And finally, issues of the quality of education, our mental health crisis, and society’s inability to lick social ills like homelessness and crime, will continue to be problems. Just because the media or the watercooler talk don’t bring up these topics does not mean they’ve been solved.
Aloha ʻOe 2021.
Can you imagine the internal and external pressure that comes with being a motivational speaker who is depressed? Can you imagine the pressure of having to be in tip-top condition every other day/night as there are hundreds and hundreds of gigs you need to be “on” for even though you’re human, flawed, and struggle with depression? What if the day you’re supposed to perform for 70,000 people you have a down day? It’s not possible. You have to perform. You have to nail it. It’s what I do. I don’t get to control the date on the calendar they book me for any more than I get to control the way I’m feeling on that day. For me, I’ve learned strategies, tactics, and mindsets that help me perform at a high level no matter what the day brings mentally, because I’ve been trained by the United States military to bring my “A” game no matter what. My self-taught training as an entertainer and a professional speaker also has given me a toolbox full of things I can do to be able to give to my audiences the best Mark I can possibly muster on the day of the performance.
But even all that is just masking the root of the problem. I learned that this week.
Let’s be clear here, ignoring mental health for those who will be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, lifelong depression, or even more serious mental illness, comes with some pretty dire consequences.