The Fortitude Chronicle: A Weekly Digest of Athletic Determination

Monday Momentum

For the Relentless Mind

To My Wife

As I watched you birth our 3rd child, I see you. I see the commitment and sacrifice you give to our family. I see you sacrifice your own personal goals so that I can pursue my own ridiculous goals. I know the ambition that made you fall in love with me is the same ambition that causes you stress, frustration, and fatigue. You handle it so eloquently. I see the commitment you have to raising our daughters. Sacrificing your health and sleep to prioritize theirs. I see your stress and worry about our family, constantly thinking "if you've done enough," when you couldn't possibly do more for us.

What I witnessed wasn't just the birth of our son Micah. It was the beauty of what resilience actually looks like.

Resilience isn't the ability to bounce back from adversity. That's recovery. Resilience is the ability to keep moving forward while carrying the weight of everything that matters most. It's showing up every day when showing up feels impossible. It's making decisions that serve the family when your own needs are screaming for attention.

You embody this daily.

Fortitude isn't about never feeling overwhelmed. It's about feeling overwhelmed and choosing courage anyway. It's about making the next right decision when you can't see past tomorrow. It's about holding the family together when everything else is falling apart.

Mothers are the backbone of every home not because society assigned them this role, but because they choose to carry it. They choose to be the steady force when everyone else is allowed to fall apart. They choose to prioritize everyone else's peace while managing their own chaos. They choose to be strong when being strong is the last thing they want to do.

I could save everyone thousands of hours of reading with one simple piece of advice: Marry the right woman, because I have and feel the impact every moment. The right woman doesn't just support your dreams—she makes them possible. She doesn't just manage the household—she creates the foundation from which everything else can be built.

The research on family resilience talks about "bouncing forward" instead of bouncing back, because resilient families don't return to what they were—they adapt into what they need to become. You've been doing this for our family from day one. Every challenge transforms you into a stronger version of yourself while making all of us better.

When Micah was born, I didn't just see you bring life into the world. I saw you demonstrate that strength isn't about never breaking—it's about continuing to build while you're breaking. It's about creating something beautiful while you're in pain. It's about giving everything you have when you feel like you have nothing left.

Our daughters will grow up thinking this level of strength is normal because they'll see it every day. They'll think all mothers sacrifice sleep for their children's dreams, put family needs above personal comfort, and handle crisis with grace. They won't realize how rare this is until they're older.

Micah will grow up understanding what it means to be loved unconditionally because he'll see you choose him every single day. He'll learn that commitment isn't a feeling—it's a decision you make repeatedly, especially when the feeling fades.

You are the foundation our family is built on. Not because you have to be, but because you choose to be. Not because it's easy, but because it matters.

Thank you for choosing us every day. Thank you for showing our children what strength looks like. Thank you for being the kind of woman who makes everything else possible.

I see you. We all see you. And we are better because of who you choose to be.

Two Quotes

1. "The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones" -Confucius 

2. "In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.” -Abraham Lincoln 

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To Building Fortitude.

 Best Regards,

Colin Jonov, Founder & CEO Athletic Fortitude