How To Overcome Challenges In Life

Welcome to hero TV. Today, I’ve got Chad Hymas with me and we’re going to be talking about how to overcome challenges in life. How to overcome challenges in life? boy what a topic. For me, I, I don’t know that I’m an expert on overcoming challenges in life but I can share you or I can share with you what has helped me to overcome challenges of mine as it may seem obvious to some of you and now that’s watching this video or to you in particular, watching this video.

As you can see, my challenges are rather visible to the eye. The fingers are curled and the hands are bent and my legs don’t work. This wasn’t always the case. I mean, I look back and I think about the perfect life and I don’t know one exists. But in my mind, as I look back, when challenges didn’t, didn’t exist I’m sure they did. But, I,just for some reason I look back at the perfect life and when the legs worked and things are the way that I planned them. And then when I had the accident and lost my legs, and lost my hands, and lost 95% of my body, I don’t want to make this video about me but I want to make it about the principles that have taught me to overcome challenges in life. And so, here’s the first thing that my father said in the hospital when I woke up from a coma and it’s had a tremendous impact on overcoming challenges in life, and you don’t have to be paralyzed physically to apply the principles that will help you overcome challenges that you’re going through right now. Here’s number one, my dad said, “son, what if you could be more productive, and be more happy, and be more successful, and have greater influence on your children’s life and on your spouse’s life than you ever could have when these challenges that exist”. And my response to him was, “I can’t play ball with my kids because I can’t catch.” You know, I can’t run with my kids and teach them how to ride a bike along the side of them as they’re using training wheels so that one’s out, so I can’t be a dad, that one’s done. I can’t go fishing because I can’t put the worm on the hook or the fly and go out on the Provo River and fly fish. Can’t swim if I fall down, and can’t even get out there and as far as using a bobber, I’m not going to put the worm on the hook to do that the hams don’t work and I’m not going to use my mouth because I never like to watch some fear factor anyway, so, so I’m not doing that And so I, kept saying these things and my dad’s taught me right my track he’s talking, “stop! stop right there! just stop! all those sentences that you just said, every one of them, you started with the word I I, I, I, I, I” he said, this meeting that we’re having right now in the hospital, this meeting is not about you at all.

And so, it is today with this video to you. I want to thank you for watching this YouTube video. I want to thank you for watching this on whatever link you’re watching this on but I want you to know that this video is not about you and your challenges. My dad said, “this meeting is not about you son. If you want to overcome your challenges take you out of it. start using the words I, me, and my, less and insert you, we, our,s and us.” Here’s what happens, your focus becomes on other people’s successes, their needs, their fears, and their challenges, more than your own and that’s how you overcome. At least that’s a piece of how you overcome challenges. So I’ll repeat that again. Start using the words “I”, “me” and “my” less when you send out a text, when you talk on the telephone to one of your loved ones, when you write a birthday card, you know, when you, when you, send out a Valentine Valentines note. Whenever you communicate with somebody just person to person try and use the words I, me, and my, less and less and less and insert you, we, are, and us. Those four words you, we, are, and us. Automatically, your focus, your mindset, everything around you, your spheres, your circumference, your light, becomes less about you and more about others needs, their own fears, their own successes, their own victories, and your challenges, become less and less significant. That is the first principle in overcoming life’s challenges. It helped me to stop focusing on this. Now here’s the next principle that my dad talked to me about as it pertains to overcoming life’s challenges. He said, I would need to be willing to break patterns. Change some habits is what he was talking about. Now in my life, I don’t think I had any problem patterns or habit to me certainly not any bad ones. I wasn’t doing drugs, I can tell

