How do you stay optimistic when life will never be the same?

Derrick McManus, former STAR Group officer and founder of Human Durability, speaking with podcast host Aleksandra King on The BEYOND Podcast. Derrick McManus says optimism is having something better to aim for than the present, even when perfection may be out of reach and the old life cannot be recovered.

Pressed on what kind of strength kept him alive, McManus is explicit that he means mental strength rather than physical, and that the optimism was not a belief he would get his old life back. At that moment he thought that life was gone for good.

He sets the bar at improvement for anyone whose old life cannot be recovered. From there the conversation turns to the body, and to the hours on the ground he spent consciously monitoring himself as his legs closed down.