Create 4 New Problems Just To Solve 1 Old One…

 Create 4 New Problems Just To Solve 1 Old One…

March 16th, 2022

Today is the 11th birthday I’ve spent in prison. I’m 49 years old and looking forward to my parents visiting today. I appreciate all their love and support. That’s the best gift ever!

I always say prison is an experience not everyone has the opportunity to go through. In Ohio, the population is around 12 million people who live here. There has been approximately 800,000 people in Ohio who have been sent to prison. That’s roughly 6%. That doesn’t account for the same people who have been sent to prison repeatedly. About 80% of the prison population has multiple prison numbers, so the actual % is most likely only 2% of the population will ever relate to the intricacies of prison life and how it can change your life for better or worse.

What determines that change is all in how you hold yourself accountable for your Behaviors, Actions, and Decisions (BAD). My point is 2% is an elite group. Navy Seals are an elite group of the military. We are an elite group in bad decisions. The things I share about in dealing with life issues today, versus 10 years ago, comes from the mindset of me being an expert in bad decisions. I do consider myself an expert in this field and if you need proof of my qualifications, just look where I put myself this past 10 years. Convinced? Good!

Being an expert doesn’t mean just being great at making bad decisions. It’s about how you analyze those past choices, and evaluate how the consequences affected your life. Strength, honesty, and humility is required. To reach expert status, you must Do The Work and change the decisions you make in the future.

Because Of Yourself (BOY). People like to talk about and blame outside influences for their choices. As if they are somehow responsible. Bullsh*t. The choices are ours because we made them. No matter the reasons why, they are ours and ours alone. Whatever circumstances we faced doesn’t excuse how we chose to deal with them.  In my past, I would act or react to the moments that directly faced me without too much thought past that moment, let alone any consequences. I would create 4 new problems just to solve 1 old one. I thought I was Superman and could do, or fix anything.

Prison has definitely humbled me. I credit all my experiences here for helping me act and react to the most trying set of circumstances imaginable daily.  Getting to this point to put all of this into words has been a huge internal undertaking and a difficult process.

Please Post your comments. They mean more than you can imagine.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

(3/16/2022)