Endurance, Freedom, and Self-Faith: The Thread That Holds Us Together

Endurance. Freedom. Self-faith.

On paper they look like separate virtues, but in practice they’re inseparable. Every challenge I’ve faced...from leading under fire, to living with the weight of family responsibility, to starting over after failure....has asked for all three. They’re not traits you’re born with. They’re muscles you build, often in the hardest of circumstances.

Endurance: Carrying the Weight

Endurance isn’t glamorous. It’s not crossing a finish line to applause. It’s staying upright when no one’s watching. It’s dragging yourself out of bed after a night of stress and doubt. It’s making one more decision when you already feel spent.

I’ve lived this in leadership....when a decision at work carried consequences I didn’t see coming. The fallout weighed on me like stone. Sleepless nights, the endless loop of “what ifs,” the fear of failing my family. But I’ve also lived it in fatherhood, pushing through fatigue to show up for Clare and the boys when they need me. In physical challenges, forcing the body forward when it’s screaming to stop. In illness, both mine and my family’s, where the only choice is to sit in the waiting, to hold your ground against the unknown.

Endurance has many faces....work, family, body, mind. But at its core, it’s always mental. It’s the will to keep going when comfort, fear, or fatigue tell you to quit.

But endurance has carried me. Not because I have all the answers, but because I keep moving. Step by step, breath by breath. Sometimes endurance is nothing more than refusing to quit today, promising yourself you’ll show up again tomorrow.

How I’ve built it: through the grind. Through years of showing up when I didn’t want to. Through mistakes that forced me to get back up, even when my pride was bruised. Through physical training, parenting, leadership, and weathering storms in a caravan. Endurance is built the hard way....by enduring.

How you can build it: start small. Don’t wait for the mountain. Endure in the ordinary.... a tough workout, a difficult conversation, a restless night followed by showing up anyway. Each time you refuse to quit, you stack resilience for when the real storms come. Dont blame others, dont make excuses, dont ask for pity just get up and keep going. There's no other way (or easy way) to build it.

Freedom: The Fire We Chase

Freedom is easy to talk about, harder to live.

I’ve made choices that broke with the norm. Homeschooling the boys, Learning animal husbandry just so we can produce and consume our own animals, learning how to grow foods, travelling around the country, working overseas, Living in a caravan under a tree, deck flooded but laughter still filling the room and so many more crazy experiences. These have certainly been considered radical decisions, some might say.

But freedom always has a cost. We’ve given up the comfort of certainty, the security of a steady script, and the simple ease of blending in with everyone else. We’ve given up the neat suburban life.....the big house on finance, the kids dropped off at school, weekends filled with sport and routine. Instead, we live with compromise: tight spaces, constant adjustment, sacrifice of personal time, financial risk, and sometimes the judgement of others who think we’re reckless.

That’s freedom: to live by your own values instead of society’s script, and to wear the costs of it on your back. Because freedom isn’t free of hardship. It comes with sacrifice. It asks you to endure. It asks you to sometimes feel uncomfortably or afraid because you dont know what comes next but your willing to risk it to find out.

True freedom isn’t about escape. It’s about choosing the life you’re willing to sweat for....and accepting what you’ll lose along the way to make room for it.

How I’ve built it: by being willing to let go of the things that looked like security but weren’t truly mine. By trusting that what I gained in alignment and truth was worth more than what I lost in approval and ease.

How you can build it: start by asking yourself: whose life am I actually living? If the answer isn’t yours, begin with one corner of your life you’re willing to sacrifice comfort for. Freedom doesn’t grow in ease. It grows where you’re willing to pay for it with discomfort, uncertainty, or the loss of other people’s approval.

Self-Faith: The Quiet Anchor

The hardest battle isn’t against circumstance. It’s against the voice inside that says, “You’re not enough.”

I’ve heard that voice aplenty. After failures at work. In the middle of arguments with Clare. Watching the boys struggle with their learning. Sitting in hospitals, feeling mortality breathe down my neck. Being stuck in the middle of nowhere with people relying on me to get us to safety.

