Morning Pogue,

As you know I used to do Krav Maga. I was never particularly good but I enjoyed it for the most part. Part of not being as good as one would like to be meant that on numerous occasions I would find myself seated on the floor, a ringing in my ears and a question running through my mind: “Where did that come from?” On one such occasion as I sat wondering why I was doing this my instructor strode up and said, “Shit happens, deal with it and move on” which roughly translated meant “Get up and get back in the fight”.

It is when you are going through the most difficult chapter of life that your hero is revealed, and how beautiful it is when you realise – to save yourself.

Dodinsky

Do you remember the scene from Forrest Gump when Forrest, out on his epic run, is joined by a man who wants an idea for a bumper sticker? And as he runs alongside Forrest he steps in some…yes you guessed. Forrest casually comments, “It happens”. The man questions, “What shit?” And Forrest replies “Yes, shit happens” and runs on.

And in life it does. That’s a fact. The question is, how are we going to deal with it?

I guess I’m of a different age than the current generation of young people because, back in the day, I’m thinking we actually did take most things in our stride. No one was going to do it for us. We didn’t have the ever increasing number of support systems available today or the myriad medical diagnosis to fall back on. The places so many now want to go when the world deals a bad hand. A business manager said to me recently, “You reprimand today’s work force for bad behaviour or poor performance and the next thing you know, they are signed off work with stress or anxiety!”

Maybe an over statement and a generalisation but there is some sign of a changed world. A world where people allow themselves to be define by what is done to them rather than being defined by their actions in response to the event. Are we moving to a place where people are being defined by external events and an inability to show resilience to unexpected events?

I am not what happens to me.
I am who I choose to become.

Carl Jung

So how will we be defined? By our actions or by our accidents? Will we pick ourselves up and get back in the game or will we draw a line in the sand and declare we can go no further? Will we take our future into our own control or give up and look for another to blame?

Shit does happen and we can all be assured some will come our way at some time. We won’t expect it, may not see it coming but we each have the gift of a life to live and sitting on the ground and refusing to get up after life took an unexpected turn, it’s just a waste of that life. Life really is too short to waste and offers too many prospects to ignore.

Yours, back in the game,

Wic