With obsession will come depression

Get over it already!

While you are busy feeling sorry for yourself, somebody else is about ready to destroy your ass.  This is adversity.

You overcome it - or it will overcome you.

The first way to overcome adversity is to keep pressing on and moving forward. If you let yourself be overwhelmed by the drama, your ability to move forward become derailed...

You may not have created the situation. But the derailment - that's on you.

My father taught me at a young age to never quit. My mom bought me a wallet card with the "Don't Quit" poem on it when I was in grade school, and I read that every day for over 20 years.

Copyright: skynetphoto / 123RF Stock Photo

More importantly, I remember...

My first day of pee-wee soccer practice. Due to my asthma, allergies, and irregular heartbeat, I hated it. I was not able to run for as long as the rest of the kids. I just wasn't born that way. I went home and told my dad I wanted to quit. NOPE. I played the entire season as a defender. I hated every day, week, and game but I wasn't allowed to quit.

A couple of times each season my father would have loads of firewood dumped at the front of our house. It was my job to carry all the logs around to the back and stack them along the fence line. This sucked and took all day to do. I was taught to do the work until the work gets done. Hour after hour, load after load, it finally got done. If I wanted to take a break or quit, it wasn't an option.

Another memory I have is from a backyard football game in the mud (again while in grade school). My ankle got caught in a drain hole and twisted. I came back into the house, and my Dad asked what I was doing. I said, I twisted my ankle and was done for the day. Without even looking at it, I was told to go back outside and finish the game.

As I have noted before, I got my ass kicked on a regular basis while growing up but I can say that there was never a time I didn't show up for a fight and I was always the last one to leave. It was ingrained in me to never quit.

This has carried on throughout my entire life. For example, I have been powerlifting since 1983, and these are the gyms and clubs I trained at:

Findlay Barbell Club
Hardbodies
The Flex Connection
East River Barbell Club
Westside Barbell Club
Elitefts Gym

Six total gyms over 34 years of training.

These are the jobs I've had since the age of 13 (maybe younger)

Skip Tate's Appliance and TV (cleaning and then delivery)
Carriage House (dishwasher)
- together through Junior and Senior High

Sundor Brands (Sunny Delight) - One summer
Findlay Health and Racquet Club (trainer)
Findlay High School Football (trainer)
- Were all over the same year after High School.

Uptown Downtown (bouncer -> manager)
Hardbodies (gym manager and trainer)
Deja Vu (bouncer)
Frankies (bouncer)
Doll House (and two other Detroit clubs - bouncer)
- All of these jobs were basically at the same time while I was in college. The gym manager was close to full time and the rest were 1-3 days per week based on the schedule.

Adia (temp service after moving to Columbus until I found a real job)
Capital Club (personal trainer and Personal Training Coordinator)
Elitefts.com Inc

12 Jobs over the period of my entire life going back 37 years. I worked at many at the same time. With the exception of one or two, all of my post-high school jobs exceeded 4 years in length.

I have never been unemployed, I was never fired or kicked out of any gym. All but one job was left due to relocation. The one job that wasn't left for relocation was when I founded Elitefts.com Inc.

I have no doubt this was due to the work ethic, values, and 'don't quit' attitude my father instilled into me as a child.

I hated it at the time and it may have not always served me well  but looking back it was the greatest gift he ever gave me.

Why do I bring this up now?

Regardless of what anyone says, no parent has this all figured out. I want my kids to embrace what they love to do but to also understand that this doesn't come without work and effort. Very few people (if anyone) loves their work and lives ALL the time. In my opinion, this would be impossible- with obsession comes depression.

With good comes bad. With prosperity comes adversity. I want my kids to understand this because I do not want them to quit before they see the greatness that can come from what they are doing. I do not want them to quit, bitch, moan, or complain about life when it gets hard because this is part of doing well. I don't care if they think life is easier for someone else because they are NOT someone else. They are them, and they will have to deal with the blows they are given and need to learn to absorb them and move on as it's just a natural part of life.

This past weekend my oldest son who was featured in our documentary  entered his 2nd 5K. He had a goal to beat last year's time and soon after the start, it started to rain hard. He was running in puddles and pelted with hard, stinging rain (He has Autism so he is far more sensitive to hating this than most people are). The course directors created a short cut for those who didn't want to deal with the rain. I could see in his face that this wasn't enjoyable.

He kept his eye on the time. He didn't take the shortcut. He beat his time by four minutes.

As one father trying to pass on lessons from another...

He didn't quit.

Don't Quit Poem - Author Unknown

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won if he'd stuck it out.
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are -
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.

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