Resilient...

What a gut punch!

I trained for 15 years as an Ironman Triathlete.  Spend all year working as smart and as hard as I could to be the best on ONE single day... RACE DAY.  All of the training and dedication pays off if the day goes as hoped...Not much in life goes as planned. Equipment, Nutrition, Mental and travel failures... Boston marathon 2012, I was prepared to run sub 2:50 marathon.  My day "ended" 15 minutes into the race as I felt I was working too hard and that something was wrong.  Looking back this day was significant as I had bi-lateral hip resurfacing/replacement surgery 5 years later.  GUT PUNCH

...and then this happened.2013 I summited Mt Kilimanjaro in Africa with 10 amazing friends.  On the second day of the hike, I was struck by a feeling so foreign to me, that I questioned everything that I had done for 15 years.  I felt free.  There was a weight that was lifted from my soul that just took flight... it was in an instant.  The hike to the top of Africa was a breeze.  It was on the way down, running through the skree, where I got the booming voice that said... "you will make shorts and become a philanthropic warrior."  Yes, That actually happened.

The pickleball nationals is quite the event.  My vision to grow the Warrior brand into the most recognized symbol in all of Pickleball has become the end goal for me in the sport.  Competing at the highest level takes a hard second seat.   Practicing and playing take less than half of the time and investment than it does in effort to grow the business.  When combining the two in one event, APP Legacy Open in Mesa Arizona...the excitement is nearly unbearable.  Prepared to really do well at both selling SHORTS and playing was the plan.... GUT PUNCH!!! 

Fast approaching 10 years after the booming voice, I felt like I was finally back on a path.  A path that was clear and worthy of the Warrior I had envisioned many years ago.  And for much of the journey, so many pieces of the puzzle felt like they did not fit...these are the GUT PUNCHES I am talking about.  The set backs that give pause the cause in my brain... saying... What the HECK are you doing?  "YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!"  GUT PUNCH!!

Therapists and friends have come to the rescue to keep me going forward...this latest edition of a gut punch is starting to sink in... TORN ACHILLES.  If you have gotten this far, remember what a heroin addict suffers when you take away his drug. A withdrawal from being an addict for the heroin user and for the productive human... a  GUT PUNCH!!

My drug of choice was human connection through pickleball.  I chose it, or it chose me to be good enough to teach and make a living, it chose me to make the Warrior brand stand out with such an amazing product like the "Courtados Shorts".  It chose me to be a good enough player to stand on the court with some of the very best in the game, and be competitive.  It chose me to survive with a group of people I love to call my friends.

I DON'T do well accepting help, laying down, failing, struggling, ....but who does?

I have friends who want to start a Go-fund me to help support the next few months of me living.... just living.(but I would rather sell shorts)...my heart fills and sinks at the same time.  My struggle with life was wanting to make it ON MY OWN... no hand outs... no charity... no philanthropy for pablo... I cant believe I am fighting the very thing I want to do for other people, that they ARE doing FOR ME.  

GUT PUNCH!! 

What does success look like from here?  

Accepting help is on the top of the list in all its forms... .  Doing the work that needs to be done for the physical success and strength.  Cleaning up the WARRIOR shop and doing more that just "air" planning the growth of what could be a massive impact kind of business.  Trusting that Gods plan for me includes all of the gut punches....