Speaker 1 0:00 Welcome to the hard truth podcast. This is Jeremy Fouts. And today we are going to be discussing overcoming adversity. So today, if you’re dealing with adversity, I want you to take notes, and I’m going to share with you five things that’s going to help you be able to overcome those adversities. And if you are not currently dealing with adversity, I’m here to tell you, it’s on the way. And so pay attention to this podcast, hopefully, it’ll make a difference in your life.
Speaker 1 0:36 Overcoming adversity, this is one of the things that I see people over and over struggle with, and I, you know, have spent 25 years and leadership and I’ve said so many times in a meeting, or here in my office, or on phone calls or resumes, of people telling me about their adversity, telling me all about these problems and situations that they’re going through. And, you know, unfortunately, a lot of people have more adversity than others. And that’s because of some things that they don’t understand, which I’m going to talk about in this podcast. But I will tell you this, that point number one, Adversity is either here or just left, or it’s on the way, Adversity is part of life. You know, I’ve got I’ve got some friends, some acquaintances, that if I call them up right now, they are telling me all about their adversities, and all about their situations and problems, and you know what it’s going to happen. But the one thing that you got to understand is an adversity to you today, if you don’t have the right mindset might be something little, if we clean up, clean up some actions in your life. And that’s why I want to really talk to you about this is because it little bitty actions in our daily habits can definitely help you be able to overcome these adversities. And that’s what I want to talk about today. And so first off, I want to tell you that, you know, when I ever struggle with adversities and, and guys, I’m just normal guy just like all of you listening today, I’ve got a wife, I’ve got teenagers, I own a company. I’m building a company, I’m always working on my fitness, I’m trying to become the best I can be on a daily basis and, and things happen in your life that you cannot control. Now, what I’m going to talk about is how to handle those situations. But also I’m going to talk to you about how to handle the things that we can control how to keep those things from coming into our life that we invite ourself and maybe don’t even recognize that so I hope that this podcast does some value in your life. And so what happens when when I deal with adversity? What happens when adversity comes to me and I’m talking to you, from a man with experience not not something that I’ve Googled this is this is from life experiences, the first thing that I always do is be grateful for where I am, because someone else has it worse. You know, being grateful, my grandmother and still disomy I’ll never forget when I was about 12 I had a you know, got a first time farmers loan and bought some cows and, and my first calf that I had got attacked by some wild dogs, and I ate a whole literally all the way almost through its heart. And I nicknamed that calf lucky it did make it but my grandma was just a God fearing woman. And I’ll never forget just saying Grandma, can you pray for this calf, and she prayed for the calf. And here I am pretty teared up as a 12 year old boy and, and I’ll never forget looking at her and she said, Jeremy, I want this calf to live. But here’s what I know, is someone else would rather change spots with you in two seconds, there could be a boy that’s dealing with leukemia in the hospital, it’s 12. There could be someone that just got through losing their mom or their dad, and at 12 years old, anytime I’ve ever dealt with adversity, have always been reminded of that story thinking you know what, someone has it worse than me. So, number one, when you’re going through adversity, recognize that that be grateful for what you have. If you still have a roof over your head. You still have family in your life that love you. The situation usually is not as bad as what you think. So be grateful also in adversity. What I’ve learned is sometimes adversity comes to you and it can be a good thing. You know, for example, back on March 29 of this year, I had a bad accident. Someone ran in front of me and I had no choice but to hit on mommy and My life flashed in front of my face. I thought I was going to be Dead, my truck was completely totaled. And I’ve been just sitting there thinking, Man, this is horrible. This is a bad situation. Of course, I’m banged up really bad, have a lot of a lot of injuries, different things like that. But through that adversity, they actually found a brain tumor on my head doing some scans and different things. And you know, I look at it as now I’m going to be fine, thank God that that that tumor is benign, and I’ve got great treatment, and I’m going to be perfectly fine. But but it was good that they caught it early for they can watch that tumor and monitor the girls. So anytime we’re dealing with adversity, so many times, we just wrap everything and feel sorry for ourselves, we wrap everything up. And we just say poor pitiful me and adversity guys, you got to remember to be grateful for where you are, and recognize that things happen. Sometimes we can’t control them. But if we become better, and I’m going to talk about that here, as we go on through the podcast, we can overcome these adversities. One of the things that I wrote as a side note is don’t ever and this is what most people do, which makes these adversities even larger, and feel like they’re going to get out of control. Don’t run from adversity, don’t try to escape it, hit it in the head on situation and defeat it. So many times I see people when they’re going through adversity, they’ll