Everyone has a defining moment in their life, where they face a decision that will set the course of their life forever. I’ve encountered many moments like this—facing jail time and slander or finding myself in toxic relationships that have changed the way I approached life.
These moments force you to reflect or rethink how you’ve lived—you’re forced to reevaluate your decisions. This is when your true worth as an individual comes out. I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s been through something like this. Everyone has had times when they were forced to ask themselves, “what is the right thing to do?”
For me, trying to answer this question has been a central concern during each trial. I’ve been angry, worried, sad, and confused, thinking about how I should even start answering this question—and each time I’ve realized that this is what the actual trial is.
It’s not the trying circumstance itself, but going through an internal conflict to come out with the best path out of your circumstances.
Facing Hardship Head-On with Courage
There is no courage or bravery without fear. Fear is not something to be ashamed of but accepted as a normal reaction to adversity. Someone who doesn’t fear anything at all, can’t be called brave because they don’t realize the consequences of the situation in which they’ve found themselves—its foolishness.
True courage is to understand how bad things might go and have the strength to stand undaunted by the threat in front of you—without fear; there is no courage.
This moment of Truth that I speak of—the moment you decide what you’re going to do about your circumstances, that’s where courage comes in. During hardship, we all face our limitations and our helplessness in the face of events that seem too large for us even to comprehend. And that’s when we have to step up to take action and fix our problems.
Even though it might seem difficult, I want you to know that there isn’t a single problem in the world that we can’t fix by ourselves and through the sheer force of our mind. As the ancient stoics once put it:
“Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter. Cold or warm. Tired or well-rested. Despised or honored. Dying…or busy with other assignments.”
If you’d like to learn more about me and my struggle with a toxic relationship and the criminal justice system, you can check out my books, Held Hostage and Halftime Hustler by Ralph Sanders.