There has been a great deal of adapting on the fly these days, so I thought I would bring that up as a topic of discussion.

As you know, things don't always go as planned. Quite often, we need to pivot unexpectedly in a new direction, one we totally didn't anticipate. 

But adaptation is not failure, nor is it giving up.

There comes a point in every major transformation where you no longer recognize the person you used to be, but you haven't yet become the person you're working toward. It's an unsettling place to stand, but it’s also intensely exciting.

It's your personal blank canvas. What you become next is yours to paint.

This is a short and simple reminder: The small steps you take always carry you somewhere. Whether or not that's where you want to be depends on the baby steps you decide to consistently choose. The small things you do everyday often matter more than the big things you do once, even if they seem too insignificant to matter.

Being resilient isn't always going to feel very strong.

It means wading through what’s tough, making hard decisions and being vulnerable and honest with yourself about how you're really doing. In other words, you express the most resilience when you feel the least comfortable and resilient.

Resilience isn’t about bouncing back.

Imagine this; you’re start a romantic relationship at Point A in your life. You bring your whole self to the table, a heart full of love, but after a time of full emotional investment, it doesn’t work out. You both go your separate ways.

When life asks you for change—to change where you are, what you’re doing, or how you’re showing up, you have to listen. The growth that’s on its way will show up regardless, in one form or another. As humans, we’re built to create not a perfectly manicured life, but a beautifully imperfect one.

When pain feels unbearable, the answer is still love. When the world around us crumbles into chaos, the answer is still love. When darkness presses in, tempting us to collapse, the answer is still love—because love is more powerful than darkness will ever be.

You may have heard a similar script in your mind, running on repeat.

I’m not good enough… I’m the exception to the rule… I’ll always come up short… I have the worst luck… Life has it in for me… I’m such an idiot…

If not, that’s great. But if any of these statements resonated, I want you to know that you are normal, not broken.

“It’s hard, just suck it up and accept it.”

An easy statement to make when you’re sitting on the sidelines watching the game.

It’s not so easy to do when you’re the one rolling in the mud. Hurting. Tired. Angry. Forgotten and alone.

The conversation then becomes this… how do you push aside all that pain and carry on when you really want to quit, without sucking it up and pretending you’re not hurting?

To keep society hopeless is to destroy its purpose and therefore its discipline. A person without discipline will not harbour any plans for the future, in turn spending resources on comfort and enjoyment rather than on the building and creation of their dreams.

Motivation will not always be your copilot. It takes the dark days off and lingers in the shadows of the early mornings.

I began journaling years ago.

The purpose was twofold; to heal and process what was difficult and to chronicle the journey I was on. Today, I am sharing with you a few pages out of one of these journals. A photographic salute to the written journey.

This is the birthplace of The Resilience Method©.

Enjoy.

Life demands resilience from us all. Whether your call has come or it has yet to occur, life will inevitably give you an opportunity to pull strength out of yourself that you never thought possible, from places inside you have yet to visit.

With resilience, comes darkness and the challenge to handle it. Darkness offers the question of whether you’re ready, willing and capable of handling it.

We talk about riding the wave of emotions, but what does that actually feel like?

Sports always relate back to life, and their tendency to act as endless metaphors for living mean they never stop handing out opportunities to learn more about ourselves through them. Experiencing the rawness of the present moment with surfing, snowboarding, or any adventure sport whether you’re succeeding at it or not — quite often, more intensely when you don’t — is an experience that stops time.

Gratitude is one of the most powerful forces in the universe, but it’s illusive and the hardest to lean into when your world is falling apart.

You, as a human, are built out of love. The only reason you may not feel like it right now is because you came here as a soul to experience the complications of hardship. Hardship that's the hardest to learn to be grateful for, but here's exactly how you can make that shift.

Every experience is an opportunity to grow yourself as a person. You can mine for gold in the worst set of circumstances and you will always find it because there is always something to grow from. Since life is based in dichotomy — that intoxicatingly stark contrast between polar opposites — and we can't avoid the bad that inherently balances out the good, then at least we can learn how to embrace it all and make the best of it. Own it and use it.

It’s simple. Accept it. Roll with the punches. Water off a ducks back. Suck it up. Change your perspective. Be thankful for what you have. Think positive. Shrug it off. It’s not that bad.

Except life isn’t a positivity quote and resilience isn’t superficial.

There are three habits you can use to take your power back as you navigate this hectic world.

These habit and mindset shifts take courage, honesty, and raw open examination of how you live your life. But if you keep them in your practice, they will change everything for you.

We are built as creative beings.

It’s in our blood and our purpose.

Creative power is great in the name of progress; without this drive and process we wouldn’t have the world we live in. Look at what humanity has built.