163: The Adversity Playbook: 5 Moves That Actually Work | Damon Lembi

Damon introduces a personal story about unexpected adversity

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eight years ago I was out playing tennis

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and I started wondering myself "How come

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the ball keeps getting on me and I can't

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really see it?" I go see a retina

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specialist i go through all these tests

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and she said "Over time you may be

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losing your central

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vision." I walked out of the doctor's

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office and of course I was stunned and

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shocked i didn't really know what to do

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and I went through several tests it

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actually took close to 6 months before

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they were able to diagnose me with

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something called PRPH2 it affects people

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in different ways but for the most part

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it over time is a progressive eye

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disease that will take away most if not

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all of your central vision here I am at

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45 years old and I get this news that my

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life is going to be altered in a way

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that I'm going to have to learn to work

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within certain constraints and do things

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differently than maybe I never had to do

Early signs something was off—on the tennis and basketballcourt

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before i didn't know where this was

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going to lead me but I knew one thing

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that no matter what happened I was not

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going to let it impact my life to the

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point where I couldn't live my life

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fully and have a great life welcome to

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the Learn All Podcast the show for

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today's leaders who want to get ahead

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and stay ahead because we believe great

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leaders aren't born or made they are

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always in the making i'm your host Damon

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Ley two-time bestselling author and CEO

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of Learn It a live learning platform

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that has helped upskill over 2 million

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people over the past three decades i'm

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going to share with you a playbook that

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I've developed over these past eight

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years to help me deal with this

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situation and other areas of adversity

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step one is acceptance which quite

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frankly is probably the most difficult

A trip to the optometrist turns serious

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i'm not going to wake up one day and all

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of a sudden my eyes are going to be

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better and by the way what I have

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there's no cure for it people ask me all

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the time can you get a bionic eye can

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you have surgery are there any cures in

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the near future no there there's not any

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cures in the near future but it is what

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it is so I have to accept it and move

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forward step two is I refuse to be a

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victim it's very easy to wake up in the

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morning and say to yourself why me why

Diagnosis: PRPH2, a rare degenerative eye disease

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is this happening to me how come I'm so

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unlucky but I look at it the exact

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opposite i wake up and say why not me

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what would make me any more special or

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different than anybody else instead I'm

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going to be very grateful for what I do

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have there are so many people out there

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who have cancer or much greater

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challenges than me i'm gonna learn how

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to live within the constraints I have

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with my eyesight and figure out how to

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work around the challenges that I have i

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mean there's no other way around it step

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three you have to have faith whether you

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choose religion whether you choose your

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family you got to find something to

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believe in for me I look at it like I

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only have one life so I'm going to find

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the best way to get through this same

Processing the fear, uncertainty, and future ahead

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goes if you've lost your job and you're

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in a tough situation you got to have

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faith in your skills and your ability

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because you've been successful before

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you're going to be successful again step

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four I look at it as community when

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you're going through adversity and tough

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times you don't need to go through it

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alone reach out to others tap into your

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network and find people who you can

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share your challenges with your

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struggles i'm not somebody who joins

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different peer groups all the time but I

The 5-step playbook for facing adversity

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did a lot of research because I was

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curious i joined a community called

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Foundation for Fighting Blindness and

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there's now a grassroot group of PRPH2

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people who are going through the same

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challenges and struggles as I am and we

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meet quarterly but I build up this

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friendship and it's nice to have people

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that you can share some of your

Step 1: Acceptance—“There is no cure, but I can moveforward”

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challenges with if you're going through

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a hard time at work find mentors find

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somebody that you can speak to and if

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you don't have anybody go on LinkedIn

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and you can connect with people there

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and and probably spark up a conversation

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community is so important whatever

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challenges or hard times you're going

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through keep in mind you don't have to

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go through it alone the final step in

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all of this is leading by example

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turning what can be looked at as a huge

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negative into a positive there's a

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couple ways to do that one is when you

Step 2: Refuse the victim mentality—"Why not me?"

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have constraints how do you use these to

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to your advantage now that I have a

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challenge seeing things it requires me

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to slow down and really focus and be

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more present that is a huge one for me

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also I am adamant in helping others with

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this i've shared my story with others to

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help people and most importantly I have

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two young children and as time goes on

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and maybe my eyesight continues to get

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worse I want to see that their father

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has a courage to continue to move

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forward won't be a victim and can lead a

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great life because nobody gets through

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this life unscathed so my goal is to

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really turn lemons into lemonade and

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make the best out of all this as I begin

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to close out here what I want you to

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take away from this is we're all going

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to go through some form of adversity in

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our lives whether it's ourselves

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directly or the people we love and we

Step 3: Faith—in family, skills, and what you can control

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have to find a way to do our best with

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it and I hope that the steps that I went

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through with you which is step one is

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learn to accept it and make the best out

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of it step two is fight to overcome the

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victim mentality which is very easy to

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fall in step three is have the faith

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that you're going to figure this out one

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way or the other step four is you don't

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have to go at this alone there's a

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community out there and people you can

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turn to that can help you and you can

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help them in return and the final step

Step 4: Community—why you don’t have to go through it alone

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take this negative awful situation

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you're in and find a way to turn it into

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a positive lead by example help others

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give back wherever you can and show

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people that this isn't who you are or

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this isn't going to define you that

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you're going to work through this and

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you're going to make the best out of it

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if you know somebody who's struggling

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connect with me on LinkedIn at Damon

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Lembby or reach out whether you're going

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through a very tough challenge whether

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you got divorced or whatever it is you

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got going on in your life get up every

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day we've made it through all of our

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toughest challenges and so I wish all of

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you the best of luck until next time

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everybody stay curious keep learning

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have a great

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