Self-faith isn’t loud. It’s not bravado. It’s the quiet anchor that says: “I’ll face this. I’ll endure. I’ll keep going.” or "If I look hard enough there's always a way out of this"

And that faith is built, not gifted. Every time I’ve walked into the fire scared, every time I’ve chosen freedom over comfort, every time I’ve endured the weight of responsibility...I’ve proven something to myself. That I can keep going. That I can stand back up. That I can carry the mantle again tomorrow and that I can sort things out.

I’ve been labelled a naïve optimist more times than I can count. “Tyron, you’re a dreamer… you’re a gonna. Gonna do this, gonna do that, gonna reach too far.”

And maybe they’re right. But here’s the thing: aiming for the stars might only get you to the moon....but the moon is still a long way from the dirt.

Optimism breeds self-belief. That’s not wishful thinking, that’s a fact. Every time I’ve told myself “I can,” I’ve found a way to push further than I ever thought possible. Not always cleanly, not always perfectly, but further.

If I had to choose one phrase to sum up self-belief, it would be just that: “I can.” Two simple words. They don’t promise victory. They don’t guarantee ease. But they open the door to possibility. And in my experience, possibility is where resilience is born.

How I’ve built it: by looking back. Self-faith doesn’t come from hype; it comes from evidence. From reminding myself of every moment I thought I couldn’t and still did. From noticing that the worst didn’t break me.

How you can build it: don’t wait for confidence. Take action first. Each time you do something hard, you bank proof that you can. Over time, that stack of proof becomes faith...not in luck, but in yourself. Just remember that when you fail it doesn't mean you couldn't, it means you've been given a chance to learn how!

The Thread That Holds Us

Endurance, freedom, and self-faith aren’t separate chapters. They’re threads of the same rope...the one we grip when life pulls hardest.

Endurance keeps you moving.
Freedom gives you a reason to fight.
Self-faith convinces you that you can.

Together, they’ve carried me through storms, failures, and doubt. Together, they’re what let us live true.....not as perfect men, not as heroes in shining armour, but as real people who stumble, fall, and still choose to get back up.

A Reflection for You

If you’ve read this far, don’t just close the page and move on. Sit with it. Ask yourself....or each other....the kind of questions that bite a little, the kind that don’t let you squirm away with a simple answer.

• Where in your life....or in your relationship....do you need endurance right now?
  Is it in showing up for work that feels heavier than usual? In parenting when you’re drained? In your marriage when the same fight keeps looping? Endurance isn’t about never feeling tired. It’s about deciding what’s worth holding on for....and reminding yourself why. Ask each other: What part of our life needs us to endure, together?
• What corner of your life or partnership could you reclaim for freedom?
  Freedom isn’t just about radical choices like living in a caravan or homeschooling. It can be as simple as refusing to let your calendar dictate every hour of your life, or daring to say no to a role you’ve outgrown. As a couple, it might mean shaking off a script you’ve been handed....parenting, finances, even intimacy....and asking: What would it look like if we lived more on our own terms? What would we have to give up to gain that freedom?
• What small action could prove to you (or to each other) that you’re stronger than you think?
  Self-faith is built in tiny proofs. For an individual, it might be tackling one thing you’ve been putting off, and letting that success build momentum. For couples, it might be choosing to face a fear together....from money struggles to health to simply being vulnerable about how scared you actually are. Ask each other: What’s one thing we can do this week that will remind us of our strength?

Because endurance, freedom, and self-faith don’t arrive all at once. They’re built. One step, one choice, one act of courage at a time.

For individuals, it might be quietly proving to yourself that you can hold the line when it matters. For couples, it might be gripping the rope together....not because it’s easy, but because you’ve decided it’s worth it.

Endurance gives you staying power.
Freedom gives you meaning.
Self-faith convinces you that you’ll make it through.

Together, they’re not just survival tools. They’re the foundations of a life....and a relationship....that feels alive, honest, and worth the effort.

Maybe that’s what living true really is: gripping that rope, even when your hands shake, and refusing to let go....especially when you’re holding it together.