courage

How to Thrive in the Face of Challenge

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment


We all have those days when nothing seems to go our way. We wake up late, we spill coffee on our clothes, we get a flat tire on the way to work, and our boss yells at us. It’s easy to feel like giving up when things are tough, but it’s important to remember that everyone goes through tough times. The key is to find the courage to keep going, even when things are tough.

Here are a few tips for finding the courage to keep going when everything seems to be against you:

  1. Remember that you’re not alone. Everyone goes through tough times. It’s easy to feel like you’re the only one who’s ever been through what you’re going through, but that’s not true. Everyone has their struggles and challenges. Talking to someone who understands what you’re going through can be a great way to feel less alone and more supported.
  2. Focus on the positive. Getting caught up in the negative is easy when things are tough, but focusing on the positive is essential. For example, list all the things you’re grateful for, even if it’s just the small things. Focusing on the positive will help you stay positive and hopeful, even when challenging.
  3. Take some time for yourself. Taking time for yourself is essential when going through a tough time. Do something that you enjoy, and that makes you feel good. This could be anything from reading a book to walking in nature. Taking time for yourself will help you relax and recharge to face the challenges ahead.
  4. Be bold and ask for help. When you’re going through a tough time, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Talk to a friend, family member, therapist, or anyone you trust. Asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.
  5. Believe in yourself. This is one of the most important things you can do during a tough time. Believe in yourself and your ability to overcome the challenges you’re facing. Remember, you are stronger than you think you are.
sad woman sitting in room
Photo by Liza Summer on Pexels.com

Finding the courage to keep going when everything seems against you is not easy, but it is possible. Following these tips, you can find the strength to keep going and win.

  • Find a purpose. Finding a goal to keep you going can be helpful when you’re going through a tough time. This could be anything from wanting to be there for your family and friends to want to make a difference in the world. Having a purpose will give you something to focus on and help you stay motivated.
  • Set small goals. When you’re feeling overwhelmed, setting small goals for yourself can be helpful. This could be anything from getting out of bed in the morning to showering. Setting small goals will help you feel like you’re progressing, even when things are tough.
  • Take care of yourself. Taking care of yourself physically and emotionally is essential when you’re going through a tough time. This means eating healthy, getting enough sleep, and exercising. It also means taking some time for yourself to relax and de-stress.
  • Surround yourself with positive people. When you’re going through a tough time, it’s essential to surround yourself with positive people who will support you. These people can be friends, family, or even a therapist. Positive people will help you stay positive and hopeful, even when things are tough.
  • Remember that it’s okay not to be okay. It’s important to remember that it’s okay not to be okay when going through a tough time. Don’t be afraid to cry, scream, or vent to someone you trust. Feeling your emotions is a normal part of the healing process.

Going through hell is difficult, but finding the strength to keep going is possible. You can find the strength to overcome any challenge by following these tips.

Own that Shi*

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

We know that in September, we will wander through the warm winds of summer’s wreckage. We will welcome summer’s ghost.”—Henry Rollins

One of the most relaxed moments in a Movie for me was when Harley Quin tells El Diablo after he tells his story about his powers “Own that Shit, own it!”—Harley Quin (from the movie Suicide Squad).

This article is about “Own that shit.” Whatever your life has doled out to you own it. But I received divorce papers, my car got repossessed, my boyfriend cheated on me, Own it! Don’t make the tragic mistake of pawning your life’s shit onto someone else. There is a reason this sounds harsh. Hang with me here!

prayer, hope, happiness

The absolute only person on this earth that can save you is you. Owning our shit means not being the victim. My ex-wife wanted a divorce, I never did. Until I was able to hold that shit, I was an absolute mess. When I realized over time that my destiny is in another direction from hers. If I want to understand what God truly has for me, then I need to head down a new path.

Own the fact that whatever befalls your life you inevitably must own it. The great news is you can. Learning to accept the trials of your life will open a whole new unimaginable freedom. Not a day goes by that I don’t recognize regret in my own life. We all have regrets. It’s taking ownership that indeed mistakes, defeats may come and go. Accept them and move on past summers ghost.

Everything in our life is seasonal. As we learn to own our experience good or bad, we will march through to the next adventure in our life. Not all movies have a happy ending, but, we still go see them. If you’ve never seen the movie Steel Magnolias, this movie will bring out real raw emotion. A loss that tears the very fabric of your life.

When you can turn tragedy in, own it, accept it, you can truly move on. Yes, some loss is monstrous and will require periods of mourning. However, at some point in time to begin your life anew. You simply need to own it.  Accept that life will move on without your participation. Ask yourself if your pain worth your life?

For example, if your child sees you cry, do they not come to you and say, “are you okay, please don’t cry.” Why, because they’ve heard you ask them the same question. In this scenario, you lose this child to cancer. The pain is unimaginable, to the point you truly just want to die. Ask yourself if your child was before you in this sad state, would they not want you to not cry and feel better? Loss is far-and-away the worse pain we as humans will ever experience.

At some point in time, we will have to own that pain. Accept what it is that nothing in this world will change the circumstance. We can wish it, pray for it, scream at God for it, but nothing will change. The only thing that can is me/you!

When my wife filed for divorce it for a time devastated my life. I did not want to know “nothing from nothing.” No amount of crying, yelling at God or the depression I fell in would change the outcome. I simply had to own it. Realize that for as much as I wish we could be together, that part of my life was over. The real question: just because that part of your life is over does that mean the rest of my life is over as well? Of course, it does not! A new dawn, the destiny God truly has for you is waiting, own it.

Through our pain, we learn to own our life. We learn to accept that life will throw a fastball that hits you right in the noodle and knocks you the fuck out. You can stay down, or you can Own that Shit! When you can tell the enemy let me promise you one thing when I wake up every morning the first words out of your mouth will be “Oh Shit he’s Up!” (a phrase you perhaps have read like a quote, can ring true in your life).

Coming to terms with owning our life good or bad. You will find peace, hope, faith, love, and courage. I did it and so can you, God Bless!

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Struggle, Obstacles, Hurdles, on the Otherside is your Destiny

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

“Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.”–Oprah Winfrey 

We all wish we had less struggle. Another quote that I will paraphrase you can’t become a good sailor in calm seas. For God to bless our lives with more, we must be able to handle the trials and tribulations of living with grace.

walk in faith

In my own life, I am challenged with many obstacles and hurdles. Past articles I have written spoke to this as taking a trip, and from time-to-time, we run into road construction. Sometimes we can see the development in front of us and sometimes what we need to understand is just over the horizon.

Learning to have the patience that the Universe is moving to clear our path. Faith that God has a destiny preplanned for our life. Let your future unfold without imposing your will. Do the work before you, have patience when necessary and hold unwavering faith that through the struggle lies your destiny.

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Why Challenges are More Tempting than a Cinnabon

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

Yes, friends, I can hear you saying, “have you ever had a Cinnabon?” Of course, I have who hasn’t but and this is a big but, challenges mean HUGE change is coming!

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You can say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.”–Eleanor Roosevelt
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Challenges have to drug me through change that feels like rolling down a briar patch hill at full speed. Bruises, cuts, stickers and a BIG owe damnit. If you’re like me, sometimes we fight change because of old habits and paradigms we need to shed like a snakeskin.

hope, freedom, life

A Challenge, Quit or Win it’s your Choice!

When you learn to embrace challenges, life opens up in a whole new way. An easy analogy would be beginning a diet. At first, it’s a real challenge to put down a Soda, put down the ice cream bowl, put down a big juicy hamburger. It takes a reconditioning of our mindset to conquer this challenge. Willpower is tested to the nth degree.

Often we cave into temptation because of the pain of change at that moment is too high. Until we overcome that challenge to our will, we continue to struggle.

Here is how I overcome challenges that, in the beginning, maybe painful. Most change for a brief time is painful, just saying!

  • Resolve yourself to the fact that on the other side of this change, is that which you truly desire. Meditate on the end result daily, multiple times if needed.
  • Keep faith in your heart. Hope that you can do that which you desire.
  • Any discomfort is temporary. Change does not take the balance of your life to achieve. Really, you can’t take a month or two to make a notable lasting difference in your life? Come on!
  • No matter how dim it looks, how challenging it becomes never lose hope.
  • Make time every day to focus solely on the challenge and overcome fears that surround it.

Some will say easier said than done. Agreed!

If you don’t overcome fear, overcome pain, then nothing will change. You have to want it bad enough, the discomfort is temporary.

When challenge rears its head, you can be sure the enemy is behind this. The enemy does not want you to win. Don’t cave in! On the other side of this is the life God has for you. Nothing worth having comes without a price.

The price you pay when you successfully navigate to the other side of the challenge you will tell yourself, “I would have endured a thousand times more to have what I have achieved today.”

Giving up is a bad habit for a temporary problem. Make a choice with me today, that giving up or giving in is no longer an option in your life! God bless.

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Why Challenges are a Blankety-Blank

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”–Winston Churchill

Courage is where I believe we fail to achieve or overcoming challenges. When challenged in life obstacles can seem overwhelming, insurmountable to stifle our progress. In many occasions, we just give up and fail.

Learning to work through the pain of life is achieved through your own faith that all will work itself out as it should. Learning to accept that life will happen on its own terms. Learning to not push growth, but accept destiny unfolding on its terms. God does not need your help he needs your faith.

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”–Martin Luther King Jr.

God, will unfold your destiny timely when you allow it to unfold naturally. His favor can move the unmovable. When you hold-fast to faith in the face of absolute ruin. On the other side of this faith held strong is destiny!

obstacle, hope, happy

Look at challenges as the gateway to your life’s destiny. Accept the trials and tribulations with faith, that once you clear the dark forest a beautiful life season is before you. Our lives are seasonal, just as nature. My thought is this to be the natural order of things. How our body and the soul are connected to the seasonal universe.

Stop looking at obstacles as a barb-wire fence. With care, you can cross a barb-wire fence. You may get a poke or scratch here and there. The crossing can be done safely. You arrive at a new destination.

Admittedly, I struggle with faith, but I believe we all are challenged with faith from time-to-time.

The good news. Keep holding onto faith even when you can’t see any hope. The pain you may suffer through pails in comparison to the happiness on the other side. Faith will become easier to summon when you condition yourself.

We tend to lose faith in the precipice of change. If only one step further were taken, don’t let one step more stop you!

Call upon God through prayer and meditation. Thanking him for the end result of the season you find yourself. Focus on the result not the how. God has the how you stay in faith with gratitude that it’s done. Do this and God will make the impossible, possible!

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