Overcoming Life's Challenges: A Father's Fight Against Cancer

When standing at the base of a mountain look towards the top the journey to the peak can be overwhelming. The rocky terrain, how steep it can be, or even just distance alone.

This is the same when I race triathlons. A Half-Ironman race is a 70.3 mile race that is a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run. When you think of traveling 70.3 miles under your own power it can be very overwhelming and often times people will say they have cars to travel that sort of distances.

Maybe we should look at something more relatable to some going to college you have 2, 4, maybe 5 years of continuing education. During that first semester looking ahead it feels like you will never get through it.

All three of these things while they are very different all have one thing in common and share, something in common with life. Rather than standing back looking at the this huge challenge a head of you if you break these activities down into blocks they start to look a lot more manageable.

Triathlon focus each section of it individually as you are going through it. Hiking instead of looking at the mountain look at each individual section of the mountain as you hike. College instead of looking at the 4 years break it down to each semester.

When you focus on smaller sections in life things become more manageable because you are no longer looking at this big chunk of everything going on. You are no longer looking at this long journey ahead of you instead you are breaking it down to a manageable chunk.

Hiking that mountain looking at it as one obstacle at a time or if needed one step at a time then it becomes easier. Stay focused on that one step till you get through it. Once through it then look at the next.

Triathlon look at each training block individually not the full week of training and training gets much easier. During the race look at each event as you go through them. So, the swim focus on the swim and if you have to break it down looking at just getting to the next buoy then do that. For me I look at the swim, then Transition 1, then the bike, then Transition 2, then during the run I have to start breaking it down to focusing on getting to the next mile. But it is always breaking it down so that the next step is manageable.

College I focused on 1 semester at a time.

Now as I am battling stage 4 cancer. I need to break it down and focus on it as one thing at a time. One round of chemo at a time. Right now I am focused on getting through surgery. When I start looking a head it gets to overwhelming and all I can do is focus on what I am going through in the moment rather than worrying about the future.