135. Find The Good In Every Setback

Hey. Hey. Welcome back to Friday Bullpen Sessions. My name is Andy Neary, and this is episode 135. This is going to be a special little episode because.

Man.

I'm on the heels of what one might view as a really big setback. And I want to share the lessons I've learned from this setback and how they could help you. Whether, again, you're an athlete who's also been forced to the sidelines with a setback. Maybe it's an injury, maybe it's a demotion, or you're a business professional and you've had your own setbacks in your business and things are out of your control. Today, I want to help you, just like I had to help myself over the past few weeks, past week, I should say, overcome this setback that could have really put me back mentally. But I had to stay strong and trust me, I went through my ups and downs. And I want to share that with you today because I think it could be really helpful. So if you're out there right now and you feel like you're not operating at your highest level, you've been set back, you've had your setbacks of Whether it's just 20, 21 in general, this episode is going to be really helpful for you. So let me set the stage. So I'm going to take you back to Thursday, August 13th, and I'm in Columbus, Ohio, and I'm giving a keynote talk. And, you know, speaking is something that I absolutely love. It's something that I thrive upon.

You know, when you talk about athletes being in the zone or you being in that groove, when I'm on stage speaking, that is when I feel in the zone, it just, it feels the same way I felt when I was on the pitcher's mound. Well, so August 13th, I'm in Columbus, Ohio, speaking, and midday few hours for the talk, I started feeling a little lightheaded and I noticed my foot started to have a little pain and really didn't think anything of it. Thought maybe I was just going through some, you know, changes in altitude. I was in Colorado now in Columbus. I've had that happen before. But as the day wore on, that, that lightheaded, feverish feeling got stronger and stronger and the pain in my foot.

Hurt a little more and more throughout the afternoon. And in fact, when I gave my keynote talk at 3pm Eastern time, I even asked the audience that if I had to sit down, please, please don't take any offense to that. And I delivered the keynote talk, it was great. Felt great, but still something didn't feel right. And that night, I was supposed to fly home back here to Fort Collins, Colorado. And unfortunately, due to some thunderstorms in the area, the flight kept getting pushed back and pushed back and pushed back, and I just did not feel good. And so I decided to push my flight back a day, grab a hotel room one more night, spend the night, wake up the next morning, get back on the plane and come home. And by this point, my foot that had been hurting all day was pretty swollen. And I was wearing work shoes. And it's not uncommon that.

My work shoes cause a little swelling, especially in my right foot. My feet are slightly different sizes, and so my right foot can often feel tight in my shoes. So foot is swollen. I go to bed that night in the hotel room thinking, tomorrow morning I'll just wake up. The swelling's from. From my shoe. It'll be fine. Well, I wake up Friday morning. Now, August 14th. Excuse me, August 13th. I've been. I've been lying about the date. It was Thursday, August 12th. I spoke. Now it's Friday, August 13th.

And my foot is just as swollen as it was the day before. And it is bright red. In fact, when I get out of the bed to go to the bathroom, I can barely walk. And I'm like, wow, okay, something's not right here. And I still had the feverish chills at this point. I was a little nervous. It might have been Covid. But anyways, get my stuff packed up, get to the airport, because I got to come home. And of course, I choose a flight that has a layover in Dallas. And now I've got two flights to get home. And throughout that entire trip from Columbus down to Dallas up to Denver, I just felt like. And that foot never got any smaller. I was limping in the airport. In fact, getting on my last flight to come home to Denver, somebody behind me even remarked, man, whoa, what's going on with your ankle there? And at that point, I didn't know what was going on. I just wanted to get home. And so I get on that last flight, head back to Denver, get in the car. It's about an hour drive from Denver, home, get home around 9pm Friday night, and literally spent about five minutes at home and turn right around and go to the emergency room.

And that is where I spent the next six days. You see, what I didn't realize is that Thursday, while I was speaking, I was developing a leg infection, what they call streptococcus leg infection. And I have no clue yet to this day how I got it. I don't know if it was a bite, if it was something I caught in the shower at the hotel. I have no idea. But anyways, I spent the next six days in the hospital. Fortunately, the hospital is only a couple blocks from our house. And I spent six days on IV antibiotics, spent six days getting blood tests done, some couple X rays, couple CAT scans, and man, it was quite a journey. And this is where I want to set the stage now for this episode. Because here I am. I was in a groove with my business. I was speaking, I have new clients coming in. Business just felt like it was coming easy. Things were great. And then all of a sudden, this happened. Something that was completely out of my control. And I'll admit, for the first couple days in the hospital, I was angry. I was wondering, why me? How could this happen to me? I've been living life the way I'm supposed to. I'm taking care of my body, my health. I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do. Why me?

And I was blessed to have Amy by my side. Somebody who is a very wise sage to continually tell me that, Andy, you know, you always have to just submit to what is. You just have to let go. This is out of your control. The only thing you can control is how you react.

