In my journey with adversity I believe you can break it down into 3 main parts. The 1st which is hard in its own way is the question of fairness, why me, why now, and the immediate change it makes to your life.

My 1st stage was denial; it’s not that bad it will be OK. Come to find out it was worse than expected and I was in a hospital bed for 12 days on my back.

This 1st stage it begins to sink in to you what has really happened and you try no matter what your circumstances are a way to address it and deal with it.

My leg was cut from shin to thigh and with no knee I had to find a way to cope with all the things that were going to happen: sleep, bathroom, eating and had to find a way to make it work until things got better.

It might be a loss or a string of losses throughout the season; you have to deal with what the problem is and find a way to overcome it–start looking for solutions and the more you look the more you’ll find them.

I found ways to lift my bad leg without a lot of pain and make progress in the other small things that were now my daily routine.

The 1st stage is accepting what happened then begin to start looking for solutions.

The 2nd phase is the hardest mentally because it requires you to stay in the game when you don’t feel like it. Stress, pressure, being tired, lack of energy, daily frustrations all began to pick away at your mental attitude.

This is where you fight the biggest battle of staying in the game. No matter what you CHOSE to stay in the game and work at it. It will not be easy but it is what we must do.

Hope is what keeps us going in the 2nd stage. Hope in my case of a new knee and the ability to walk again on March 29. If you’re wrestling, it’s the hope you’ll be at that state tournament and things will have worked out.

In the 2nd stage you being to notice small/little positive changes. Cling to them, hold them and they will propel you on to better things.

I did 3 sets of leg lifts with my two legs which I couldn’t even raise one week ago so changes are getting better.

In many of these situations God is teaching us patience and patience can only be learned by time invested, so embrace the different lessons of life you are learning because there will be other times in your life you apply these lessons of adversity.

How do we get through the hard time? Like they taught me in Ranger School—“Take it one day at a time” don’t look ahead, don’t look back. Get as much as you can out of your different situation and say thank you because someone I guarantee you has it worse than you. Be thankful for what we have.

It’s called perspective in Stage 2; knowing you’ll have some tough times but there are a lot of people that have it worse than you.

Stage 2—“One day at a time and if you need to break the day in to parts, then do it.” I just have to get to “noon,” “6pm,” “bed time.”

It is hard, this daily grind, but if you break it down into little pieces you can do anything.

- J Robinson

Check back for J’s take on Stage 3 of dealing with adversity