Rebranding Ryan

As I approached my 40’s, I started following more an more athletes that were playing in the NFL til their late 30’s or early 40’s. While they maybe weren’t on my favorite team, I still had a healthy respect for what it takes to keep your body in shape at that age to play a game you love. I just try and keep my body in shape so I can walk and move comfortably!

I wandered into the library looking for a book to read. My goal has been to have a mix of fiction and nonfiction. As I just had finished a couple of fiction books, I checked out the non-fiction section and Coming Back Stronger, Unleashing the hidden power of Adversity, by Drew Brees jumped out at me for some reason. He falls in the category of the old guy that played a long time that I respect.

When I started the book, I noticed that I could instantly relate to him on the non-football side of his life. Within his first few chapters, he mentioned that “I’m not one to keep tears back”; and for those that know me on the personal side know that I’m not either. Just this morning, I saw Angela Landsbury had passed away and the news played her song from the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast. I felt the tears swelling up, because certain Disney songs will always make me think of my kids. My daughter wearing her Belle dress and posing for a picture next to the Belle. My son playing the role of the Beast at the Magic Kingdom on our family vacations.

As I read further on, I discovered that he also knew that his wife was the one for him from the first moment he saw her in college. He described the all to relatable spark he felt that he knew his life was forever changed. As some of my close friends know, I felt the same thing the first time I saw my wife…I just knew she was the one. She is one of the strongest people I know and I am so lucky to have her.

Reading this book also helped me with a mental shift. He talks about how he used to be motivated by people who had told him what he couldn’t do and now “I’m motivated by people who belive in me”. I’m going to work on being motivated by the positives and not the negatives. Brees further mentioned “Find the positive in every negative.” Sitting where I am right now, it’s easy to get stuck in the negatives of the day and my current situation, but I’m looking for positives. There was yummy popcorn handed out during the Monday Night Football game…I’ll take that as a positive!

He finishes his book by talking about his key mental growth focus:

1) Find a mentor
2) Don’t Give up
3) Turn your defeat in to triumphs
4) Dream
5) Hope

If you have read this far and going through a tough patch or a rough day….just look for one positive…embrace that positive…then look for a second…but find one. It’s there, you’ll find it.

Posted on behalf of Ryan by his wife, Karen.

As most of you know, I loved reading comic books growing up. The first comic book I ever got was an issue of Green Lantern from the pharmacy in Culver. I remember going up the comic book rack and seeing all the choices. Luckily, they had my favorite character at the time from watching Super Friends on tv…Green Lantern. As I continued reading more comic books, I discovered one of my favorite series was called “What if…” The What If books would be something like What if Superman landed in Russia instead of Smallville or What If Batman’s parents lived.

A friend loaned me a book called, Dark Matter, by Blake Crouch. I don’t recall having heard of the book but he also wrote the Wayward Pines series which sounded familiar. He told me it was good read. I don’t know if he picked this book in particular from little he know of me, but after I finished it I didn’t think it was a random selection.

Dark Matter at its heart is a mystery/thriller with a little bit of science fiction thrown in. For those that don’t care for sci/fi I wouldn’t let that stop you from reading this great book. Dark Matter opens with it’s main character Jason finishing a nice night out with a friend and as he’s going home his night takes a turn for the worse. Jason is kidnapped, knocked out and taken from his wife and son (don’t worry this isn’t really a spoiler and I’ll keep this spoiler free).

This is where the book reminded me of the “What If…” comics. “What if you wake up and the world as you know is very similar but then completely different?”

We follow Jason on his mission to get home, back to his real home. There are some definite good twists in the book that I did not see coming. I don’t want to share much more as I would go in to spoiler territory. But I would definitely suggest picking it up for a read.

Please note: updates to Ryan’s blog are posted by his wife, Karen, on his behalf.