“I don’t know that I believe everything happens for a reason.”

Courtney Clark didn’t say that lightly.

She said it as someone who survived cancer. Then survived it again.

And then survived a brain aneurysm that doctors say would have killed her if they hadn’t found it in time.

Courtney isn’t interested in shiny optimism or motivational slogans. She’s interested in what actually helps when life breaks the plan you were counting on.

At 26, everything made sense. Marriage. A house. A future mapped out.

Then came cancer.

Then a divorce that didn’t survive it.

Then more cancer.

Then three brain surgeries in eight days.

The goals she had built her life around didn’t just feel hard. They were no longer possible.

And that’s where she learned something most of us are never taught.

Success doesn’t come from grinding harder on a plan that no longer fits.

It comes from adaptability.

This conversation is about the difference between grit and wisdom. Between quitting and choosing differently. Between giving up on a plan and believing in yourself enough to aim again.

The Lessons:

• Adaptability beats blind perseverance
• Positivity is an outcome, not a strategy
• Letting go of a plan is not giving up on yourself
• The most resilient goals are big enough to survive disruption
• You don’t have to believe everything happens for a reason.
• But you do get to decide what it means from here.