The water pipe bursts, you get sick, your outgo is bigger than your income … what do you do when things aren’t going your way?<\/p>\n
Here are some of the methods I’ve tried:<\/p>\n
That’s enough. You get the picture.<\/p>\n
Did any of that help, though?<\/p>\n
Maybe temporarily. Maybe I felt a little better for a bit, but none of that does anything about solving the problem that set me off in the first place.<\/p>\n
Have you heard of Jocko Willink? He’s a retired Navy Seal — a bonafide badass — who now helps company officers and teams develop better leadership skills.<\/p>\n
Jocko’s advice<\/a> for what to do when things go south is to step up, assume responsibility, and draw fire.<\/p>\n That’s right, “draw fire,” meaning you intentionally step out and say “Bring it on.”<\/p>\n Certainly, there needs to be some context to the situation — you don’t want to step in front of a locomotive — yet, there’s a nugget of wisdom here for us mortals to grasp.<\/p>\n Back when I was a whippersnapper, early 20’s I guess, I was renting a “granny flat” sort of apartment in Eugene, Oregon. It was a sweet little spot, with a sliding glass door that opened up to a beautiful, fenced backyard. It was summertime. My plan was to take a break from my studies, then return to school at the University of Oregon in the fall.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, I took and quit a few jobs, lost my girlfriend, holed up inside … then entered a deep depression.<\/p>\n I had zero ambition, not even enough to go get food. I had a jar of peanut butter and a jar of honey. I’d dip a spoon into both now and then for nourishment. I sat on the couch for days like that … dark room, blinds closed, doing nothing whatsoever. Just me and silence.<\/p>\n A moment of clarity finally broke through. I ran a quick scan of my situation and called it like it was. “I’m depressed.”<\/p>\n If you’ve ever been there, you know exactly what that feels like. If you’ve not … God bless you. I hope you never go through it.<\/p>\n Where the idea came from, I don’t know. Certainly, it wasn’t something I knew I knew. I said this to myself: “If you’re going to be depressed, you might as well get really depressed. Go for it.”<\/p>\n I then proceeded to bear down internally and get as depressed as I possibly could be.<\/p>\n The idea was so far fetched, that it made me laugh, and with that laugh came a little joy.<\/p>\n I got off the couch, went over to the blinds, and pulled them open. I walked barefoot out onto the lawn and the sunshine of a glorious day.<\/p>\n That was my first and last experience with what was probably “clinical depression.” Sure, I’ve been down here and there since, but never like that.<\/p>\n Here’s my point.<\/p>\n What should you do when things aren’t going your way?<\/p>\n Try stepping out and drawing fire. Face up to the onslaught and say, “Hey, bring it on. Let’s go.”<\/p>\n Sometimes, that simple, brave act can restore your confidence and fill you with power.<\/p>\n Draw fire!<\/p>\n By the way, believers especially have no wiggle room here. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors<\/a> through him who loved us.”<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Disclaimer: I\u2019m not a psychiatrist. I don\u2019t even play a doctor on TV. I write from my own life experience and observations. I\u2019ve a master\u2019s degree in the humanities, I’m a believer and philosopher, and I\u2019m the author of\u00a0<\/span>How to LIVE<\/a>, a field manual for getting unstuck. I’m not a physician, and I don’t intend to dispense medical advice here. My aim is to share what’s working (and not working) for me.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The water pipe bursts, you get sick, your outgo is bigger than your income … what do you do when things aren’t going your way? Here are some of the methods I’ve tried: Get angry Throw\u00a0a fit Feel sorry for myself Blame something or someone else Say “To hell with it” and head to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[413],"tags":[397,396],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roadturn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roadturn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roadturn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roadturn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roadturn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4016"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/roadturn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35952,"href":"https:\/\/roadturn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016\/revisions\/35952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roadturn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roadturn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roadturn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Here’s an example of how the “draw fire” concept can work<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Then came the cavalry (and the calvary too)<\/h3>\n
How to use the “drawing fire” concept in daily life<\/h3>\n