Everyone Has A Plan Until You Get Punched In The Mouth

Just when you think life is going just perfect. BAM!

In the mouth.

And it’s not even something that you saw coming! You may have been doing fine. Dodging, weaving, bobbing. You (thought you) played the politics with savvy finesse. You (thought you) handled the tough shots with your own, data-driven responses and intelligent rebuttals. You produced. You exceeded. You cared about people around you and ensured that nobody saw you sweat and nobody got left behind. You made people better everywhere you went.

And then you get it right. in. the. face.

Maybe its an accident or an illness. A layoff or demotion, or a personal crisis of health or finances or relationship or faith… does it matter where it came from? It still hit you in the mouth and you’re still there lying on the emotional curb trying to figure out if you’re even still alive.

What do you do now?

Can you do anything now?

In 2009, Mike Berardino caught up to Mike Tyson and asked him about his infamous quote and he explained it this way:

“That quote, it morphs life so much,” he said. “It’s all about endurance. You might be one of those guys that starts real fast, but at the end of the game you’re not looking so good. Or you might start a little slow, have some adversity in your past, but you stuck it out and now you’re on top of the mountain for a long time. Some guys start off looking real good, but they can’t maintain that.”

In my limited experience, I believe that life sometimes sets you up for experiences like this. Just when you think everything is going great is often when the unseen things creep up on you.

So now what?

I’ve been hit in the nose or mouth a few times in my life, and I can tell you that two things immediately happen:

• You’ve forgotten what this crazy pain feels like. You can’t even see straight right now and your vision seems to close in on you.
• If you can fight through that haze, the ONE THING you were there to do becomes immediately and pre-eminently clear. Everything else falls away.

So what is it that you are HERE to do?

If you have been coasting a long in your life and you get punched in the mouth, and you have no idea what to do now, the first thing I recommend is that you need to seriously, really, get back to your core.

This means you probably need to disconnect a while. Climb a mountain. Get into nature. Hug your children. Hug your spouse. Actually sit down and talk to them or go for a walk. Call/see/write your mother. Cry, maybe, and realize that the great big world out there hurts sometimes, and it’s OK to feel small once in a while.

Maybe there are victories and defeats
That slip through the cracks of history
We’re just two little people in a sea
But know that it meant everything to me #Berlin by Bear’s Den

And know that you’re bigger than this. Whatever it is.

Some might say you wouldn’t have this problem in your life if you weren’t big enough to handle it.

Which doesn’t really help when your nose is bleeding, but, I can promise you that days will come — soon — that will be sweeter, and you might realize some of the great things in your life that were there all along — sunrises, a flower from your young daughter, a hug, belly laughter, a walk without any particular destination — and, in the process of healing, you might just find the greatest thing you were missing before:

Yourself.