My name is Dominick Juliano and I am a retired military veteran. I am in my final year of coursework to obtain my Doctorate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology.
After I was medically retired from the military due to experiences in my former career, I began to take a long and hard look at myself and who I had become. I realized I blamed my problems on others and was not properly seeking an acceptable way to deal with them. I became a shadow of the Military Rockstar I once was in my own life and the role model among my peers. I found myself overweight and unable to perform basic physical activities like playing with my son on the floor, or even being able to hold my wife close to me. Those were things I valued in my life and I allowed myself to lose them because I lost my ability to execute and accomplish my objectives.
I had to come to the realization I did not control what happened in my life, only how I responded to it. The day after I almost committed suicide, I realized drowning myself in alcohol every day to try and change the pain and denial in my mind was not helping. I realized the pain killers I was given an unlimited supply of were not helping my life and were barely helping my pain. I realized the sleeping pills I was taking had become a crutch and were affecting my behaviors even when I was awake. In fact, I couldn’t sleep without them anymore. When I looked in the mirror I no longer recognized who was looking back at me. I hated the person I saw.
It took me almost two years of intense work with Psychiatrists, Physical Therapists and Medical Doctors to get my ass back on track. It took almost two years of my life to realize what I had created within it was changeable and even reversible. I realized all the time and work I put into my dream the past eighteen years was going to be for nothing if I did not go all the way with what I dreamed of sharing with the world.
Once I saw this miserable existence I was living was not permanent, I realized I had been changing my circumstances my whole life. As shitty as living in my car at 17 and trying to finish High School was, it taught me valuable lessons on how to press forward regardless of how bad things get. I learned early on, it does not matter what circumstances you might have been handed. What matters is what you do with those circumstances. What matters most is our ability to be who “YOU” are supposed to be according to “YOU” and no one else.
I am currently about halfway through writing my first book, “Beautiful Trainwreck: Off the Rails.” This book explains how my life has been one screwed up situation full of valuable lessons to the next.
As I began to move in this new direction I realized rather than try and forget, it was important to share my experiences in the hopes someone can learn from them. Not only as an adult finding his way, but to share the beginning of this journey through the eyes of a child. I share how I pressed my way through and what I have learned about violence throughout my life. I want you to understand that a little boy full of rage, who was in and out of public institutions, and from a family that did not want him can become someone if he believes in himself and he tries. We are all a beautiful trainwreck and we all have the potential to go full steam ahead.
At this point in my travels and experiences, I have come to realize that many men and women are developing a skewed and jaded view on themselves and one another. Through influential social media and technology, we are losing our ability to pursue our purpose. This loss of perspective and presence in our everyday lives is the wide-spread effect of good intentions and bad execution. That’s a beautiful trainwreck.
I hope my work can assist others who feel like their life is either going sideways or has gone completely off-track like mine did.
السبيل الوحيد للخروج هو من خلال
