This is the 3rd chapter of

“Synchronicity: A Divinely Orchestrated Journey”

I will be releasing 1 chapter online a day for 40 days.

Click Here to read the full book from the first chapter 

Chapter 3
Trust in the Process

The highest reward for a person’s toil 
Is not what they get for it, 
But what they become by it. 

John Ruskin 

Forty-five minutes later I arrive at his house.  

He is waiting for me at the door.  

As I enter, he thanks me once again and then disappears to leave me alone with his son, who is sitting at the kitchen table.  

“Talk to me,” I start out. 

After some time, the young wrestler confides in me that he feels like he has worked all of his life and that he hasn’t seen any reward for his efforts. He has mistakenly determined that wrestling is just not worth it anymore. 

“Let me tell you a little story, I start out. 
I won’t make believe that I was this great wrestler,  
I wasn’t.  
But I do know a little something about dedicating your life to something and feeling unrewarded.  
When I was your age I gave six years of my life to this sport, and I never got to stand on the top step of the podium in the tournament I set out to do so in.  
I walked away feeling like I didn’t achieve what I set out to do in the sport I loved.  
I hated the sport for not reciprocating the love I had for it.  
I left the sport feeling that my six years wasn’t worth it.  
That it was a total waste of time and effort.  
It took me many years to realize that even though I never accomplished my goals in wrestling, wrestling accomplished its goals in me.  
They call wrestling the greatest sport on earth for a reason.  
It just took me twenty-six years to realize why.  
You see, you are on a journey.  
Right now you think the journey is about winning wrestling matches.  
One day, many years from now, you will realize it’s about so much more.  
Silently this sport is building within you everything you will need to be successful in your life.  
But only if you allow it to.  
Now, you only see plateaus and loss and unfulfilled dreams.  
It all seems like chaos. 
But the lessons within the chaos are important.  
More important than winning. 
One day you will understand that. 
If I can convince you of only one thing, let it be this – you need to trust in the process.  
You have to trust the work you are completely immersing yourself in, is either going to produce your desired result or equip you with the tools needed to conquer a more important future endeavor, one you neither understand or are currently aware of right now. 
I believe the lucky ones in this sport, which I consider myself to be one of, get something of far greater value than standing on top of a podium for a few seconds.  
They get a way to live life.  
And that lasts their whole life, not just the length of an awards ceremony. 

I hear you have hit a plateau.  
Plateaus provide one with time to think.  
To doubt. 
To wonder. 
To agonize.  
To lose belief.  
Plateaus are a time to quit or re-commit.  

So many people give up on their dreams during plateaus.  
Don’t.  
Plateaus are a filtering system to greatness.  

Whether you wrestle this year or not, is up to you.  

But understand this, there will be a time in your life when you will be in the fight of your life, facing an opponent much bigger than you, and you will be called upon to win something much more important than a wrestling match.  
Not only for yourself, but for your family. 
One day your family may be faced with a death, a divorce or a diagnosis. 
The one thing I know for sure in life is your family will be much better prepared to win that fight, having wrestled. 
Wrestling is about learning how to fight, to be able to beat what life is going to throw at you.  
You are doing a great job. 
Forget about plateaus, and getting to the next level.  
Just trust in the process  
And I can assure you,  
You will be rewarded in the end. 

That is why you should wrestle.”  

I made it back home after midnight and I spent the next few hours marveling how the Divine sneakily used a synchronistic event in my life to get me to hear in my own words what I should do. 

To trust in the process. 

Chapter 4 – Jumping Into an Icy River 

Synchronicity is the 4th book in the “Every Breath is Gold” Memoir series.

#1 – 6 Minutes Wrestling with Life

#2 – AGAIN

#3 – Your Soul Knows

All of JohnA Passaro’s books are available at these fine online stores: