STILL HERE: Adversity, Faith & Living on Purpose
Welcome back to the No Comfort Zone.
I'm recording this one a little differently tonight. It's September 6th, I'm sitting outside in my backyard, and I've been doing a lot of thinking.
If you've followed this podcast over the years, you know I've talked a lot about motivation, success, adversity, discipline, getting uncomfortable, taking responsibility and becoming a better version of yourself.
But something has changed.
Or maybe a better way to say it is that I'm finally starting to understand what was there all along.
I have been on a Spiritual Journey.
I've spent years looking back at my life trying to connect the dots.
Addiction.
Alcohol.
Prescription drugs.
Being institutionalized.
Losing relationships.
Financial ruin.
Homelessness.
A suicide attempt.
Seven days in a coma.
And somehow…
I'm still here.
That's the title of the book I've been working on for years - It's my passion project and it will be available soon.
Still Here: Live on Purpose.
It's about 267 pages right now, and it's part memoir, part blueprint and part spiritual journey.
But writing this book has forced me to look at my life differently.
For years, I looked at everything I'd survived and thought:
"Look what I overcame."
Today I'm asking a different question:
"How much of this did God carry me through when I didn't even recognize Him?"
GOD HAS A HISTORY OF USING BROKEN PEOPLE
And when I started really reading the Bible, something jumped out at me.
God didn't build His story around perfect people.
He used broken people.
Moses had killed a man and fled into the wilderness. Yet God called Moses to go back and lead His people.
David made enormous mistakes. Yet Scripture describes him as a man after God's own heart.
Peter swore he would never abandon Jesus—and then denied Him three times.
And Jesus didn't throw Peter away.
He restored him.
Then Peter became one of the foundational leaders of the early church.
Paul persecuted Christians.
Then Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and completely redirected his life.
Think about that.
God didn't necessarily erase their past. He redeemed it.
Romans 8:28 tells us that "all things work together for good" for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
It doesn't say everything that happens to us is good.
Some things aren't.
Some things happened to us.
And if you're anything like me, some things happened because of us.
But God can still use them.
That's something I'm beginning to understand about my own adversity.
THE NO COMFORT ZONE BLUEPRINT
Back in 2017, I started developing what eventually became the No Comfort Zone Blueprint.
At the time, I thought I was developing a success system.
Today, I see something deeper in it.
The first step is awareness.
Where are you really?
Not where you tell everybody you are.
Where are you in your marriage?
Your relationships?
Your finances?
Your health?
Your career?
And now I would add the biggest one:
Where are you spiritually?
Then comes responsibility.
How did you get here?
What decisions did you make?
What did you ignore?
What do you need to own?
I have spent so much time avoiding the hard things in life. Eventually I had to look in the mirror.
But there's another side to this that I'm learning.
Taking responsibility doesn't mean believing you can fix everything yourself.
Proverbs 3:5–6 says:
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart… and he will make straight your paths."
That's different from the way I lived most of my life.
My philosophy was:
Trust in Dan with all your heart.
I'll figure it out.
I'll grind harder.
I'll make more money.
I'll fix it.
I'll prove everybody wrong.
And I've failed my way enough times to finally ask:
What happens if I stop insisting on doing everything my way and start doing it His way?
WHAT'S THE NEXT RIGHT THING?
Another major part of my Blueprint is something incredibly simple:
Do the next right thing.
You don't have to fix your entire life tonight.
Do the next right thing.
Then the next one.
Then another.
Small wins create momentum.
And when you screw up—and you will—recognize it, learn from it and make the next decision the right one.
That's where faith changes this for me.
Because sometimes you're doing the next right thing and you still can't see where it's taking you.
That's faith.
Hebrews 11:1 describes faith as "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
You don't always get the map.
Sometimes you get enough light for the next step.
And maybe that's where you're at tonight.
MAYBE YOU'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF IT
Maybe you're heading into adversity.
Maybe you're right in the middle of it.
Or maybe you've survived something and you're standing there asking:
What was all that for?
That's one of the reasons I'm writing Still Here.
I want somebody to be able to pick this book up during the worst season of their life and realize:
This chapter doesn't have to be the last chapter.
Jeremiah 29:11 is often quoted because God speaks of plans for welfare, hope and a future. But that promise was given to people facing a long exile—not people living an easy life.
That's important.
Hope doesn't mean there won't be adversity.
Hope means adversity doesn't get the final word.
YOUR ADVERSITY MAY BECOME YOUR ASSIGNMENT
This is where the No Comfort Zone is going.
We're still going to talk about success.
We're still going to talk about discipline.
Business.
Relationships.
Leadership.
Money.
Health.
Purpose.
We're going to talk about mistakes. We're going to talk about winning. We're going to talk about screwing things up.
But we're also going to talk about Jesus Christ.
Because I'm realizing something after all these years:
Personal development gave me tools.
Success books gave me strategies.
Mentors gave me wisdom.
Adversity gave me lessons.
But Jesus is giving those lessons meaning.
And maybe part of our purpose isn't simply building a great life.
Maybe it's taking everything we've learned—the victories, failures, scars, wisdom, resources and opportunities—and building something that serves somebody besides ourselves.
That's what I want No Comfort Zone to become.
BEFORE YOU LEAVE THIS EPISODE…
I want you to ask yourself four questions.
Where am I right now?
How did I get here?
Where is God calling me to go?
What's the next right thing I can do today?
Don't worry about the next five years tonight.
Start there.
Because Philippians 1:6 reminds us that He who began a good work in you will carry it on toward completion.
Maybe God's not finished with you.
I know He's not finished with me.
I'm 56 years old.
I'm celebrating 35 years in the retail automotive business.
I'm somewhere around episode 558 of this crazy podcast.
I'm finishing a book I talked about writing for years.
And after everything I've done right…
everything I've done wrong…
everything I've lost…
and everything God has allowed me to rebuild…
I'm still here.
And if you're listening to this…
so are you.
Maybe that's worth paying attention to.
Maybe your adversity wasn't the end of your story.
Maybe God can take the lessons from it and use them to help your family, your business, your community—or somebody you haven't even met yet.
That's living on purpose.
That's the No Comfort Zone.
And we're just getting started.
I'm Dan Brzozowski. Thank you for listening. I'll see you on the next episode.
This is my first attempt at putting the podcast on youtube....No intro no outro. No call to action. Just real talk about a journey I went through and I think you may be going through. If you get to the end and you want to connect reach out. [email protected].
