I need to tell you what happened to me the other day.
It's pretty funny. But there's a deeper lesson in here that a lot of guys need.
First, let me ask you this...
Does your wife spill or drop stuff around the house a lot?
Spills a drink. Drops a cup. Fumbles the car keys. That sorta thing?
Because that's where I'm going with this.
So here's what happens:
I'm sitting on our L-shaped couch reading on my Kindle. We just got the kiddo down for the night and I was transitioning into "chill mode".
Out of the corner of my eye I see my wife walking toward the other end of the couch with a freshly filled 32 oz water bottle.
But she doesn't just have the water...
She's balancing the water bottle, her laptop, phone and a charger somewhere in there too. The chord is dangling down at her knees.
She sits down and instantly every ounce of water comes crashing onto the couch.
And not just a few drops.
It was a complete flash flood on the cushion. The couch fabric went from light gray, soft and dry... to dark, soaking wet in a split second.
I used to lose my shit at this stuff.
"What the fuck??"
"Why are you so careless?!?"
"Why didn't you close the lid!!??"
Well after 5 years of endurance training, I have a new default reaction.
I just look...
I don't even say anything...
Then I crack a smile.
Then my wife laughs. And now we're both laughing.
This is what endurance has done to my mindset.
It's taught me to stay grounded when things go sideways (or upside down) in life.
It's brought peace into my home.
My asst. coach Jordan Goldstein shared a book passage yesterday that summed this up well:
"Having faced often the prospect of the death that comes through defeat, one tends not to panic when things go badly".