges. Switching to another system whether it is Buddhism, Daoism or Cognitive Behavior and Meditation won’t get me what I want and need unless I put it to work for me by doing the work of the system.

When I got back to prayer, scripture reading, meditation and study, things started to change for me. I saw the world differently and in turn, the world saw me differently. My energy, my attitude, my behaviors started to reflect what was happening to me from the inside out.

We have to learn to take care of ourselves and remember put into play those things that will work as soon as we put the work in.

That’s it for today. Hope this was helpful

So that’s the lesson for me. If I don’t work the system, the system won’t work for me. 

My son had been badly injured in a hit and run collision with two semi-trucks. He needed around the clock care due to a massive traumatic brain injury. His recovery was on my mind 24/7.

My business was shrinking by the day and at what point was down by 90%. As a result, I was in the middle of a foreclosure on our home, bankruptcy as well as my truck being repossessed. I didn’t even know how I was going to get my son to his therapy appointments which were a total of twelve per week.

I was in a relationship that was difficult at best. Unfortunately, it was with the mother of my son and at the time, it was 100% dysfunctional. A friend of mine suggested that I could always move to a new city in a different state but that would have felt like I was abandoning my 

There was a time in my life when if you saw my face, you would have been able to see the stress I was living with as if it had been painted on. It was there every day and around the clock. I couldn’t sleep at night and could hardly stay awake during the day.

Son, I could walk away for fear of how not sticking around would have effected Josh growing up.

I was also in the midst of a custody battle, as a result of his needs with his mother which was very ugly. The pressure from my son’s daily needs and the conflict with his mother were on my mind had too much going on at once.

A couple of years ago, I was having a really hard time breathing when I would try to sleep at night. As time went by it got worse. I was in Colorado to do some training with one of my martial arts instructors and it got to the point that I was afraid to fall asleep because I actually thought I would die.

I ended up canceling my training after the first night of no sleep and flew back home to go to the VA hospital and get checked out.

After a CAT scan, the Emergency Room consulting Ear Nose and Throat physician came in to see me to give me the diagnosis. He chucked a bit and said, “Looks like you are going to need surgery. Your thyroid has a rather large mass growing on it. That’s why you can’t breathe at night. It takes up a good portion of the space in your throat and when your body relaxes to go to sleep the airway gets cut off.

I went through the surgery and it was a success. Even better, the tumor was cancer-free. My wife and I had plenty to celebrate. I was so grateful. I was so very pleased to be able to breathe again and not have cancer.

I GOT WHAT I WANTED.

Even though I got what I wanted, what made this so poignant is that I also understand there are times when WE DON'T GET WHAT WE WANT and other times when WE GET WHAT WE DON'T WANT.

You see, when I got to the hospital the day of surgery, there was a lady with brown hair in the surgery waiting area. She was carrying on a conversation with another couple. Mostly about the election. Her husband was already in the prep area getting ready for his surgery.

Eventually, Teresa and I went back for me to get prepped. We saw the surgical nurse, then the doctor, then the anesthesiologist. Everyone was professional and pleasant. My parting words to the anesthesiologist, "Please make sure I wake up."

I didn't want to die that day. My faith informs me that "absent the body, present with the Lord" and in one way - AWESOME! But I really wanted to wake up, be cancer-free and get about my work here on earth.

I don't know for sure what was going through the minds of the gentleman who went in to be prepped before me, his wife or two middle-aged children who showed up later. I will go out on a limb though. I think it is likely they were planning for Thanksgiving together in the tradition of their family. Christmas was also on the horizon a few weeks later. Maybe they had even started buying gifts.

That day, the day I GOT WHAT I WANTED, they not only didn't get what they wanted, they GOT WHAT THEY DIDN'T WANT.

The husband and father who went to be prepped before me didn't go home that day. At least not his earthly home. The Thanksgiving Day meal they were planning for 2016 had an empty chair where he once sat.

That man's experience, that family's experience of an unexpected turn that day, made my experience of waking up from surgery more profound.

I GOT WHAT I WANTED.

THEY GOT WHAT THEY DIDN'T WANT.

Since that day in the hospital, my gratitude list has grown.

One of the things I see when I work on my gratitude list every morning is a little piece of wood on my desk. It’s the size of the tumor. I cut it out myself and use it as a reminder for me to think about how good life is even when things don’t look the way I want them to.

It’s a reminder for me to be grateful for what I do get as well as for what I don’t get.

Might I suggest to you to think about and appreciate what you do get? As well as what you don’t get.

APPRECIATING WHAT I MIGHT HAVE GOTTEN BUT DIDN'T HAS BEEN A POWERFUL EXERCISE IN MY LIFE.

It has helped me to LOVE MORE. To care more. To be more patient. To try to understand others better and to be appreciative of even the smallest things in my life like hot running water in my home

Take more time to connect with those we care about. Take more time to feed our soul and give to the world the gifts that we are here to share.

Things can change in an instant. Frequently for the better like my own outcome. But there are also days when we get what we don’t want. And on those days, if I can remember all the good that is in my life, while it won’t change the pain I feel or the difficulty I’m going through, it can help to feel deep gratitude for everything else in my life.

I once heard a story about a famous landscape architect. He was a master at what he did. He traveled the world creating amazing gardens and landscapes for prestigious locations.

It is said that on days when he felt particularly challenged, he would pull out a piece of paper from his pocket, look at it, nod, fold it up and get to work creating another masterpiece.

