Written by Grief is a powerful emotion and can bring many into a downward spiral. The flip side is that negative emotions can inspire some to achieve excellent results. Four incredibly unique people (there are many others) used the grief they experienced to produce outstanding results. Perspective matters. Choice and will must override the many societal norms that often accompany grieving.
Each person listed had their battles with the grief monster. Some experienced the loss of loved ones. Others experienced a loss of self that amounted to drug and alcohol abuse and prison time. The experiences of grief can vary, but some cords bind them all. Those cords are the emotions and hardships that grief typically brings.
Even though grief is a harrowing circumstance, we can transform the negative experiences, repurpose them, and use them as fuel to find better versions of ourselves. Again, these four are just a few of many who have done so.
- Danny Trejo became an actor, author, restaurateur, and motivational speaker after serving 11 years in four prisons. He beat a death row sentence and was housed in some of America’s worst prisons, including San Quentin, Soledad, and Folsom.
- Eric Clapton pinned the hit single Tears in Heaven due to losing his four-year-old son to a terrible accident. That song is now listed on Rolling Stone Magazine’s top 500 songs of all time at #362.
- Robert Downey Jr. was a heroin and alcohol addict serving in prison in 1999. By 2005, he got clean, and by 2008, he became Tony Stark/Ironman in the Marvel franchises Ironman(1-3), Captain America Winter Solider, Spiderman Homecoming, and The Avengers (1-4). His career with that series alone has lasted 11 years.
- Nancy Goodman Brinker became the face of combatting the disease of breast cancer. Two years after her sister Susan G. Komen died from the disease in 1980, Brinker started the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure. She even survived the dreaded disease herself. Forty-three years later, her foundation is still strong, fighting to cure breast cancer.
Although grief can take disastrous negative tolls, some people have successfully fought the emotions of grief and used their challenges as catalysts to do the amazing. It proves that grief can be smacked around just as bad as it smacks many of us. We can successfully fight the grief monster and become better versions of ourselves.