you can do better

gbbhey

My sisters and I just finished a month of FB status updates of memories of my dad for his birthday. My last memory was of us at a baseball game, about a week before I left for basic training. In between a beer or two, we started to talk about my future and what have you. We got on the subject of the girl I was dating at the time, and I was thinking about proposing.

He had five words to say on the matter, "Jared, you can do better."

Of course, 21 year old me didn't want to hear that. I ended up proposing, she said yes, and we got married. After we moved from Ohio to California, she started to miss her family and friends and realized the military spouse life wasn't the life she wanted, and she left me.

I was broken. I turned to alcohol, and food. For a year and a half, like a balloon, I grew and grew and grew.

Then one night, I called my dad, and he could hear the pain in my voice. He told me he was worried about me and that he loved me, but then something clicked.

Again, he said 'you can do better.'

Now, I don't know if he meant to give me the recycled advice, but it worked. The next morning, as I got ready for work, I looked in the mirror and told myself 'you can do better.'

It's been my creed throughout this journey, and it's worked in several different aspects in my life.

So, I'm just curious, did anyone else have a similar piece of advice that helped them run that first mile, or cook that first healthy meal? What motivates you to keep going, every day on your journey?


Keep on fighting,
Jared