“How much can you really know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?” – Tyler Durden from Fight Club
That is the question he asked in 1999’s badass movie Fight Club. Then he added “I don’t want to die without some scars.” (If you haven’t seen Fight Club you should give it a watch!) I feel like this is a great question you should ask yourself. The word fight though, doesn’t necessarily need to mean an actual physical fight with someone. I’m sure you would learn things about yourself that way too but this isn’t a post encouraging you to fight people. Think of the word fight as any battle you face. This could be a fight for your health or facing any adversity or serious challenge that you’ve grown as a person from. You need to be tested to see what you’re made of. There are so many great stories of people overcoming horrible things that have happened to them and achieving incredible things! There is also tons of tragic stories of people who were not able to overcome whatever awful thing happened to them. It sucks to face adversity or have something shitty happen to you, but with the right mindset you can learn from it and rise again like the phoenix! Before I talk about how I’ve personally applied this mindset to my situation I just have to share this quote I just saw as I’m writing this! “No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself.” That was from the Seneca the Roman stoic philosopher. That is similar to what Tyler Durden said! Anyway, I’ve had mystery health issues for years and years. It was always different issues that would come and go and make me feel like I was crazy. I went to soooooo many different types of drs and they would find small things here and there but I never got any big diagnosis. I never really faced too much adversity until my health got even worse. I was hospitalized after half my face got paralyzed. After they ruled out a stroke they assumed it was just bell’s palsy until my lab work came back and revealed Lyme Disease and Babesiosis. It turned out I had Lyme for years causing a lot of my issues and it got so bad it crossed the blood brain barrier and is chronic and in my neurological system now. It effects so many different body parts and has given me food allergies, panic attacks, spasms, pain and all sorts of other issues. I was pretty depressed and felt bad for myself after I first got diagnosed, After awhile when I realized this health issue wasn’t going away anytime soon and was going to be a tough battle I changed my whole mindset and lifestyle. The last few years have been rough. This health issue is my life fight and running this back to the question Tyler Durden asks, I’ve learned more about myself the last few years then any other time in my life. Think about what adversity you have faced or what “fight” you are faced with. What have you learned about yourself? Have you stepped up and risen to the occasion and become a better version of yourself? Do you still have work to do and room to improve? I’ve worked so hard at learning about my disease and ways to try and get better and learning to let go of the old version of myself. Also I’ve set bigger goals for myself then ever before and 100% committed to a healing journey by changing a lot of my lifestyle and worked on a mindset shift and building discipline. Even with my issues I will become the best version of myself ever! I hope anyone reading this too learns from whatever “fight” they’ve had and becomes better because of it. Have the best month ever!
Crush It!
-Justin