you that. I wasn’t an alcoholic, I wasn’t smoking and for those of you that smoke I’m not saying you’re bad person I’m just saying it might be a habit you might want to kick. I was loyal to my wife. I wasn’t looking at bad stuff on the Internet. I mean in my mind, where my dad brought that up I almost took offence because I pretty dang close to being perfect. I’m not saying that with an eagle, I’m just saying that facetiously. I, when he said that I needed to change habits, I, to help overcome my challenges, I told them, I don’t! I’m not doing anything wrong in my life. I mean I’m, I’m, showing up to my kids basketball games or a little soccer games. I’m, I’m, out they’re coaching them. I mean, I’m home every night having dinner with my wife. I’m doing the best that I can. He said, you need to be willing to change some habits and patterns about yourself and overcome, overcome some of the challenges you’re going to face. And then he mentioned my shoes. He said that my shoes were a big problem. He said, you might want to try wearing a different pair of shoes. I said, what’s wrong with my shoes? he said, he’d been wearing cowboy boots your whole life. I said, dad that’s because I live on a farm. I mean, I live on a ranch. We raise up alpha. I mean, I’m a cowboy, a rancher, that’s what we wear. We wear Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots. He said, son it’s not that those are bad, it’s just that they’re bad for you. Your body is 95 percent numb that’s a challenge and boots are inherently narrow in nature.

Son, if you wear narrow boots against wide swollen feet filled with water because your body is 95% numb, you could be creating a bigger challenge for yourself and that challenge is called a pressure sore which is the number one cause of death for people that are in my circumstance. he said, change your shoes why don’t you buy a size shoes that are a little bit big. So, buy a size too big and teach yourself how to put them on with your teeth. I said, hold on dad! stop. Wait. Stop, stop, you want me to buy a size shoe that’s too big and you want me to put them on with my mouth? He said, now you’re being teachable. I said, no I’m not. That would look stupid and it would feel awkward. Listen, his response. Now I need you all to hear this. He said, son if it were convenient how many paraplegic, some quadriplegic, would be putting shoes on with their teeth? I want you to ask yourself that same question. But I want to rephrase it differently.

If overcoming life’s challenges were easy for everybody, how many be overcoming them? all of them. We wouldn’t have a need for prisons, jails, for probation, we wouldn’t have a need for discipline we wouldn’t have a need for grounding, the kitty-corner we wouldn’t have a need for any kind of probation handcuffs would be out overcoming life’s challenges would be easy. Everybody be doing it. So I’m asking you to break the pattern today. Change immediately as with urgency. You can see what kind of shoes I’m wearing today they’re not cowboy boots in fact look at the color of these shoes look at them. They’re black and white. I don’t, I don’t like that color. It’s not my favorite. I like leather boots. That’s me. I like alligator skin, that’s just who I am. I like, I like cowboy boots. I don’t even, you know, know that I’m necessarily like the brand I’m not saying adidas are bad, or Nikes. It’s just I like something that, that’s more Cowboy. That’s me. you’ll notice that the shoes aren’t tied up tight. It took me two years to try it. Two weeks to master. I want you to think about that for a second. Two weeks to try it. Two weeks to master. There is a problem with what I just share with you. So yes, I have different shoes on today. Tell me two weeks to master how to putting them off my teeth. Two weeks is all it took. But I waited two years to kick the habit. Overcoming challenges how long are you going to wait to decide to take action today? And that’s the third principle and overcoming challenges. I want you to act with urgency. Because the longer you wait to act the less likely you are to do it. The longer I sit and wait to change a habit of the clothes that I wear today I’m not wearing Wrangler jeans, I’m wearing pretty boy pants. Don’t be offended by that pretty boys out there. I just, I like Wrangler jeans. But these are slacks, but they slide on easier with no hand. Takes me less time to get them on. I’m wearing shirts and they’re not buttoned up and I can button them up with my teeth. It’ll take couple minutes. I left them unbuttoned on purpose just for this episode. So you can, I just change that habit. So I just leave them unbuttoned and sometimes I’ll roll them up. How long are you going to wait to change a habit? and to decide for yourself to do that. So just to recap. Get rid of the “I”, remember this, this, conversation we’re having it’s not about you. changing, changing, challenges and overcoming, and overcoming life’s challenges it’s not about you. It’s about everybody else will benefit. Gotta get rid of that. Remember, this meeting is not about you. Remember to change those patterns as quickly as possible requires you to set goals and finally, how long are you in a wait to do that? Only you can decide that. And the sooner you do it, the sooner you’ll experience overcoming challenges and experience the joys and the happiness and the successes that life has to offer to each one of us. I’m not different than each one of you in this room.

I’m no different. Let me rephrase that word. I’m no different than each one of you watching this video. Thanks for watching hero TV today, and thanks so much chad for sharing your experiences. Sharing your stories with this. I definitely found it helpful. And remember to live on purpose, make a difference, be the hero! That’s right!