How to Bounce Back From Challenges
For when you can't seem to get out of the grey.
I’m writing this newsletter from home in Austin, Texas.
It’s the first piece of writing that I have done at home since January 28, before I left for Europe.
We’re only about 8 and a half weeks into 2026, and I’ve already been on 13 flights, taught 10 seminars, competed, and gained and lost about 20 pounds. I’ve written 20 articles on Substack this year already, shared a lot of content on social media, and there is much more to come.
Outside of work, it’s been a crazy year so far as well. My wedding is just a few months away. We tragically lost a young family member last week. We’re moving soon.
February has had some of the most thrilling highs and also some of the most agonizing lows.
Personally, I dealt with a lot of stress, anxiety, and even several health issues myself.
Now, I’m home and trying to pick up the pieces and rebuild.
Here’s what I focus on when I don’t know exactly what to focus on.
Focus on what you can do today.
I’ve got a lot of projects on my mind right now.
I want to start working on my next book. I want to start building a new online Jiu-Jitsu platform. I want to start planning to open my gym that I want to open next year. I need to get back to writing consistently, building my Substack, and also working on the social media content, especially for Instagram and X.
My business doesn’t work unless I work really freaking hard. Unless I am disciplined. Unless I am, for lack of a better phrase, locked in.
So what did I do today? I cleaned the house.
This is sort of where the internal war starts.
I want everything done, and I want it done perfectly. I want to write and compete and teach and train and run a business and do all this stuff, but I forget that you can only do one thing at a time.
But if the house is dirty, you can’t do any of that. You can’t build a castle when you’re sitting in a pile of mud.
You’ve got to move the mud first.
The only task that you can complete is the one that’s right in front of you.
Never forget that.
Remember your why.
When I was on vacation, I started to remember what was really important in my life.
This is why I wrote the article a few weeks back about “wasting time”. It’s not really time wasting if you’re doing the most important.
When tragedy strikes, you also can’t help but remember what is important.
I felt really focused on what was important in my life when I was traveling and doing seminars in Europe, and when I got home, tragedy struck our family. I just felt like it was tripled down.
I figured out the “why” for me, but the next step is zooming in and focusing on the individual tasks that will help me build the life that I don’t just want, but need for the loved ones that I am now responsible for.
I guess this is part of why I get so obsessed with all these little projects.
Every project is part of the pathway to the “why”, which is being able to provide for my family by doing what I do. To be able to send my future kid to college. To build a community for them. To build a community for my bride-to-be. To make sure we have a beautiful wedding in the storm that has been 2026 thus far.
I don’t really have a lot of monetizable skills besides writing and grappling. I am a good teacher, a good athlete, and a solid writer, but other than that, I don’t really know what I should do.
Focusing on what’s really important is good, but it’s only really helpful for prompting action.
In the end, you’ll do things that seem useless to focus on what’s really important.
You’ll write an essay like this one. You’ll play a video game with your family members. You’ll walk the dogs. You’ll go to the gym.
Based on my “why”, these things seem irrelevant. Yet when you really think about it, they make all the difference.
Closing Thoughts
If you write, compete, train, or even just live, you’re going to have hard days, weeks, and months.
That is par for the course.
What’s really important is not that you have them, it’s how you respond to them.
Do you get back on your horse and keep going? Do you lose your sense of self? Do you become someone who allows their circumstances to dictate the course of their life?
I’m sure you can see how this might not be good.
There are really only 3 things you can do when the going gets tough:
Focus on putting one foot in front of another
Remember your why
Stay consistent
This month was not all bad for me, but it was all pretty challenging.
Challenges can be good, but sometimes, they’re just challenges.
When the going gets tough, something that I tell myself that always seems to help is this:
If I were 3 years in the future and were to look back on this situation, how would I want myself to have responded?
Try to act in the present like you’d want yourself to in the future.
Thanks for reading another edition of The Modern Writer!
If you liked this post, share it with friends! Or, give it a ❤️ so that more people can discover it on Substack :)
Really lovely piece this. Probably just what I needed today.