The Microburst and the Mindset

A surprise storm rolled through town last Friday. We got four inches of rain in 40 minutes. The kind of storm that brings wild winds, flooded gutters, and, in my case, a flooded SUV because we left the sunroof open.

Family SUV waiting to collect 4 gallons of water through an opened sunroof.

At first, I handled it. Vacuumed water, pulled carpets, disassembled seats. It felt solvable. But what I didn’t expect was the way that one event would ripple out into the rest of the weekend. How a disrupted Friday would lead to a depleted Saturday, then a sluggish, regret-laced Sunday. No workouts. No early mornings. No journal-ing. Just fatigue and that low-grade hum of guilt.

Here’s the truth: the microburst didn’t wreck my rhythm—I did. I let the storm alter my mindset. I let a hard day give me an excuse to step out of alignment. I let “I’m tired” and “I deserve this” creep in. I gave up my agency.

And that’s what stings the most. Not the car. Not the missed tasks. But that I let a single event alter my way of being. In the Army, we had a phrase: “Weather doesn’t dictate the mission.” You go. You adapt. You continue. The saying rings doubly true today.

I write this not in shame but with clarity in mind and a need to name aloud where I fell short. I want to be accountable to what I say I am going to do and grow my integrity's strength to not bend when a BS excuse like, I'm tired rolls through my mind.

Discipline isn’t about being perfect. It’s about returning quickly. It’s about remembering who you are when your body says rest and your spirit says show up.

So today, I show up. Tired. Humbled. And determined to re-join the line. Not because it’s easy, but because I’ve felt the cost of not doing so.