Let’s face it, 2020 has been one of the most challenging years. No matter who you are, your life has been altered. At the very least, you had to change part of your lifestyle. In the middle of the spectrum, you dealt with professional challenges. At the end of the spectrum, you may have lost a loved one. 

One type of challenge that we face is a setback. Setbacks are just a part of life. You can do everything correctly and some setback can rear its ugly head. When my parents found out that I was going to have cerebral palsy and a lifetime of challenges, they quickly adopted the mindset of parents that have a special needs child. My whole life, I often wondered what it would be like not to have a disability. In thinking about my life, and wanting to create an amazing life, I learned the number one goal in life.

 Here we go.

 The number one goal in life is to improve our lives no matter where we are.

 One issue that I see when dealing with life and moving forward is that people choose a false or outdated starting point. Right now, the starting point is improving your life in a pandemic.  It’s not January 1, 2020. It’s not August 1, 2019. It’s certainly not April 1, 2015. It’s today. It’s all the glory of challenges that you have today. It’s wondering how to go about your goals today.

The problem I see is that people want to live life and pretend that we don’t have to navigate this awesome challenge. Where I stumbled in my life is the moment where I imagined life without a disability. There are days when most of my energy goes directly to my disability.

 Unlike my disability, this amazing challenge will one day be over. The way that we can improve our lives is to do our part. This includes taking responsibility for our part, not expecting to live like we once did (at least not for now) and doing whatever we can to improve.

 One day, there will be opportunities to perform all the activities that we think we are missing.  There will be opportunities to travel, go to the ballpark, and high five a stranger.

 When setbacks occur and rear its ugly head, your job is not to ignore it. It’s not to wish it would go away. It’s not to be in intellectually lazy and call it a hoax. It’s to deal with it.