Winning... While Losing Podcast

Pain is a universal and personal experience that we will all experience. Even though it is such a common thing, most people don't understand it. Even those that study pain still have so much to learn. In this episode I provide an brief explanation of pain. Understanding pain can have a significant effect on how we perceive and experience pain. 

A short while after being paralyzed, I made my way back into the gym. Since I wasnt' able to use my legs, I gravitated to the bench press. There was a lot of uncertainty with my ability, but I set a goal or 275 lbs and pushed forward. Where I ended up at 405 lbs is much further than what I thought I could do and in the process of achieving more, I learned a lot along the way. 

This journey we call life will rob you of many things including your happiness, peace, joy, and safety. We lose in life if we sit back and let life take these things from us. Winning in life happens when we decide we want to rob life of its ability to take those things that are important to us. 

I can make myself cry at almost anytime I choose to. All I have to do is take myself to a place where I bring back feelings of hurt or sadness from experiences that I have had in the past. Every experience has different senses and emotions that are woven into them. When we have experienced negative things in the past, it can be easy to bring ourselves back to those negative feelings by what we chose to surround ourselves by. If we want to change how we feel and create a more positive space, we can choose to surround ourselves with those things that will build that more positive space. 

April 1st, 2024 marks my 6th year anniversary to becoming a paraplegic. There are many things that my life has provided me the opportunity to learn. This episode covers the 10 most meaningful lessons that I have learned in the last year that have helped me progress to where I am now. 

One day during one the most difficult times in our lives, my daughter and I discovered one of our favorite things to do together. It came from a time when I was struggling, but she was probably struggling even more and in her struggle I had no solution, so the only answer I had was to just be present. 

We often hear labels, or statements, or judgements from others about who we are. If we allow it, those labels can blur our vision of ourselves and who we can be and keep us in a place of losing. To put ourselves in a place where we are winning and moving forward in our lives, we need shed ourselves of the weight of the labels that others put on us and focus on who we want to be ourselves. 

Negative feelings that become attached to things we enjoy and love can often lead us to missing out on things that we love and enjoy as we try and hide from negative feelings. What we are willing to miss out on is up to us. We have the power and get to decide whether we will change our perspective and actions to take back those things that we love and enjoy. 

When we feel like we hit rock bottom, it is common to say "it is only up from here". The challenge with that, is we can still go down. When we are in the moment, it may feel like we can get worse, but it can. We have to choose to make the steps and the choices that will move us toward better.

Past experiences, negative ideas, or current limitations in one area can cause us to hold ourselves back from what we have the potential to be and do. While we may be limited in some ways, making the most of what we have allows us to move toward where and who we want to be.