No Adventure without Adversity

Hey team. All right, so here we are again. I got this quote. His name is John Bethway. I think I said that right. I hope I didn’t butcher your name, John. He said, “There’s no adventure without adversity. There is no growth without some struggle.”

Let’s unpack that.

“There’s no adventure without adversity. There is no growth without some struggle.”

We have our core values. Resolve—never quit. Don’t give up. Keep going. Pleasure plus pain times perseverance equals prosperity. That resolve is who we are. Improvise, adapt, overcome. That is Northwest Enforcement to some degree. That’s Chad Withrow, that’s the United States Marine Corps. That’s how we accomplish things.

I remember hearing John Maxwell one time say, “Everybody wants a miracle. Everybody wants to see one. Everybody wants to read about one.” It lifts our spirits, it gets us excited. It motivates us down deep inside to hear about how a miracle happened. Somebody was cured of cancer. These amazing, wonderful, miraculous events take place in people’s lives. We love to read about them. We make movies about them.

Even in the movies, there is adversity and there is struggle. And then there’s the sunset and the riding off into the sunset, the beautiful kiss on the mountain underneath the tree by the waterfall—whatever it is. But most of us don’t say, “Man, I would get cancer so I could have a miracle.” Nobody jumps at that. Nobody gets excited about having the problem. The adversity, or the struggle in order to have the adventure of a lifetime. Nobody gets excited about that.

This last week, or week or so ago, we got to watch some Entree Leadership Conference content, which will hopefully be coming to more of you as these next couple of months go on. We got to hear John Maxwell there speak again. He talked about how leadership is uphill. Life is uphill. Everything’s uphill.

I’ve heard him say things like that before in a number of books that I’ve listened to him speak or read in print. He is so right.

Life is uphill.

It’s something I tell my boys, it’s something I tell you here on Monday and Wednesday: life is uphill. Struggle is guaranteed. Anybody that tells you that life is easy, super simple, no problems—they probably work for an ad agency that’s trying to sell you something.

Nike: Just do it. Just do what? You see people running and doing all this kind of stuff and you’re like, “Wow, yeah, I’m going to go get me a pair of shoes like that” or “I’m going to go get me a shirt like that.” All of a sudden, I can play golf like Tiger Woods or Arnold Palmer, or whatever your thing is. “I’m going to go get me some gloves like that because I can play football” or “I’m going to go get a new pair of shoes because I can play soccer.”

End result is—are you going to play that well? No, you’re not. Are you going to get blisters in the brand-new pair of shoes that you just got? Probably. Especially your first time out, you’re going to get some blisters. You have to walk quite a few miles to wear in a pair of boots. I know because I’ve walked quite a few miles in a brand-new pair of boots.

Nobody in their right mind goes and buys a brand-new pair of boots and then tries to walk 25 miles in them. You know why? Because they’re not broken in yet. Nobody does that.

So, if you want to have the adventure, you’re going to have to have some adversity. If you want to have growth in your life, you’re going to have to have some struggle.

You might have to take it in incremental parts and little ways. If you just bought a brand-new pair of boots—if working here at Northwest Enforcement is a new job to you, if security is a new career for you—you’re going to have to take it in little bits and steps.

You’re going to have some adversity, and you’re going to have some growth. You’re going to make some mistakes, but you can conquer them. You can grow with humility. With resolve, with transparency. You can do those things by being invested. By putting service above self. You can do those things.

And always remember that when we gather, we love to eat cake—because we’re a family.

You can do those things. But being valuable, because nothing less will do, is not an easy thing. It’s not simple. Or maybe it’s simple, but it’s not always easy. I read that in a book recently, too. Things in life are actually simple. It’s just about doing them.

If you want to lose weight, go for a walk every day, multiple times. You can walk it off. Say no to ice cream, say no to candy. Say no to sweets. Do those things, and over time, you’ll shrink instead of grow. You grow into a smaller, slimmer, fitter, better-feeling version of yourself.

Sounds like something I need to do. Maybe I’m going to go for a walk here after I get done.

God bless you guys. Have a wonderful week. I’ll talk to you next week.