If You Haven't Failed, You Haven't Lived.

There are moments in life that make us stop in our conscious thought type of tracks....and really think.

We all have gotten caught up in our daily lives of laundry, work, kids, car repair, school PTA and late night television - and we have all experienced life's moments of clarity where we realize - hey....this applies to me too.

Connections are made in these moments, but never think that they haven't been in the works for quite some time already. We just became aware of them with that thought......

We are a sea of people in an ocean of world and universe. We ebb and flow through the time frame of  our lifetime, meeting and leaving other lives and experiencing things that shape who we end up........and what we end up leaving behind us. We all do things - we try things - we live through things......and we fail. LOTS.

I used to have this 'notion' about failure. It shouldn't happen! I couldn't fail because what would that mean??? It would mean I'm a failure, that's what it would mean! I actually created thoughts like this in my head, and I bought every word.

Failure is necessary. Believe that! Name one human being that ever avoided failure. You can't! There isn't one. The greatest teachers started out as the biggest failures.....why? They kept moving forward - kept trying.....the failure teaches us how to succeed the next time....or the next time.....or if you're like me....the time after that.

People always joke about how life has 'no manual' and if there is one, we haven't found it yet. For some reason, I believe we are each here to write our own manuals. We have individual experiences, live in a collective world where information sharing is critical to our survival (literally....in every sense of the word) and we will always experience failure. I didn't say continually, thank goodness - but it is how we learn about the world, ourselves and each other.

There are those who will fail, fall down, whimper about it and stay there. Life happens and people choose. Others will learn from mistakes, shrug it off as a lesson learned and move forward.

So when I find something that makes me stop and think like this, or experience this clarity, I feel the need to share.

I'm going to only suggest you sit back and watch this video. It will surprise you.
Sometimes, there can be too many words.......

 

Rock your day!

A Personal Testimony by Nick Vujicic - The Man Without Arms & Legs.

Hi Friend - this is a personal testimony of Nick Vujicic, the man without arms and legs. Please read and be encouraged.

My name is Nick Vujicic and I am thankful to have been born 30 years ago with no arms and no legs. I won’t pretend my life is easy, but through the love of my parents, loved ones, and faith in God, I have overcome my adversity and my life is now filled with joy and purpose. I res...

ide now in California with my wife, Kanae, and we both love seeing people’s lives changed for the better or touched in some way. It is my hope that your life is positively impacted by my story.

I was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, and it was a shock to my parents that I arrived without limbs. There is no medical reason for it. My parents did their very best to keep me in the mainstream school system and give me every opportunity to live to the fullest. I was blessed to have a brother and a sister as my best friends too.

We later moved to Brisbane, Australia, where I lived for 14 years before I made the move to California. At age eight, I could not see a bright future ahead and I became depressed. When I was ten years old, I decided to end my life by drowning myself in a bathtub. After a couple attempts, I realized that I did not want to leave my loved ones with the burden and guilt that would result from my suicide. I could not do that to them.

I wasn’t depressed my entire childhood, but I did have ups and downs. At age thirteen I hurt my foot, which I use for many things like typing, writing and swimming. That injury made me realize that I need to be more thankful for my abilities and less focused on my disabilities.

When I was fifteen years old, I sealed my faith in God and from there it has been an amazing journey.

A janitor at my high school inspired me to start speaking about my faith and overcoming adversity when I was seventeen. I spoke only a dozen times to very small groups over the next two years. Then I found myself in front of three hundred sophomore (grade 10) students and I was very nervous. My knees were shaking. Within the first three minutes of my talk, half the girls were crying, and most of the boys were struggling to hold their emotions together. One girl in particular was sobbing very hard. We all looked at her and she put her hand up. She said, “I am so sorry to interrupt, but can I come up and hug you?”

She came hugged me in front of everyone, and whispered in my ear, “Thank you, thank you, thank you. No one has ever told me that they loved me and that I am beautiful the way I am.”