To the situation. You didn't choose to have this leg infection, but you also can choose to not be angry about it. You can choose to build from it and come out healthier from it. And I'll admit that the first few days, I didn't want to hear that. But as. As time wore on, as. As my time in the hospital wore on, I realized that that is the mindset that I had to have if I was going to come out of this healthier, happier, wiser. I didn't realize I'd think about what the lesson was that I was. That was that I was going to learn from this, this event, this moment. And the first thing I learned, and this is what I really want to share with you. And remember, this episode's for anybody who feels like they've had a setback in their life. Again, if you're that athlete who's been injured, you're on the sidelines. You didn't ask for the injury. You're a business professional right now who's had a few setbacks. 20, 20, 20 21's provided plenty of setbacks to you or your family. The first thing you have to understand is.

Everything happens for you. Nothing happens to you. That was the first lesson I had to pick up, is this is happening for me. It's not something that's happened to me. And I sat there in the hospital bed and I thought about that is okay if this is happening for me, what does this mean? And I. I landed in a place, mentally, where I realized that, you know, over the next few weeks, I had a lot of travel scheduled. I was supposed to head out to both Florida and Nashville for keynote talks this week. We were supposed to go to vac on vacation to Florida at the end of this week. I'm supposed to speak in Boise, Idaho at the end of next week. And I sat there and I thought about this. Well, if everything happens for you.

Could this leg infection actually be protecting me from something?

By me having to sit in the hospital, by me having now some travel restrictions on myself as I heal from this infection, is this actually protecting me? Could I have gone to Florida or Nashville and, I don't know, picked up Covid, picked up something or had something happen that would be much worse than this leg infection? I don't know the answer to that. But I realized that maybe this, this, the universe is protecting me from something because of. By. By having me deal with this, by forcing me to stay home. So that was the first lesson I learned, is everything happens for you. Nothing happens to you. The second lesson I learned is you always have to see the positive in everything. As I sat there throughout my six days in the hospital, I witnessed multiple shifts in nursing teams, nursing staffs. I had two, three different hospitalists, general doctors who saw my care. And I'll admit, each and every one of them came with a different personality, a different level of.

Comprehension, different level of intelligence, to be quite frank. And it was easy with some to get very angry. It was easy to get upset when I felt like this nursing staff wasn't as intelligent, wasn't as competent as the one I had the day before. But I had to sit there and I had to realize that I have to see the positive in this. They're just doing their job. They can't control their own level of competence, but they're just there to do their job. And I have to see the positive in that. So that was the second lesson I learned, is no matter what's going on around me, in my environment, in this hospital, you have to see the positive in everything. If I'm going to get out of here healthier, happier, I can't be negative, I can't be critical of the care that I'm Receiving, I have just got to see the positive in everything. And then the third lesson I learned, and this is the most important lesson, and I am going through it right now as I sit here at home healing. I know it's going to take a few weeks. And that is patience, that is having a better relationship with time. Time is such a fitness, finicky thing because.

We'Re all taught to get the most out of time, right? We're all taught to live like we have no time left on earth, right? Live like you're not going to be here tomorrow. There's all these mantras we're taught about how to deal, interact and have a relationship with time. But I'll tell you the most important one that I learned by sitting in the hospital for six days now, being at home and being so blessed to be home, is that at the end of the day, these two or three weeks it's going to take for me to heal, that is but a speck of time in my life. I can be frustrated, I can be stressed out that it's going to take two or three weeks to come back. But at the end of the day, what is two or three weeks?

And so I want to share that same advice to you. If you're sitting in a setback right now, again, an athlete who's dealing with an injury who's not allowed to play right now, maybe you're just not playing because you've testified positive for Covid business professionals, had some setbacks in your business right now. This is a short speck of time in the grand scheme of things. So if I can pass any guidance, any advice on to you that I had to learn the hard way over the last two weeks, it is, number one, to remember everything happens for you. Nothing happens to you. You are never a victim. Number two, you always have to see the positive in everything. No matter what's going on around you, See the positive, see the silver lining. And number three, you gotta have patience. If you are sitting in that moment right now where you feel like you're not where you need to be, you're not where you want to be, you feel like you might be that victim because something's happened to you, an injury, a setback in your business, this is a small time, small frame of time. So be patient, be positive, and remember, this is happening for you, this isn't happening to you. And if you can, if you can get your mindset in those three places right now, I promise you're going to come out happier, you're going to come out more successful if you're injured, more healthy and you are going to perform better than you ever have before. So I know that's where I'm at right now. I know that's I can't wait to get back to 100%. I can't wait to get back at it like I know I am capable of. And man, I'll tell you what, this puts a whole new perspective on being grateful. So that's my advice for you today. If something unexpected has happened into your life, you feel like you've been, you've had a setback in your life or your business, I'm here to tell you nothing happens to you. It always happens for you. Stay positive and be patient. Good things are about to come around the corner and you know what happens when confidence, clarity collide? Massive action happens. So stay smiling, stay positive and go make it happen today.