One of my favorite philosophies for getting through things comes from my time in the fast food industry. I learned a lot during that time, probably more than I learned at any of my past jobs. I definitely started to realize what hard work really took.

I could tell you about the day I worked through lunch serving everyone with only myself, and three other people. Or I could tell you about the Cinco de Mayo from hell. But one of the hardest days came when a water main broke for half the city.

One of our businesses had to close for the two days that the water main was broke. It also happened to be our busiest location in town and due to a lack of critical thinking, they told their whole staff to take the day off. So you can imagine that when all of their business came flooding into my location with half the staff, it was a shit show for a lack of better terminology.

We had a great crew, but it was a lot. Wait times were thirty minutes and we were mean mugged and harassed all day long, while we sweat our asses off online. But this is a fine example of what I call “in the trenches”.

One of my favorite people that motivates me, David Goggins, has spoke about building mental toughness, and it goes hand in hand with this. I’m paraphrasing his words, but you’ve got to block out all external factors, find the greatness that exists in each of us, and use that to fuel you through life’s challenges.

It’s not always going to be pretty. It’s almost never going to be perfect. But sometimes the only way out is through. You’ve got to remind yourself, that you just have to keep trudging forward through the trenches, no matter how slow or long it takes. And you’ve got to remind yourself that no matter what challenge you are facing, it will, one way or another, come to an end. The day is only twenty-four hours long, your shift may only be eight hours long, or in my case at that time twelve to fifteen, and that if you keep pushing you’ll make it to the end.

The last lesson I learned that day came towards the end of the day. I finished an order for one of my regular customers, and he looked at me and then his watch, and says, “Thirty minutes? Really?”

I just looked at him, tried to explain that we were busy and unstaffed, and asked what he wanted me to say. He said maybe just apologize. So I took a deep breath and said, “I’m sorry, is there anything else you need?” He said thank you and that he was good. To his credit he came back the next day and apologized to me and said that he didn’t realize the water main broke and that the other location had closed.

So my second point is this: do your best to get through the trenches as fast as you can, and when it isn’t enough, apologize and keep moving forward. Apologize to yourself, your partner, your family, whoever needs to hear it and try to be better in the future. Use moments like those to remind you why you need to keep striving to be better.