ignore it, they don’t want to deal with it. You know, they don’t want to face it, they don’t want to own responsibility. And that just continues to grow and compound. And then it becomes larger. When you are dealt with adversity. Get yourself in a good mental state, and deal with it head on. Understand that you know what I’m grateful for where I’m at, it’s not as bad as what I think it is. And I’m going to defeat this adversity. Number two, this is something that’s always helped me, even at my age at 48 years old, the better we become mentally, physically and spiritually, the more equipped we are to handle adversity. You know, so for example, when I had this accident, the doctor told me if you didn’t have the amount of muscle was not in good shape that you’re in, this could have been your injuries could have been a lot more extreme, you know, so I was able to control that due to my physical fitness. But But you always got to know that what we are putting in our mind on a daily basis to make an arm strong mindset. You know, I’ve gave the analogy over and over that we know that if we go eat McDonald’s over and over what it’s doing, for our inside, it’s the same way on our mental state. What are we doing every day to equip ourselves to become sharper, mentally? What are we doing on our physical? What are we doing on our spiritual to make sure that we are in rhythm and we are in sync, and we know exactly where our future lies, and we understand, you know, the person we are a value and who we want to become, but But you have to know that the better we become mentally, physically and spiritually, it gives us a better odds to defeat those adversities. And to even a lot of times keep those little adversities, you know, from even coming our direction. Number three, is ask yourself, and this is something that I always ask my boys is ask yourself, you know, you watching today is the complex, I’m dealing with self inflicted, and if it is then change, so they don’t come back. You know, I’ve got a good friend that he’s probably about 75 pounds overweight. And anytime I do anything with him, all he talks about is how his knee hurts. And I’ve told him over and over, I’m like, Man, think about how good your knee would feel. I’m not saying he don’t need knee surgery. But think about how good your knee would feel if you took that 75 pounds off of you. I’ve got a friend that’s always struggling with high blood pressure. You know, he’s about 80 pounds overweight, and you know, he don’t want to change his diet. He don’t want to get in the gym. And over and over. I’m telling him look, you can only take so many medications to help with that blood pressure. But what are we doing on a daily basis to get better to get that weight off? You know, I’ve got friends that are always dealing with financial situations but they don’t want to live on a budget. They still have to drive the nicer car, they still have to put things on credit card. I’ve got friends that are over and over dealing with, you know, relationship issues with their wife, but how many times are they taking them on a date? How many times are they are they treating them the way that that wife wants to be treated? How much are they are They do in for their physical and their mental state to become a man that that wife will respect. But a lot of our adversities, we are bringing them on ourself. And because they’re self inflicted, you know, my son, for example, he
Speaker 1 10:15 had a hamstring issue this past spring, and you know, a lot of people can say it happens, and it does happen in athletics. But my question to him was, how much did we stretch before, you know, and he’s like that I did not do a good job stretching. And I’m like, okay, so it was self inflicted, this is something we can control. You know, just like my younger son, Beckett, I love him. But he’s got a sweet tooth, we don’t have sugar in our house. But anytime he goes to his friend’s house and spends the night, they hit the seven lemons, they hit the gummy bears or whatever they’re called that he eats the sour patches, or I don’t know what he calls him, and he hits the soda. So the next day his stomach is messed up. And I’m like Beckett, I’m not feeling sorry for you. This is self inflicted. So don’t not bring on conflicts in your life that are something that you can control that are self inflicted. But this side note, quit lying to self, you know that eating lean protein is better for you than chocolate cake, you know, a personal development book is better for you than Netflix. What you put in, is what you are going to get out. See that goes with this whole piece of the puzzle that I’m talking about is we can get in that victim mindset when we have adversity come into our life. But we’ve got to also look and say how much of this was self inflicted? How much of this adversity has come into my life because I did not prepare myself. I did not take care of business for the last 90 days, six months or last year. But you cannot continue to lie to yourself, and act like you don’t know what to do. Oh, I didn’t know that eating a chocolate cake. Every night was bad for me, I didn’t know not going to the gym was was not good for me. I didn’t know, you know, guys quit lying to self and get rid of the conflicts that are self inflicted. Number four, is get your life organized, and make a plan for every day. I have harped on my boys about this. And myself, what I teach my boys is what I’m trying to do myself as well. And that’s one thing I love about teaching, you’re not going to find a good teacher, unless they are are walking the same walk that they’re asking you to walk. And I’ve told them over and over. I’m like, if you can get your life organized and make a plan and win every day, then you can win the next day. And if you win five to seven times out of the week. And if