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If you’ve followed my podcast for a while, you might remember when I put out a call for stories—real stories about resilience, adversity, and personal growth. I said then what I still believe now: my story might not resonate with everyone, but yours might. Someone like Jared Reston shows us you never know who needs to hear what you’ve been through.
Tonight, I’m kicking off the official start of our Resilience Series—not with my own experience, but with the Jared Reston story, a powerful account that changed how I see this job and life itself.
The Day Everything Changed for Jared Reston
On January 26, 2008, Deputy Jared Reston of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office was working off-duty security at the Regency Mall. A call came in—shoplifters. What followed wasn’t just another foot pursuit. It was a life-or-death moment that tested every ounce of Jared’s strength and will to live.
Chasing a suspect across a multi-lane highway and into a drainage area, Jared caught up—and the suspect turned to fight. Jared thought he took a punch to the jaw. What actually happened was worse. He’d been shot.
The bullet tore through his jaw and dropped him into a drainage ditch. But it didn’t stop there. Jared was shot seven times total—three to the vest, one to the thigh, one to the buttocks, one to the elbow, and that devastating shot to the jaw.
The suspect, thinking Jared was down for good, came back to finish the job. But Jared wasn’t done. Bleeding, broken, and flat on his back, he fought back. He drew his weapon, returned fire, and ended the threat.
That should’ve been the end. For most people, it would’ve been.
But Jared’s story didn’t stop there.
Why His Story Hit Me So Hard
When that happened, I was only two years into the job. Still green. Still learning. Like many of us in the early years, I thought I knew what this job was about—but Jared’s story shattered my assumptions.
What he had that day was something I now call the warrior spirit. The refusal to give up. The inner strength to keep fighting even when everything in your body is telling you to quit.
Jared didn’t walk away from law enforcement after that. He went on to serve 13 more years, finishing a 20-year career that included time in SWAT, investigations, and more than 1,000 operations.
And now? Even in retirement, he still trains others through The Reston Group, teaching the kind of real-world preparedness that saves lives.
Resilience Isn’t Just a Buzzword
This story isn’t just about law enforcement. It’s about something deeper. Something universal.
Resilience lives in all of us. Whether you wear a badge or not, life throws punches—and sometimes bullets—your way. How you respond, how you fight back, how you get up… that’s what matters, that’s a warrior spirit.
Jared’s story reminded me that resilience isn’t about being invincible. It’s about refusing to be broken. It’s about pushing through the pain and making it out the other side.
Now I’m Asking You Again
If you’ve been through something that forced you to dig deep—if you’ve had to fight your own battles—I want to hear from you. I want to showcase your Warrior Spirit.
You don’t have to go live. You don’t need to be on camera. If all you can do is send an email, that’s enough. We’ll shape your story together and get it out there in a way that could help someone else.
📧 Send your story to: breach@breachyourmind.com
📲 Or message me on any of my socials.
Let’s show the world what real resilience looks like—one story at a time.