“In times of life crisis, whether wild fires or smoldering stress, the first thing I do is go back to basics…Am I eating right? Am I getting enough sleep? Am I getting some physical and mental exercise everyday? -Edward Albert, Actor

If you were to look at a path to success, I can almost guarantee you it would not be in a straight line. I’ve used the mountain metaphor quite frequently in this blog and that works too, but to simplify, let’s visualize going on a hiking trail. I once did an incerdible hike in Kananaskis that was uphill alongside a river with white water rapid waterfalls. The top of the hike (finishing point) was as if the river was sweating out of a rock formation. It was absolutely gorgeous.

You have your gear. You have the great hiking boots, a weather appropriate jacket, a compass, bear spray, power bars etc. It’s a straight line up hill and it’s tough. It’s physically and mentally demanding.

An hour into the hike you’re feeling amazing. You’re so excited to see the finish line. But then you sprain your ankle. You get tired. You get hungry. You think about giving up and heading backwards. It’s easy to quit when it’s downhill.

When you think you got nothing left, you are faced with the choice of giving up or giving it another try. Back to the basics. One step at a time.

Maybe you just need to pace yourself. At the beginning you were gung-ho and it was easy. At first you thought you could easily reach the top in a couple of hours, and then the fatigue kicked in and you wondered if it was all worth it.

Starting this blog I was gung-ho about it. Writing came easily. I had so much content to write about that it felt endless, so I made the bold declaration of three article per week. Now I’m down to two articles per week. I had to pace myself better. Back to the basics. I wait for content to present itself to me instead of forcing an article out.

I’ve recently been hit with a wave of depression. I truly thought I was past that happening to me, but some things in my personal life have lead me to some dark thoughts. I even let myself cry it out and isolated for a couple nights. It felt good in the moment, but I know that’s a dangerous carrot to dangle on the stick. Back to the basics.

I woke up this morning with the notion that I had to start doing the things that I always did when I was not dealing with depression. Eating better. Working out. Reading. Writing.

I have a lot of topics I want to write about, but I know myself well enough to know that I can’t force myself to write something positive when I’m not feeling positive. So that’s why I’m writing this.

To use a hockey analogy, when the best players find themselves in a scoring slump, they don’t always just get themselves out of it on a whim. It’s all about going back to the basics. If you’re a superstar, you are paid to score goals, but when the puck isn’t going in, you can’t focus on your shot first and foremost. Instead, focus on making a nice tape to tape pass first. Chip the puck in the defensive zone and forecheck. Eventually, a puck will bounce your way and you’ll be off the schnide.

Whatever you’re feeling, and whatever you’re dealing with, you know you have to take inventory on why you feel that way, and reverse engineer how you are going to get it back on track.

My issue lately has been depression. I am having sad intrusive thoughts that I may never be smart enough to make a career out of this, and I am having sad intrusive thoughts that I am never good enough for anybody. Not my son, not my spouse, not my father, not my company, not my friends.

It’s a horrible way to feel, but I promised I would be completely transparent. I still see the positive side of something so negative about me. If I can be this open about my struggles and how I attempt to fix them and somebody relates and uses the same tools, I have done my job.

One of the underlying reasons I feel that depressed is because I find myself to be stupid. Lower IQ. I don’t process information fast enough and I can find it extremely difficult to focus on simple day to days for fear of doing something incorrectly.

Now I know I’m not Einstein, but I put a lot of stock into intelligence.

So, since that is a factor in my life, I have to figure out how to fix it. I deleted games from my phone that I would consider brainrot, and instead found games that put my brain to work with strategic thinking.

I need to start eating healthier food that boosts brain cells and doesn’t deplete them.

I skip the diet soda and drink water instead. I made sure to get more time working out and being outside.

Back to the basics. Those are all the things I used to do when I was happiest on the daily. Since the struggle is coming back into my life, I know what I need to focus on. I need to focus on only what I can control. There’s a lot out there that I can’t control, so I might as well focus on what I can.