you win 25 Out of the 30 days, and you do that consistently and consistently and consistently, you’re going to win in life. And I see so many adults especially they ignore different things. And they focus on the adversity, and they focus on things that they can’t control. And then they wonder why is my life now headed in a whole new direction that I don’t want it to go in? It’s because they’re not waking up with the organized plan. You know, one of the simplest things to me is making sure I get up early, get my my office clean, get it organized, get my clothes laid out the night before, get my journal out, what am I plan of attack, but most people are not organized. They have no plan for tomorrow. So tomorrow night, you know, they’re sitting around dinnertime and they’re thinking, You know what I didn’t I didn’t succeed today. But tomorrow is going to be different, but they’re not organized. Still. They don’t have a plan of attack for tomorrow. Next day goes into the next day, the next day. They say next Monday I’m gonna do it. And then they have some meeting or they have something that they have to go to. And then it’s like, well, I’ll do it tomorrow on Tuesday. And then next thing you know, it’s Wednesday, then I think you know what, I’ve got a wedding Friday. I’m gonna wait till next Monday. And that continues on. And if any of you have kids, you know what I’m gonna say on this. In a blink of an eye, two years are gone. And two years happens so fast. And that’s what happens to society. We just keep going through the motions day in and day out. We get hit with another adversity, we have a victim mindset. We brought on a lot of this on ourselves. We wasn’t good enough, mentally, physically and spiritually to defeat these adversities as they came into our life. So we ignore them. We let them get compounding and compounding so they become so big guys. You have to get organized in life and try it To win and compete on a daily basis, number five, control your emotions, and do what you need to do based on your values and the goals you want to accomplish. And not just how you feel. I’ve got so many questions that come to me on a daily basis, whether it be through Instagram messaging, or personal text messages, or phone calls, or at ballgames or anything and, you know, usually, it’s two major things that people give me an excuse, it’s this adversity in their life, they’re going to start doing better after they clean that up, and they’re not really working on cleaning that up. Or next, they’re saying, I just can’t get motivated. I just, I just don’t know why I can’t get motivated. It’s all about controlling your emotions. When you’re going through adversity, you got to say you don’t want I’m gonna take a deep breath here. And I’m gonna walk into the batter’s box, and I’m not going to worry about I’m gonna control my heart, my heart rate, I’m going to step in there and get a get a base yet, I’ve got to go through my life, when I’m dealing with adversity, I’ve got to take a deep breath. And I’ve got to say, You know what, I’m going to control my emotions here. I’m not going to blow up, I’m going to get a plan, you know, I’m not going to do a workout today, because I don’t feel like it. I’m gonna do it. Because I’ve based my values and my goals and my commitment to the future, on me doing it regardless. But control your emotions and do what you need to do to take care of business based on your values and your goals. Not just because I feel like it, or I don’t feel like it. Another side note, I put his control negative thoughts. You know, so many people, when they’re going through adversity, they’re like, Well, if this has happened now, this is this going to happen. And if this has happened, that’s going to happen if this has happened. No, we look and say this is the issue at hand that I need to take care of, I’m going to take care of this issue. And then I’m going to get my life organized, I’m going to I’m gonna make sure that I’m not self inflicting bringing on any other complex, I’m going to become the best I can be. And I’m not going to have negative thoughts. All I’m going to do is focus on beating this situation that’s in front of me. Last I want to share with you a quote, I am the worst at reading a lot of books, finding a lot of quotes and writing them down. And not remembering who who, who, where the quote come from. So please understand that it’s sometimes I’ll take one thing that I’ve heard and then put my own thing together. So, so bear with me, but this is something that totally goes along with overcoming adversity, and that is your attitude, your attitude and how you look at that adversity. Here’s a quote that’s that’s really brings everything together in this podcast, attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. If you’re going through hell keep going. Everyone has his day, and some days lasts longer than others. So today, if you’re you think you’re going through hell keep going. If you say, Well, my attitude really don’t make a difference. It makes a huge difference. It makes every difference in life as you look at a situation and say, I am in an adversity moment here. But what I want to do is step back control my emotions, take a deep breath. And I’m going to face it head on. And even if I’m going through Hill, I’m not going to stop. I’m going to keep going. Because when I keep going, I know that the Promised Land is on the other side. So thank you guys for joining the hard truth podcast. If you found value in this podcast, share it with your friends and family. Leave us a review. And if you have any topics that you want me to discuss, please send me a send me an Instagram message. This is something I’m totally enjoying. Bringing my life experiences sharing them with that audience to hopefully help them through rough times in life. Thank you