Meet Roland Griffith – “Griff”

I didn’t intend to write a book.

That might sound strange coming from an author, but it’s true. To know me, you have to know the titles I’ve held through the years: husband, father, and grandfather top the list. Auto dealership owner, past chairman of the Iowa Auto Dealers Association, and past chairman of the Midwest Ford Dealer Advertising Association give you a clear picture of the industry I forged a career in in my earlier years. Third fastest half-mile runner in the state of Iowa in my high school years, and captain of the track team are titles that might seem an odd choice to share here, but I do so because all were a big deals for me at the time, but now…not so much.

I’m like you in so many respects: I’m one person with a lifetime of experiences. And I’m determined to share what I’ve learned along the way because I understand how difficult it is to struggle with depression, with fear, and uncertainty. I know how it feels when it seems there’s nowhere to turn.

I’ve been there: depressed, miserable, and convinced I’d never be happy again. I lived with depression and moodiness for decades. What I’ve come to understand is that I wasn’t flawed, or abnormal, or wrong for feeling the way I did. My diagnosis with severe depression in 1985 was a personal breakthrough for me: it was the beginning of my mission to learn how our emotions keep us in a negative place and how to turn those thoughts, that mindset, around. My research led to a personal breakthrough, one that’s allowed me to live a depression-free, joyful, full life, without medication.

That’s what my book, Find Peace…One POP at a Time, is all about. I wrote it for you, for the people you love, for everyone who is stuck in the muck and wants to find their own joy, whatever form that takes. That’s what I speak to groups, large and small, about: our innate ability to master our own thoughts by reversing our tendency to linger in our negative mind and instead find higher ground. I’m living proof it can be done, and I want to teach you—and those you love—how to do it, too.