What to Do When Disaster Strikes
Are you ready for the unexpected/unwanted?
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Before the cancer, before A.J. Brown, before the near mental breakdown, I was a dreamer.
I think if you want to do something really special with your life, you have to dream. I’ve been dreaming for a long time. Since perhaps 7 or 8 years old, I would tell adults I was going to be a professional athlete when I grew up. In every dream I was the hero.
I used to spend all day hitting rocks over the wall at Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium (although you might think of them as the woods beyond our backyard), but to me, the spot in the ground that I settled in for hours was far more than a batter’s box—it was a cathedral. Other days I was Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan shooting hoops for hours on end, hitting the last second shot to win the game.
Then, I got bullied. The dreams stopped. It wasn’t the normal bullying. At Lake Youngs Elementary, I was one of the leaders: smart, athletic, popular. But all that changed when one of the other leaders and I had a confrontation. I lost (at least I felt like I did—which is all that really mattered) and I tumbled in a freefall of lostness. I stopped playing football at recess—or playing anything. I became reclusive, which made me a target.
That don’t-want-to-go-to-school life carried into Meeker Jr. High School where my grades suffered as well. Seventh grade was rough until I made the junior varsity baseball team. Sports became my savior.
Eventually I got drafted by the Chicago Cubs (dream come true!) but then I got injured (dream over😔). I got a job with the Texas Rangers and the South African Olympic Team, but those were just layovers. God had bigger plans. I had to go find myself, or rather, find something that I could devote my life to, beyond myself, that I was willing to live and die for. For that, I needed time and space.
I became a performance coach, teaching professional and Olympic athletes how to have peace and confidence under extreme pressure. Life was great, but my writing was not well-known… until January 12, 2025 when a famous football player read Inner Excellence on the sidelines and they won the Super Bowl.
Snoop Dogg made a skit about it.
Fans read it suspended above the streets.
Philadelphia news anchors captured the meme.
Amazing.
Then, disaster.
Two and a half weeks ago I was diagnosed with cancer.
Let’s stop for a moment and look at the arc of my life:
A star in elementary school, but then the bullying started.
Got good at sports (all-state in high school) but in the most important category, social acceptance, I was a dumb jock. Began to wonder if I would ever be successful.
The first two years of college were great (back to being smart, successful, and most importantly, loved).
At Portland State University (PSU) baseball was great (All Pac-10 North) but I wasn’t accepted by my teammates. No friends.
Drafted by the Chicago Cubs (dream come true!), but no friends and no success (in my mind). A vision issue ended my career after five years.
Drove a truck for FedEx, downtown Seattle, Wa.
Coach with Texas Rangers (few friends) and the South African Olympic Baseball Team (amazing friends).
Two and a half years in the desert, five years writing and researching Inner Excellence full-time—followed by a near mental breakdown.
Inner Excellence clients are extremely successful, then AJ Brown reads the book to help the Eagles win the Super Bowl.
Then, the cancer.
Ok, back to the main question: What do I do when disaster strikes?
Well, to answer that, we need to know two things first:
What’s your dream? We have to know what’s most important so we can sort out what’s good or bad, so we can be happy or sad.
From there we can decide what constitutes as disaster.
If for example, you want to live The Best Possible Life, one with amazing experiences, deep, enriching relationships, and feel fully alive, no matter what the circumstance, well… then you’re going to need training. And it’s going to, how do I put this… it’s going to hurt.
Your heart needs to be reconstructed (taught to love most what’s most empowering), your desires need to be recalibrated (so compulsions lean more towards compassion), and your will needs to be reoriented (towards sacrificial love). These are not a natural part of the human heart. They need to be learned.
Hmmm… maybe go for just a real good life instead? The best possible one may be a bit much.
So for me, I do want the best possible life—no matter the cost. That may sound macho or some sort of heroic, but it’s not really all that. It’s because I’ve thought about this deeply and tried the pleasure route. Either way, I’m gonna pay. Either way life will be painful.
Let’s say I go for the most pleasure and the least pain for myself (and my family). That usually ends up the most painful route, because it’s the most near-sighted and unaware. It leads to being attached to results and circumstances that I can’t control, which brings frustration and anxiety. It’s not fun. I know from experience (please don’t tell anyone).
So the key to handling disaster… is heart preparation; heart transformation. If you travel down the live-for-myself-life that I lived most of my life, you’ll be immensely vulnerable at any minute to be rocked by disaster.
But, if you train your heart (or ask God to), then you can learn to embrace every situation as training for you, because your number one goal is to learn and grow, and you know that everything is here to teach you and help you—it’s all working for your good (especially the unexpected/unwanted). And if it’s time for this life to end, you’ll know that you gave it all you got.
If you’re like most people, as you get older, you think too much and dream too little. But if you can get out of your self-protective life, you can dream big, big enough that your dreams will move towards how you can change the world, or just as importantly, change the lives of those in your world. You’ll know you’re dreaming often enough and big enough when you’d rather look foolish for failing than not risk at all.
And perhaps, God (or the universe) will reward you with training, to help you live your dreams—dreams as big as His.
Love Jim
PS
(Your training might even involve cancer.)
The Update
I was diagnosed with cancer Jan. 20, 2026.
I had surgery at Clayman Thyroid Center in Tampa, FL Feb. 3, 2026 (five days ago).
Going in to surgery there were many unknowns: Had the cancer spread? Would they have to take out the whole thyroid? Would I need radioactive iodine treatment afterwards?
The Result
Margins were clear (the cancer was contained).
No further medicine (or radiation) necessary.
See the endocrinologist in six months for another ultrasound.
The Miracle
Beyond Kelly Mahoney from Hillpointe Real Estate’s sorting out the travel, the clinic/doctor, and the cost, there’s been no pain. Zero. The scar is huge (the cut is about three inches across my throat) and it was quite red, purple, and swollen. But no pain meds required.
The next Inner Excellence YWAM Homes of Hope retreat is April 9-13 in Ensenada, Mexico. Check out the Inner Excellence Freedom Project website for more information. Likely it will change your life. No experience necessary. Kids welcome.
YWAM (Youth With a Mission) is a non-profit organization that has a Homes of Hope division where they/we build a house for a family start to finish in two days. This is the only chance for the public to do an Inner Excellence retreat (you get both the full Inner Excellence retreat and YWAM house build) until November 2027. The spots fill fast so don’t hesitate (20 people is the cap). It’s possible we’ll build two houses (if there’s 40 of us) but that’s TBD.
Substack paid subscriptions are open!
My team is still dreaming of how to make the most impact for all of you that want more Inner Excellence. It’s $7/month (USD) or $75/year. Likely be monthly Q and A (at a minimum) and more sharing of the routines of thought and action that I do, as well as audio journals.
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