I never had my first drink until I was 23. My boss ordered me a rum and coke and I was trying to climb the corporate ladder and it seemed impolite to refuse. It was disgusting, so I searched for something a little more pleasant for social settings and eventually settled on red wine. Even Jesus drank wine. I don’t know exactly how long it’s been, but I’d guess for 15 years I could easily consume a bottle of red wine a day. Particularly during my trauma, red wine flowed freely through my veins. Even by doctor’s orders. For the record, I was seldom incoherent while I drank. Seldom a hangover. Just something to scatter my mind enough and help me sleep to ease some thoughts and pain. I mentioned it in my book, but a great part of “Be Bulletproof” was written over a bottle of red wine. Proofreading and editing weren’t.
Outside of Lent, it would be safe to say I’d drink 1-2 bottles of red wine a day. Every day. I don’t believe I have an addiction and truly believe I sleep better, think better, I’m healthier, I’m more creative, more relaxed and WAY funnier when I’m drinking. Of course those are all things someone who has an addiction believes as well. The other problem with alcohol is you let your guard down and there’s just too many wolves among the sheep to let your guard down. Ever. So I stopped drinking.
For how long? Well, we’ll see. Long enough to see if I see a difference. Long enough to see if it makes me a better person. That’s the beauty of life. Every day you have the freedom to be someone different. New again. However long it takes. Whatever it takes. No matter what. I’m on a path to be better and I will do whatever it takes to do it. So are you. So will you. Whatever it takes. No matter what.
Jesus Loves You.
One of the hardest things to do is to let it go. Whatever you have done wrong, whatever someone has done to you, whatever pain you're holding on to, let it go.The past only lives in your mind. It's not there any more. It happened. It's over. You cannot change it. You cannot go back. There's nothing there. Nobody is living in that moment in the past that's haunting you, other than you. The enemy would love nothing better than for you to constantly hold on to it. Hold on to the anger, the revenge the resentment. But it's only hurting you. Not them.
Like a literal weight on your shoulders, you feel lighter, better, more free when you let it go. Picture that. Literally. These huge weights on your shoulders and carrying them through life. Can you still go forward? Yes. You're strong. Can you still look ahead? Yes. You're strong. But now pretend throwing those huge weights down to the ground and walking forward. It's easier. Faster. Kinder. Not for anyone else, but just for you. Keep moving. Drop the weights. Let it go.
Jesus loves you.
Resilience is defined as the ability to recover from, or adjust to, misfortune or change. That's us.
We're resilient. Regardless of the pain, hurt, suffering. We're still standing. Not only still standing, but soaring. Soaring above where our enemies are. Soaring above what the medical report may have said. Soaring above the odds of defeat anyone would have given us. We have survived all of our worst days and we're still here.
When God planned your life, He took into account all of the hardships you would face and purposely made you with the resilience you have. You're stronger than you think. Tougher than they think. You...are...bulletproof.
Jesus loves you.
Remember the last time you ran a race? Maybe you were just a kid in school. One of the biggest mistakes kids make running a race is either seeing all of the people ahead of them and giving up, or checking behind them. When you look behind, your body actually physically starts to move off course. You slow down. You're not at your full potential.
Not much changes from a school race to the race of life. Yeah, I said, it. Life is a race. But not what you think. It's not a race against other people. It's a race just you are running. A race toward a destination. Your greatest potential. Or perhaps a race against time. You may be running on the journey of life and see people ahead of you. That may discourage you. But they're not in your race. That's what you don't realize. They may have stared early. Or late. They may be finishing early. Or late. They may wear out. Take a turn. Be completely of course. They're not in your race or your path. And when you look behind, those people are behind you for a reason. You're headed somewhere else. Somewhere better.
You can take a pause on your race. Take a breath. Slow down. Jog. Walk. Crawl. Fall. But don't ever give up because there's people ahead of you. And don't ever look behind. Keep going. You're headed somewhere nobody else could possibly go.
Jesus loves you.
Got a bad habit? Me too. Got some good habits you're not doing enough of? Me too. I started doing this thing, where I gave myself an abundance of time to get rid of bad habits and an abundance of time to keep doing good habits. Let's go back to my book where I talk about how my mind would stay in the trauma all day until finally I decided I would only give it two hours. For two hours I would let myself fall into a pit of muck and get angry and cry and throw things and yell and be alone. But after the two hours was over, that was it. No more for that day. NO MATTER WHAT. Then when I was ready, it went down to 90 minutes. Then 60. Then 30. Then 5. Then 1. No matter what. Same with a good habit. Start with one pushup today. Just one. Do one push up every day for a week. Maybe even a month. But then two. Two for a week. Then three. Four. How high can you go?
I started mediating in the morning with one slow, deep breath. Just one. Two years later, my morning starts with 27 long slow breaths. Thinking of nothing other than the breath and the number. Clearing my mind. Then followed with a morning prayer of gratitude. Treat every habit the same. Slowly come off bad habits. Slowly grow good habits. Within a year, you'll be a new person. You'll look new. You'll feel new. You'll be new. I promise. Go slow. But stay with it. No matter what. Get in the habit.
Jesus loves you.