Her gratitude inspired me to go across 44 countries and speak 2,000 times. I realized that we all need love and hope and that I was in a unique position to share that with people around the world.

While majoring in both accounting and financial planning at a university, I also worked on developing my abilities as a speaker. I worked with a speaking coach who helped to cultivate me as a presenter. He especially worked on my body language as my hands flew everywhere at first!

I spoke on motivational topics after creating the company, attitude is altitude. I also launched a non-profit ministry, life without limbs, to spread my messages of faith and hope around the world.

Whoever you are, wherever you’re from and whatever you are dealing with, I hope that you will be inspired by my story and my message. Please enjoy browsing around this website where I share with you my thoughts on faith, hope and love to encourage you and to help you overcome your own challenges.

Dream big my friend and never give up. We all make mistakes, but none of us are mistakes. Take one day at a time. Embrace the positive attitudes, perspectives, principles and truths I share, and you too will overcome.

Be encouraging always.

 

Failure is not important, how you overcome it is.”
- Nick Vujicic

 

Nick can be found all over the internet!

 

Check out his Facebook page here.

Zach Sobiech. You Will Never Forget Him.

 

That's what's awesome about living in this world

- you can help people."

~Zach Sobiech

 

Never Give Up. Never.

The video you are about to watch will make you tear up, cry openly or bawl like a baby. I'm not sure which one applies for your experience (as you haven't had it yet....strange, right?), yet I assure you that you will love the video and the message behind it too. It may have something to do with the powerful music as well - and I'd like to think that if music moves you, that's an incredible thing. Either way - it's a win-win!

 

The video below is about an athlete named Derek Redmond. The footage is from 1992 - so don't anticipate HD or anything. He was about to run the Olympic 400 metre sprint and was the favorite to win. That has to instill some confidence, I would imagine.

 

 

 

I decided to explore further, heading to Derek' current website. Here's some of what I found....

 

 

Among his successes, Derek:

- Broke the British record in the 400m for the first time 1985 in a time of 44.82 seconds beating the 10-year-old mark set by David Jenkins. Then in 1987 reclaiming the record from Roger Black in 44.5 seconds

- Was a World silver medallist in 1987

- Was a World Gold Medallist in the 4x400m Relay in 1991, setting yet another British European and Commonwealth record and also running the second fastest time ever recorded for the 4x400m

Derek Redmond's achievements are all the more remarkable because his Olympic career was dogged by serious injury. In fact, no less than 13 operations on his Achilles tendons and knees forced him to pull out of many major competitions. He is regarded in sporting circles as an extraordinary talent who was never given the opportunity to show what he was really capable of.

Away from the athletics track, Derek has played basketball for England and professionally for Birmingham Bullets. He has coached and advised international athletes at Birchfield Harriers and has played competitive rugby union for Coventry RFC, Stow RFC, playing alongside the likes of Will Carling, Brian Moore, Rory Underwood and Gavin Hastings in a number of highly publicised invitational games.

Derek has been a regular on television and radio, including commentating for Eurosport and making appearances on programmes as diverse as Noel's House Party, Celebrity Gladiators and Equinox. He also presented a prime time basketball show for ITV. Derek has worked with UK Athletics as Director of Development for Sprints and Hurdles. His role involved identifying talented young athletes, inspiring them to commit to their discipline and providing them with the necessary facilities and support structure to enable them to progress from school level to junior international.

Derek draws on his vast experiences as an international sportsman to provide a fascinating and inspirational platform for his motivational speeches. In telling his story, Derek takes the audience on a rollercoaster ride of emotions, but also explains the secrets of his success, both as an individual and within a team.



The video clip was amazing, right? I thought so too!

Powerful and inspiring......and the message is one that benefits us all.

I'm not the type to spoil it for others by letting you know what happens in advance so let me know what you thought in the comments below.

The joy is in the ride!