Let’s face it, no day is perfect.

Regardless of what Instagram throws in our faces.

Whether you get around in a wheelchair like me or stand on your own two feet, it doesn’t matter.

Each new day brings a new challenge.

Take last night as an example.

I had to get up twice to go to the bathroom.

For most people that’s no biggie.

Annoying, yes. But most people are back in bed within minutes, often not even turning a light on or barely opening their eyes.

For me from the time I wake up, get into my wheelchair, go to the bathroom, get help to get back into bed and get comfortable again takes 30-40 minutes each time.

Then there’s trying to fall asleep again knowing the alarm was set for 5:15am!

I spent another 3.5 hours in the bathroom to have a shower and get ready for the day with a new assistant, explaining to her every tiny step of the routine, leaving me almost unable to string a sentence together by the end.

Having 5 hours of total sleep, a drawn-out process to get ready for the day and the pain from flared injuries had me exhausted before 9am.

It wasn’t an unusual start to a day for me.

However, I wasn’t going to write off the day yet. I pushed through the fatigue and pain and got on with the day, as I usually do.

There was already some sadness that the day’s regular plans with my boyfriend were out the window while he had extra dad duties for the school holidays.

Thought I was doing well at that point, all things considered.

And then I dropped the container of rice I was going to use for lunch while I was getting it out of the fridge.

It smashed open.

I burst into tears.

There was no time for that though.

The resulting rice explosion and broken container was in the way of the fridge closing and the beeping was starting to feel like the fire alarm.

The urge was to swear and swear loudly.

Instead, I took a few deep breaths and said out loud, “thank you for the opportunity to be who I am, where I am, with what I have at this moment in time”.

If you’ve heard me speak, you’ll know that gratitude is one of the rituals for resilience I teach.

Instantly I could refocus without stress and frustration to clean up the mess. (I actually just pushed it all out of the way of the fridge closing and dealt with it later!)

A lot of my days are like this.

More than in the past.

From the outside, most would say almost all of my days are bad days if they saw themselves in my place.

Yet I still show up, for myself and for the people I’m here to serve with a smile on my face.

Complete personal responsibility.

No excuses.

I share this with you, almost reluctantly, because I don’t want you to feel sorry for me.

I share because I want to demonstrate to you the resilience that I teach, I use every day and it works.

I’ve been broken physically, financially and in love.

But not mentally.

By using rituals to build my resilience every day, I’ve become stronger, not a victim of my circumstances.

If my approach to resilience has gotten me to thrive beyond all the challenges I have experienced; imagine what it could do for you?