Team Talk
The Gentlemen’s Club
Ways for a man to overcome Overwhelming Adversity
A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do — in times of extreme
difficulty doing these four things will certainly help.
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In our daily lives we deal with adverse and difficult situations. Sometimes they escalate from
moderate to an extreme. There are ways to cope with this, but often times those events seem to
eclipse the ability to overcome them. Just a little personal story — in the wake of hurricane Irene in
2011 my family and I were left homeless. Pretty adverse situation. It’s how we handled that
situation, and all of the other ones life has thrown at us that we’re able to overcome seemingly
impossible situations and really succeed in our lives.
In my roles as a man, husband, and father I’ve found and employed four ways that helped me to
overcome these adverse situations; keeping our perspective, surrounding ourselves with nurturing
people, focusing on our priorities, and moving forward by taking action.
Keeping Your Perspective
Let’s see … Hurricane, check. Lost home and most of our stuff, check. Wife and kids alive and
healthy, check. Until we got our feet back on the ground again, I was counting my blessings. We
went from being homeless and staying between hotels and family for two months to being in a new
home in the third one.
I kept my focus on what I still had, which was the family that surrounded me and the fact that
everything else was replaceable. I didn’t focus on the negative. I understood that life had thrown me
a curve ball and my job was to catch it.
Surrounding Yourself With Nurturing People
Like many men, I’d not been open to receiving help during my life, yet I found myself at the point of
needing it. Having people help me always made me feel somewhat inferior or inadequate. These
positive helping and caring individuals that surrounded me during that time were able to help lift me
up in one of the most difficult times in my life.
They really focused on the relationship we had and they knew that the effort they put back into me
was something that was worthwhile. I realized the value of my relationships at that point and made
a commitment to solidify them moving forward.
Focusing On Your Priorities
Again, home, normalcy, family, many things are happening at once. A lot of outside and inside
agendas are popping up when you’re dealing with tough times. It is not just about that situation. You
also have life happening at the same time.
Continue…..
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Psalm 103:12
“As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”