Opportunity Is On The Other Side Of Adversity | Inky Johnson EP 748

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:12Somebody comes up to me almost every week and say to me, like, be honest, man. You said you wouldn't change what happened to you. Like, be honest. Like you said you wouldn't change what happened to you. Why? Right. Because for most people, when they look at adversity and opposition, if a person goes through something that's traumatic, right, trauma, whatever the case may be, the average person's perspective is going to go to a space and place what did you lose how did it affect you what did you have to sacrifice what did you have to give up people very rarely will ask the question man what did you learn from it what did you gain what did you gain right how did it make you a better person i know it didn't feel good that's obvious i know it hurt right i know you didn't like it it wasn't convenient but like what did you gain from it i just want to know right from the loss, from the pain.

1:02Right. And so for me, it was such a traumatic experience to where I was searching for the good. It was so traumatic. There is no good. It was so traumatic to him. Like, what is this, man? This hurts. Like, I don't like this. Like, why did this show up at this point in time? I remember being like, God, just let me make it to the NFL, get the contract, help my family. And then like, we can go through something like, just let me help my mom, Help my grandma. Help my cousins. Like when I was a kid, man, I remember saying to my cousins, like if I make it to the league, man, we can get our own beds one day.

1:38Right. We just wanted our own beds. Right. And so when it happened, I remember seeing certain things happen that it caught my attention. Right. But I was so in the midst of what had happened to me that it just caught my attention. I think the beautiful thing about adversity and opposition, when you live with it, it teaches you. Right. If you're open to it, right? When you live with challenges, it teaches you. And so the reason that I wouldn't change what happened to me or go back and even change the incident is because of not only the man that has shaped and molded me into, but the way it's impacted those close to me.

2:16My mother, my father, their relationship was fractured majority of my life. Yes. When I started growing up, I had a level of resentment toward my father that I very rarely spoke about. and so I would speak to him and we would be cordial when we got to the point of communication for a long time I resented him and so my mother my father could very rarely be in a room and it'd be peace right very rarely when my injury happened they had to be in a room it had to be peace because it was a much bigger issue at hand they didn't know if they were going to have to amputate them they didn't know any of that fast forward a bit what's happened not only in my life, but in my family's life, it's been phenomenal.

2:59Like my mother and my father can be in the same space and place in the same room, wonderful grandparents. My father came and lived with me for 30 days after my injury under the same roof, helped take me to rehab for my arm. Take me to class, wash my clothes, like what it did for our relationship, what it did for my family's relationships, what it did for me and my buddies, my friends, right? Guys tying my shoes, our connection, what that produced. Like it was phenomenal. The way it shaped and molded my perspective in my life and how I treat people, right? Not that I was a bad person before because I wasn't.

3:37It's just the way that it's shaped and molded my perspective and how I view this thing called life every single day. I was in St. Louis speaking. Pandemic, one of my live trips during the pandemic. And I said, can somebody tell me something good that's happened as a result of the pandemic? Lady stands up. She says, my mother lives in Japan. I get to speak to her every single day. I know if I was working the same schedule, I never would have got the opportunity to have those moments. Gentleman stands up in the back of the room. A man looked like he's supposed to have been in the movie 300. Traps up to his ears.

4:15I'm like yoked up. Lewis, right? Starts bawling. And he says, I'm thankful I got to watch my first child being born, crying. He said, I knew for a fact if I was working the same schedule, I never would have got the opportunity to witness that moment. He said, what's something you're thankful for, Inc.? I said, man, I'm thankful for 3 p.m. He said, why 3 p.m.? I said, man, I get to race cats and be the first one in the carpool line. Right. He was like, the carpool line, really? I was like, yeah, the carpool line. I was like, but not the carpool line. He's like, what you mean by that? I said, the carpool line is extremely important.

4:50I get to pick my kids up from school most days. Phenomenal. Lovely. Right. I said, but more than that, it's about can I condition my mindset and my perspective that when uncertainty happens, opposition happens, adversity happens, I can put my mind, my perspective in a space and place to extract some good. Right? And so with adversity and opposition with my arm, I got a paralyzed right arm and hand. My perspective, my drive, my dedication, my commitment, my essence, my ethos, the thing that makes me ache, it never got paralyzed. That was just my identity in sport. Yes. That's what people knew me by in sport.

5:27but who I am as a man that never got paralyzed, right? I'm extremely grateful for that. My right arm and hand gets paralyzed. I get to go to disability services and learn how to write with my left arm and hand. Like I get to try different things, right? I get to go up to the Mayo Clinic and my first visit there, I sit down and I come out of a room to where they had just shot four needles in my back, full of dye. I'm talking about biggest needles I've ever seen in my life. I sit down, I'm feeling sorry for myself. a little kid had to be 10 years old sits down i don't know what the condition was a mother sits down on one side of her father sits down on the opposite side of her and it's like they're holding skin up on her face and i was like man i just got a arm and a hand but i got put in those environments and i got to see that extremely thankful and grateful most people don't get to see things like that on a daily basis.

6:22That conditions the mindset and the perspective to look for good in the midst of adversity, opposition, or uncertainty. I tell people all the time, man, the easiest thing in the world to do is to be negative. So easy. Easiest thing in the world to do is complain. Easiest thing in the world to do is to quit. That's easy. Me and you both can walk out of this building and see something on the streets of LA and say, man, that's whack and complain about it. Or we can look at it and say, you know what, man? That's really unfortunate. But if they did this, if they can change this about it, I think that can be a beautiful situation.

6:58That's a gift and that's a talent that not everybody has. It's extremely underrated. Extremely underrated. But it's extremely powerful when used in the right manner.

7:16I am so excited for you to finish the rest of your day strong. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description and it'll take you to the full episode of my other show, The School of Greatness. Make sure to come back tomorrow for another episode of The Daily Motivation Show.