People were astounded by the brilliant designs that would seem to come out of nowhere after he studied that tiny piece of paper.

Eventually, this master designer died. After the funeral, people went to his house for food and to share stories they each had, of this great man. His colleagues approached his widow and asked her about that mysterious piece of paper. They were convinced it contained the secret formula to his success.

She told them she did not know what was on the piece of paper. He kept it in his coat pocket normally and she never asked to look at it. After many requests for the opportunity to see the paper, she went upstairs and looked in the closet for his coat. Inside the coat pocket was the folded-up slip of paper.

The widow brought it downstairs and handed it to one of his colleagues. As everyone gathered around, the man unfolded the paper. Convinced that whatever was written on it, they would now have in their possession the key to their own success.

When they looked at the unfolded slip of paper, it simply said, “When laying sod, always put the green side up.”

It’s a brilliant little story about remembering what is most important. It’s also about not taking things for granted.

It is too easy to make life complicated. Especially in the United States. But I believe the temptation to complicate life is everywhere in this world. With the growth of technology and the rate of change that it occurs with, it often seems like we are playing catch up every day.

I know I have done this in my own life. There have been times when I would worry about what I was doing and at the same time, I would worry about what I wasn’t doing.

I would worry about money, my health, my relationships, my business. I would worry about my skillsets that I thought were always falling behind and that I needed to grow more skillsets to keep up with a changing economy and world.

One of the most valuable things I’ve ever done was to take the time and learn what I valued most in this world. I’m not talking about possessions either. I’m talking about what was intrinsically important to me to be as a man, a husband, a father, a businessman and as a human being who was created for a purpose in this world.

I also had to learn that I couldn’t have everything all at once. But if I did the work of figuring out my own value system, I could have the most important things to me, at the center of my life daily.

Figuring out what is most important to me, allowed me to take other, what seemed like important things, out of my life, off my plate and outside my head.

That way I was able to give my energy to only the most important things to me. It allowed me to get back to basics. To focus on only the most important five things in my life. My Faith, My Fitness, My Family, My Future, and My Foundation.

I learned to remember when laying sod, to put the green side up.

If you would like some help clarifying what’s most important to you, and want to simplify your own life, stop by my website and send me a note. I answer all the emails myself and will get back with you ASAP. If you are on Facebook, you can reach out to me there as well and send me a direct message.

An old student of mine stopped by in the middle of July. I didn't recognize him and had to ask his name. As soon as he said it I recalled his time with me.

He was a student for about 5 years. Roughly age 9-13. He was being raised by a single mom. She hoped the martial arts would help him get some discipline, direction, and focus.

It was a challenge getting him to do what would help him. It was a challenge to get him to make better choices. It was a challenge to earn his trust.

He was a boy then and a man of 32 now.

I asked him what he had been up to. He extended both arms which were covered in tattoos. It seemed as if he thought I should know by me looking at his arms.

I asked him what it all meant. He said, "I've been in and out of prison." I asked him how long that had been going on. He said, "Fourteen years. I just got out again about a month ago."

He told me how he had found his way into petty crime and then stuff a bit more serious. He told me how he had been doing this for so long, he just saw himself that way now. Gangster life.

I asked him if he wanted a different future to which he responded, "Yes."

He kept bringing the conversation back around to what got him where he was at.

I kept bringing the conversation back to where he might want to go.

After about 20 minutes, I had to get back inside to teach and let him know as much. I also told him he was always welcome and that I would help him if he liked. He said he would like that. I invited him to come back so we could continue our conversation the next day.

The next time I saw him was two weeks later when his face popped up during the local news. Police were searching for him. He had stabbed somebody.

Ricky saw himself a certain way.

God didn't see him that way.

I didn't see him that way.

I saw his potential when he was still a kid.

If he ever saw his potential the way I did, you couldn't tell it by his choices.

Not everybody you try to help is capable in the moment of receiving it.

Sadly Ricky is back in prison.

I'm certain that if what he saw in the mirror wasn't broken but strong and of value, he would have made different choices.

This same phenomenon happened in my own life. I was home on leave from the Air Force. I had been in the military for over two years at this point.

On this visit home I stopped by the house of one of my Aunt's. She catered for a living at the time and there was always food on the stove, in the refrigerator, or freezer. And it was delicious!

We chatted and visited and as per normal Italian life, food showed up almost immediately. Pizza, rigatoni, sauce, bread, Italian sausage with peppers and onions.

After we ate, my aunt stepped over to the two, six burners each industrial stoves. She started to prepare more food for the weekend wedding reception she was working on. My cousin and I were hanging out at the table and talking.

At one point she says, "Mark, you are so different."

My response, "What do you mean?"

Well...

You...

You're...

um, what's the word...

nice!"

After a brief pause, I simply said, "Well, maybe this is who I really am."

My cousin wasn't really saying I was "nice" as much as she was pointing out that I was different than when I left home.

Our environment, the experiences we have in our youth, plays a heavy role in who we think we are growing up. And who we think we are is reflected in our behaviors.

Getting in an environment where somebody hasn't already defined you, allows for your healthy growth. When your soul is nourished, you will grow in a healthy way.

Going to a new environment allowed me to be more of who I wanted to be. It was safe. I wasn't going to come under fire for who I wanted to be. I could just be me.

Maybe you too grew up in an environment that didn't allow you to be who you were meant to be. I get it. But life doesn't have to stay that way.

We can choose a new path. The one we were always meant to get to. And then start being more of us and less of them.