When I started to write "Be Bulletproof", the odds of it ever becoming an actual book weren't in my favour. Ten percent of the people who decide to write a book actually write a book. I'll give you that statistic again. I didn't say ten percent of the people write a book. I said ten percent of the people who decide they're going to write a book actually finish it. And of that ten percent, only ten percent make it to an actual printed physical book. It's hard. It's expensive. It's a lot of work. But I prayed about it, like it already happened. Like it was a matter of fact that the book would come to fruition. I had this complete certainty.
I've prayed about other things that way. Like I already have it. Not in a shy way. Like in a confident way. Already thanking God that if it's His will, what I need is already on the way. He loves us. Like any parent wanting to give their children things that are good for them, God wants to do the same for us. Pray with confidence. Pray that as long as it is His will, you're already rejoicing and praying prayers of gratitude that it's on the way. He wants your happiness. He wants what's best for you. You already have it.
Jesus loves you.
Whatever you’re going through – bankruptcy, illness, divorce, abuse, addition, mourning or betrayal. Whatever it is, remember that this is part of God’s equation. He has already subtracted your sins and your weakness and He has multiplied your strengths, your love, and your will power. He wouldn’t have given you this load if He didn’t know you could handle it. He didn’t put this in front of you if He knew you couldn’t move it. He wouldn’t let you fall in the miry bog if He knew you couldn’t get out of it.
You are here for a reason, and you should stay down. STAY DOWN. But then you’re going to get up. You’re going to overcome whatever is in your way. You’re stronger than you think. You’re headed somewhere that is higher than your enemies can fly. That dream they told you to give up on is going to come true. That forgiveness you’ve bene holding back is going to release you. That weight you’ve been carrying is going to be gone. You are going to be on your feet again and then we’ll all watch you fly.
Jesus loves you.
When I was a kid, I remember they timed my gymnastics hero, without his knowledge, to see how long he was actually on the apparatus during a 3 hour training session. It was 14 minutes. Take out the stretching and the conditioning and the time he was doing actual gymnastics skills was 14 minutes. Tough sport. I brought that up to young athletes one time to stress the importance of making every training and every turn count.
Life is the same. You don’t have time to scroll through your phone for hours a day. To watch TV hours a day. You don’t have time to hold on to anger. Revenge. Resentment. Betrayal. You don’t have time not to forgive yourself, or someone else. Life is too short not to live it. Not to enjoy it. Not to wake up, bow your head and be grateful you have this day. Make the most of it.
Jesus loves you.
Don’t fool yourself. They want to be just like you. They want what you have. They. The enemy. The people who hurt you. The people who gossip about you. The people who let you down. The people who turned their back on you. Nobody tries to take something away from somebody who has nothing. Nobody tries to beat the person in last place. Nobody chases down something they already have.
You’re soaring. You’re thriving. You’re working hard. You’re growing. You’re getting better. Little by little and day by day. Everybody sees that. Everybody sees you. And some of them want to celebrate your victories with but some want to have what you have and take it from you. Remember that. Remember the next time someone tries to take you down it’s because you’re already up above them. Nobody can take you down unless you’re up. And that’s where your biggest decision is. When someone tries to take you down, do you go down with them, or do you keep soaring above them? Keep soaring.
Jesus loves you.
Someone who gave me some peace during some chaos and someone I think a lot of was once asked in an interview how he was doing. Simple enough question I suppose. We get asked that simple enough question ourselves dozens of times a day. “Good” or “Great” we’ll typically respond, but he answered “hhhmmm?”. Almost as though he had never been asked that question before and if the interviewer actually really wanted to know how he was doing. Like not just a pleasantry question, but REALLY how are you doing. The interviewer asked gain. He stopped. Thought hard. Then answered: “Brilliantly and terribly”.
I love that answer because it was the most brutally honest answer I think I had ever heard to that simple question. The next time someone asks you how you’re doing, which will likely be today, maybe just even give yourself an internal gut check. How are you doing? Like really? Thriving? Surviving? Grateful? In pain? Sorrow? Loss? Hurt?...Brilliantly?...Terribly? Or maybe better yet, ask someone how they’re doing. Like REALLY ask, making eye contact and they may likely just say “Good” or “Great” which is totally acceptable, but what would you do if they answered something else? Could you be expected for any answer and be some comfort, some help and a friend if it was an unexpected genuine answer.
Where ever you’re at today, just realize that most people are likely not just “good”. You truly have no idea what demons they may be facing, nor do they know what you’re facing today. How are you doing today? REALLY? I hope you’re brilliantly. But if you’re terribly, stay down. Take as much time as you need. Heal. Then get up when you’re ready and find the brilliantly.
Jesus loves you.
I used to start my morning by rolling over, grabbing my phone, checking emails and social media. Whatever that little device threw at me, played a big part in how my day was going to go. If something difficult came up at work overnight, I’d think about it while I got dressed, while I ate breakfast, on the ride to work. If someone messaged me or commented on a social media post, I’d immediately start writing back. Then I changed that. I took back my day. I took back every day.
I sit at the edge of the bed. I take minutes of deep breaths trying to think of absolutely nothing other than my breaths. I talk to God and list all of the things I’m grateful for. The fact that I was just able to take minutes of deep breaths. The sound of little voices and footsteps from my kids. My health. The health of our family. That I have a place to go to work. A car to get me there. That I have a house. That I have never had to know true hunger or thirst or war or pain. I list all of the things that I’m grateful for. Every day. And so with that, every day starts off good. Every day belongs to me. And yours belongs to you. Don’t let anyone or anything else steal your day. It’s yours. Be grateful.
Jesus loves you.
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