Page 2 - Desert Lightning News So. AZ Edition, Oct 5 2018

2
October 2018 www.aerotechnews.com/davis-monthanafb Facebook.com/DesertLightningNews
Lessons from failure
Desert Lightning News
Staff Sgt. Tiffany Lundberg
Staff Sgt. Justin Norton, 302nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs photojournalist, runs laps around the track at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. Norton failed a fitness test in 2014 and has strived for top physical fitness ever since.
by Staff Sgt. JUSTIN NORTON
302nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — Thirty-two. Thirty-three. Thirty-four. Thirty-five -- time’s up. Somewhere in Texas a senior airman failed his fitness test. He couldn’t com- plete the minimum requirement for abdominal crunches.
Dragging himself back to his car, ashamed and furious with himself, he realized that he was now one of those Airmen he looked down on for failing their fitness test. Worse yet, he was de- ploying in two weeks and his gut sank as he thought of delivering news of his failure to his supervision.
That senior airman was me in 2014.
I also found out I wouldn’t be promot- ing to staff sergeant earlier that day either, making this the second year in row I missed the mark for a promo- tion. At this point, I was certain my leadership would tell me I’d blown my opportunity to deploy. I’ll never forget the half hour sitting in the parking lot, full of shame, staring out at the flightline before facing my supervisors.
I did end up going on that deployment and had to pass a fitness reassessment while I was there.
Until failing that fitness test, I never felt like a failure. I’d felt mediocre at times. In fact, I often felt mediocre. I knew there was plenty of room for me to improve, but never acted on it. I never studied for my promotion test or trained for fitness assessments. At work, I met the standards, nothing more, noth- ing less. Looking back at that time, I coasted through my professional and personal life.
I didn’t know at the time that I needed to fail that test. The shame and anger born from that failure pushed me toward growth and progress like noth- ing I’d ever experienced before.
While deployed, I engrossed myself researching fitness plans and woke up two hours before my 13-hour shift to hit the gym. I lifted weights and did push-ups and sit-ups, then wrapped up with a run every day. On my only day off each week, I woke up early to run until my sides ached and I was covered in sweat with the sun beating down in 110-degree desert heat.
I was averaging about five hours of sleep a night with a little more than that on my day off in an effort to catch up on the lost hours. I was exhausted and I hated every second of it. But I hated being a failure more so I kept at it.
When it came time for the fitness reassessment, I earned a 93. It was the first time I ever scored above 90. But the biggest payoff from those early morn- ings and intense training routines was what they taught me about failure and the value it added to my life.
Seeing that score was the turning point in my life. I began looking for other ways to improve myself and learned to use failure as a motivator. I stopped beating myself down and changed the way I approached prob- lems in my life. Instead of focusing so extensively on the ways I thought I couldn’t measure up, I learned to ap- proach my struggles as obstacles to overcome instead of walls I couldn’t pass.
Statements like “the only way to grow is to be uncomfortable” can be found in all sorts of motivational texts and seminars, but lessons like this have to
be experienced to have any significant impact on a person’s perspective on life and failure. For me, it was weightlifting that gave me a better understanding of this life lesson.
I want to encourage people to not give up in the face of failure, because I’m a
better Airman today due to the lessons I learned from mine. We all have to face failure in some aspect of our lives and it wears a different mask for all of us, but it can teach us how to be better if we’re prepared to search for those lessons rather than flee from them.
Preventing suicide - starting with myself
by GLENN ROBERTSON
90th Missile Wing Public Affairs
F. E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. — Other days, and even on good ones, the thought creeps up out of nowhere – an insidious sense of doubt. Of worthlessness and a sense of purposelessness that whispers in my ear and tells me that I will never accomplish the goals I have set for myself. The thoughts that make me ask why I shouldn’t just call it quits and end the sadness that plagues me.
I am just one of nearly a quarter of the population who has suffered with this illness for most of my life. Just like all of them, depression is present nearly every day of every year. If this sounds familiar to you, you are not alone. There are millions in this country who know the daily struggle of depression.
But I do not and I will not allow
this disease to define me – and I ask anyone reading this who might be going through hard times to do the same. Maybe your situation is dif- ferent. Maybe post-traumatic stress disorder haunts you and the things you’ve seen and experienced make you never want to open your eyes again. Maybe the stress of your job or your life seems to be too much to bear and you can’t see any end in sight.
Overwhelming anxiety. Brain injury. The effects of substance abuse. So many different mental troubles can lead to suicidal ideation, which can complicate finding a solution for an individual thinking about hurting themselves.
Whatever personal challenge you’re fighting with, please do ev- erything you can to remind yourself that life is worth living. It’s a chal- lenge and often even a struggle, absolutely. But, no matter what you’re struggling through, there are people who care about you with the
resources available to help guide you through the darkness.
Whether it’s an anonymous phone call to a hotline, a visit to a chaplain or a whole host of options in between, there are people – real people – out there who want to bring you back from the brink and help you realize that life is too precious to turn your back on. I have lost three people I considered friends – including one asclosetomeasabrother–to suicide. I will never forget the day I received the message that he died. It has stuck with me for 11 years now, a dull ache of loss for a friend torn away too soon. I ask myself if there was more I could have done to keep him from this end. He, and each of the others, left holes in those left behind when they died, and they are missed terribly by many people every day, even 11 years later.
For those of you who have made it this far and cannot relate to anything
written above, I have a request for you as well. Go to https://www.af.mil/ Suicide-Prevention/ and read about some of the programs and other re- sources available. If you see someone who’s clearly not themselves, strug- gling with some unseen torture, ask them how they’re doing. Ask them to get coffee or grab lunch. Sometimes all it takes to support someone in this situation is just being there. Or you can go a few steps further and learn the signs. Sign up for A.S.I.S.T. training through the chaplain’s office or take a similar program that will help you notice warning signs before they become tragedies.
September is officially Suicide Prevention Month, but there is no timeline on reaching out to some- one in need and you can learn how to be more aware of the subtle signs shown by those at risk twelve months a year. You may be the one to save a life.
COMMENTARY