God Bless the BS: Making Peace with the Way Things Work Out

Welcome to another episode of Halftime Talks. My name is Rahim Rasul, and you’re listening to the podcast that recognizes that in the military game of life, whether you’re up by 10 or down by 20, we all need halftime talks to uplift us, inspire us and challenge us to bring that level of performance it’s gonna take to win the game.

Appreciate you guys showing up, showing up on time for another episode, but please don’t forget, these are evergreen episodes, meaning that our whole catalog is at your disposal. So peruse through the list, find your episode, and in the spirit of appreciation, let’s begin right there. Today. I want to appreciate live music. If you love music like I do, you know there’s nothing in life that quite compares to witnessing the performance. It’s a product that exists only in the moment that the ears are listening and the artists are performing. That performance can’t be captured in an mp three, a CD, a record, a cassette, or whatever streaming service you’re currently using, being in a room filled with the acoustics of the instruments are breathtaking.

To be able to witness the emotion that is on the face of the performers playing. It’s priceless. Live music feeds my soul, and that is why I appreciate it. We got a really good episode on on our hands today, as you’ve seen in the title, it is, God bless the BS, no, I’m not gonna go into detail what the BS means, I think you understand. And when this idea for this episode came to mind, it was it was an instant episode. I didn’t have to really prepare, because there was so much of my mind and my heart that I knew I wanted to share with you guys.

And without belaboring the point or going into too much detail. I think we need to just relax for a second and prepare for this amazing episode on hand. So hey, shake it off. Take a deep breath. You know what I’m saying? Pull out some notepads in case you want to take some notes. Because guess what? Here we go. You I’m going to begin this episode by reciting a phrase back to you that is also the title of this podcast, and that is, God bless the BS. Now I know you can fill in the blank of what that BS stands for, but God bless it. God bless all the horrible things that have happened today, that happened yesterday and that will happen tomorrow.

And I know there’s a part of you that thinks that what I’m saying is crazy, because I, too, at one point, railed, fought, stood in opposition to some of the worst things that have happened to me in my life. And I know you feel the same way too, but I would say there’s a stage of us. There’s a part of us that if we embrace not what they are, but what they do for us that we have so much more potential to become that version of ourself that we can be proud of. And I I contend to you. I contend to you that you already have, but that’s not the version of life that we tap into.

So I say it again, God bless the B S, because I look back into my life and I see some of the craziest things that have happened to me, and I’ll, I’ll share one of them with you. When I was in my mid 20s, I was transitioning from Houston, Texas to Atlanta, Georgia, and you know, I was playing things by the seat of my pants. I was barely breaking even. I was shifting my clientele as a freelancer from Atlanta, I mean, from Houston to Atlanta, and I was literally barely breaking even to the point that it’s not one of those things I’m proud of. I.

Saying out loud, and it’s kind of uncomfortable, but I let my insurance lapse, and in this time of letting my insurance lap side, I totaled I totaled my car, and I still had three years to go, and I felt like trash. I felt like such a miserable failure. It was like one of the biggest points in my life. If I could go back and take it back, I think I would have initially wanted to recreate time so that didn’t occur. Now, I will admit it was uncomfortable every month sending in that check when there wasn’t a car in my driveway. But guess what? What we have, what this was, and what we have is an opportunity to learn, and I’m not talking about that simple silver lining thing.

I am talking about something substantial, and we each, if we’re not embarrassed to admit it to ourself, like I shared, what I think is very embarrassing to you guys. We all have these stories. But I want to say to you that once we begin to step back, have any of you ever heard of the painter, Jonathan Biggers, John Biggers, he was a Houston area painter, and he created these humongous murals of paintings. I think a lot of his work is hosted at the Texas Southern University museums, and when you see these paintings, the only way to truly take the value of what he’s created in is to take a step back with your nose up to the canvas.

You can only see what your peripheral can take in. When we take a step back, we take more the painting in. When we take another step back, we take more the perspective. And then we take another step back, we see it all. We see how all the pieces that we fought were the main story are interconnected with the arc of our lives, and so while I do admit, sometimes we tangle our life up into a space that may feel uncomfortable, but the man that I’ve become as a result of it, I wouldn’t take One of that. It was the best thing that had ever happened to me up until that point of my life.

I look back at the man that I’ve created out of that situation, it’s more of an advantage to me. It teached it taught me how I can persist. It gave me value. It showed me when, when things get tough, where is my integrity? It taught me that I can persevere through adversity. I would not take that back like obviously. I will use that knowledge. I will use that wisdom moving forward. Jim Rome, one of my favorite personal development authors, audiobook authors, he said, I don’t want things to get easier. I don’t want situations to just fall at my feet so they can get easier. I want to be better so that I can take on further and further and solve challenges that one once before I may have crumbled under. So I ask you, what are some of the things that may not have went the way you would have liked it in your life, but made you better.

That is why I have the confidence to say, God bless the BS, God bless it. It’s making us better if we turn into the direction of where it has led the path of our life to go. God bless the BS, be it that person that irritates you at work. They make you become better. They make you become more fortified. You become indestructible. As a result of them, if I could deal with this person, everything else henceforth, can be easier, because once we solve it, we incorporate that into our catalog of experiences, and we become stronger. We become indomitable. We become something that can’t beat. Tipped over easy, and when things come to you so easy, you don’t have to reconcile it.

You don’t have to integrate it. If you look at some of the best coaches right now in the NBA, they were the players who had to work harder. They were the people where the game didn’t come as easy. So many of you are teachers, of teachers. Many of you are people who have influence over generations on the way up, and some generations which may be older than you. And as teachers, isn’t it incumbent upon you to be able to articulate the process of becoming to be able to relate with the tapestry of experiences of those who will come under your tutelage. So I say, God bless the BS, especially once we understand that, if we take time, take a step back and see it in perspective the value that it adds to our life is immeasurable.

I’m not sure if this went the way you thought it was when you read the topic, but I’ll say it again. God bless the BS. So look in your life, there’s an opportunity that exists in some of the most poignant pain points with some of the highest stress, it shows you the other side of the coin. It implies a better version of you, if you can learn how to go with it. And there’s perspective. Sometimes it may take more time, but as I say to a few of the people in my circle, it’s not the time that it takes to change, it’s the engagement in the time that allows it to spread its wings and flourish in your life.

So God bless the BS and no, it’s possible peace. If you enjoyed this episode, you also might want to check out episode number 58 defeat doesn’t make you a loser, as well as episode number 84 Mr. Self critical, our entire library is available on our website. halftimetalks.net as well as the iTunes podcast library. While you’re on there, do us a favor, SUBSCRIBE and leave a review. Not only would we love it, but it would also make our podcast more findable, discoverable for other people, like you, who can gain benefit from the podcast. So until next time, go out there in the second half of the game and play to win.

Make sure you join us in our episode. Next week, we’re going to be talking about training to lift more many times when we attempt the seemingly impossible, we discover more possibility within us. That’s what we’re going to be talking about next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode and any episode you’ve checked out in the past. So until next time. My name is Rahim Rasul. This is halftime talks peace. You.