Stories of Hope in Hard Times

Jerald shares the many lessons he learned from surviving falling off a cliff, watching his wife bleed-out, and dealing with a sudden job loss.

Wisdom and Lessons from Jerald Simon

About Jerald Simon

• Husband to Zanny, and a father to his wonderful children.
• Founder of Music Motivation®
• Composer of 10 Music Albums, 4 EP’s and dozens of piano books
• Author of 4 motivation and self-help books (see links below)
• Music mentor and piano teacher
• He loves music, teaching, speaking, performing, playing sports, exercising, reading, writing poetry and self help books, and gardening.

Lessons from Falling off a Cliff

• When we fall down, we get back up!
• Look to God in moments of darkness. Keep the faith.
• Life is precious. It is a gift, it should be cherished.
• “Focus intently on what matters most…we all need to continually have reminders and even wake-up calls that help us refocus our energy into the best life has to offer.”
• Power of prayer: The doctors believed that I would not make it, but there were so many people praying on my behalf. It was a miracle.
• When bullied due to seizures during recovery–Jerald made a choice as an 8-year-old that “Every will be a new day regardless of what had happened in the past. Every day I will start fresh. I’m not going to let name-calling or my problems or experiences hold me back.”
• Layers of barbed wire stopped fall at intervals and saved his life–sometimes it is the hard things we hit that save us in the end.

Read Jerald’s blog about falling off the cliff here.

Lessons from Almost Losing Wife

• Jerald went through the emotions of sadness, fear and grief for himself and for his children
• At times of deepest loss it is vital to turn to God the most because you feel as if part of you is gone, and only He can fill that hole–eventually.
• There is a difference between “ritual” prayers and heartfelt prayers and “During dark days and difficult times, that is when your prayers become so sincere as if you are really speaking personally to God.”
• God answered with peace. “I knew that everything would be okay, I just didn’t know what okay meant.”
• Jerald explained that sometimes we are so focused on what we want that it is a bit like looking through a straw, and then God removes the straw our understanding is heightened, and we understand an eternal perspective–to think and see things with an enlarged capacity.
• This experience with God helped him better appreciate God’s will vs. his will.
• “If I focus on what God wants me to do, if I put Him first–whatever happens I know the right thing will happen.”
• “We can find the good even in the bad. There is always light even in the darkest area. There is a faint light that we can look to.”
• There is greatness within everyone. There is goodness. If you look for the best you will find it, whether it’s finding it in a person or a situation or a problem. If you focus on that good, then it will help you to feel better about your situation.”
• A good prayer in hard times is, “Help me find the good in this.”

Lessons from Job Loss

• As a provider, new home owner, and soon to be father Jerald was devastated.
• Feelings of inadequacy and failure crept in.
• Prayed to God, and asked, “What would you have me do?”
• He decided to turn from teaching piano part-time to doing it full-time.
• At first it was a struggle, but looking back it was the best thing that could have happened to me.
• A year later, he wrote his first piano book, and then he wrote another and composed CDs (see links below to view piano books and free sheet music)
• If you are in a dark place, perhaps it will put you on a trajectory that will lead you to the best place for you.
• Sometimes we look at a problem and we think it is the worst, most terrible problem…but we don’t realize that it is taking us from our course and putting us on an even better path.

Find out what God wants you to do! Ask these questions:

• Who am I and what do you want me to be? Who should I be?
• What should I be doing?
• What should I be learning?
• What new skills should I learn?
• What do I envision in the future?
• What would my future perfect life look like?
• Then, get out a blank piece of paper and write down the answers and what you envision for your life and where you want to be and what you want to do. Create your life plan–places you want to go, experiences you want to have, etc.
• Doing this pushes you to have hope in the future–then mark the steps backwards to know how to get there.
• Writing your life mission and goals can give you hope and something to aim for.
• This process is outlined in Jerald’s book “Who Are You?”

Bonus Tips

• “I think everyone has a purpose in life. They may not understand what their individual purpose is, but everyone has a mission that only they can fulfill.”
• There is so much competition in life. We are trying to compete against others instead of bringing out the best in others and the best in ourselves.
• The, “What’s in it for me?” attitude brings a narrow view of life and prevents people from living the lives they should.
• When you focus only on yourself and your needs, you live life in a spiral that circles inward and gets smaller and smaller.
• When you focus on others, you begin in the center and you spiral outwards and your circle grows. This builds a sphere of influence/support network for when you fall. We aren’t meant to go through life on our own.
• Ask: How can I bless and help and serve others?
• Story of looking the most worthless person in the world–found that everyone has worth regardless of where they have been.
• Just as we can be blessed by serving others, we can blessed by others serving us.
• “There are times when we will help and there will be times when we need all the help we can get and we shouldn’t be afraid to ask. Share your experiences and open up with others.”
• “It’s okay to ask for help, and it’s okay to help people, and it is okay to be helped by others. It’s not a weakness. It’s not a failure. I believe that failure is a just a stepping stone. There is no such thing as failure–it’s just another stepping stone to help us figure out and get a stronger footing so we can step in the right direction.”
• We are not perfect–none of us will live a perfect life.
• We’re all in this together.

Inspirational Quotes & Shareable Memes

Connect with Jerald and Links Mentioned

http://musicmotivation.com/

Jerald’s Music is on iTunes and Amazon

Listen to his music: Spotify, Pandora

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeraldmarcsimon

Instagram: @jeraldsimon

Jerald has also filmed hundreds of piano lesson video tutorials on his YouTube page youtube.com/jeraldsimon

Jerald’s Books: