What happens when the plan falls apart—and there’s nothing you can do to change what has already happened?

Ernest Shackleton set out to cross Antarctica on foot. Instead, his ship, the Endurance, became trapped in the ice, was eventually crushed, and sank—leaving Shackleton and his 27-man crew stranded more than 1,200 miles from civilization.

And yet, every man survived.

In this solo episode, Rivers shares why Shackleton became one of his personal heroes—and what his story taught him during a prolonged and difficult season in his own life.

Shackleton wasn’t simply optimistic. He understood how to keep hope in plentiful supply while still facing reality exactly as it was.

As one crew member said of him:

“What had happened had happened. It was in the past, and he looked to the future.”

Maybe that’s something hope asks of us, too.

Not to pretend everything is okay. Not to ignore what has been lost or what we cannot change. But to look honestly at where we are—and then ask:

What now?

Because sometimes hope begins when we stop trying to change what has already happened and turn our faces toward what comes next.

The Grandpa Channel — The Stories That Connect Us All.

www.thegrandpachannel.com

Brian Sachetta knows what it's like to look completely functional on the outside while struggling deeply on the inside.

His experiences with anxiety began when he was young. By high school, ordinary moments—sports, relationships, the possibility of failure or rejection—began carrying a weight he didn't yet have words for. Eventually, a panic attack forced him to acknowledge that something was happening that he couldn't simply ignore.

For years, much of Brian's energy went toward figuring out how to manage those feelings and make them go away. And for a while, he thought he'd made it through.

Then, years later, the anxiety returned.

During an intensely stressful season, Brian was sitting across from his parents at a restaurant in Florida when suddenly the people and world around him didn't feel real. After extensive medical testing failed to explain what he was experiencing, Brian began looking at his struggle differently. Instead of only asking how to eliminate the symptoms, he started wondering whether there was something in his life he needed to hear.

That shift led him to look more closely at his work, relationships, habits, rest, and even the ways seemingly productive things—like constantly consuming books, podcasts, and information—could sometimes become a way of avoiding what was actually happening in his life.

In this conversation, Brian and Rivers talk about what we can learn from the struggles we'd rather get rid of, why listening can sometimes be more helpful than immediately offering advice, the profound difference it made when Brian's mom simply noticed something was wrong, and why he no longer assumes a difficult season means he's back where he started.

And Brian shares what he would tell his twelve-year-old self after everything he's lived through:

It's going to be hard. But you've been through hard seasons before—and that's evidence that you can make it through another one.

In this episode:

• When anxiety first began showing up in Brian's life
• The panic attack that made it impossible to keep ignoring
• What happens when a struggle you thought you'd overcome comes back
• The shift from managing symptoms to listening more closely
• When productivity and information can become forms of escape
• How to support someone who's struggling without immediately trying to fix them
• The role Brian's mom played during one of his hardest seasons
• The simple practices helping him now
• Why his question has changed from “How do I make this go away?” to “What do you need?”

About Brian Sachetta

Brian Sachetta is a software engineer and mental health author. He is the author of Get Out of Your Head: A Toolkit for Living with and Overcoming Anxiety and Get Out of Your Head Vol. 2: Navigating the Abyss of Depression. His writing draws from his own experiences with anxiety and depression and his interest in understanding how our minds work.

https://getoutofyourhead.com/

https://instagram.com/getoutofyourhead

https://www.facebook.com/getoutofyourheadbooks

Brian's first book (on managing anxiety): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L5Z6V75 Brian's second book (on managing depression): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09KQ4FLBW

Dave Swan grew up a little rough around the edges in Rose Park, Utah. He still remembers moving to a new neighborhood as a kid and discovering that carrying a switchblade to gym class wasn't quite as normal there as he'd assumed.

But another childhood moment stayed with him for a very different reason.

Sitting beside his mother at the dedication of their church building, seven-year-old Dave felt something he couldn't explain. His mother leaned down and told him, “David, don't ever forget this feeling.”

Dave says that moment became a reference point throughout his life as he learned to recognize what he believes to be spiritual guidance.

Years later, that faith would become especially meaningful during a trip to Lake Powell with his wife, Cindy.

Their boat struck a submerged reef. Dave, who had already been feeling ill, became progressively weaker until he could barely move. The man accustomed to being “the provider, the muscle, the big guy” suddenly couldn't get himself and his wife home.

And then people started showing up.

A family abandoned their own boating plans to tow them. Two men helped at the dock. A stranger stopped his truck when he saw Dave struggling up a ramp. Later, when Dave could no longer move his legs, a caravan of travelers pulled over. People helped Cindy get to the hospital, cared for their truck and boat, and helped them get home.

One after another after another.

That night, after everything had settled, Dave found himself praying words he hadn't expected:

“God, thank you for the experience that we went through.”

Dave had never been one to ask for help. And somewhere in those 24 hours, a story he'd known for years began to look different.

He'd spent a lifetime thinking about the Good Samaritan.

He'd never spent much time thinking about what it meant to be the one who needed him.

In this conversation, Dave and Rivers talk about faith, the experiences that shape us, the pride that can make receiving difficult, and what can happen when life puts us in a position we never expected to occupy.

A question to take with you: When has someone shown up for you at a time when you couldn't do it on your own? And what did it require of you to let them?

Pull up a chair.

www.thegrandpachannel.com