The last day of the International Fitness Convention (IHRSA) in San Diego was an inspiring one. Too often in life, I come across people who limit themselves (including myself) because of a lack of belief, whether it be anything from accomplishing a long-held goal to losing weight. On this day however, I experienced two examples of the human spirit attaining amazing accomplishments.
The first one was the guest speaker on the final day of the IHRSA convention, Silken Laumann who is a 4-time Olympian on the Canadian rowing team. She told of her story of an injury incurred in the warm up of her final preparation event prior to the 1992 Olympics. With the muscles, ligaments and tendons of her lower left leg totally severed and smashed, and only 10 weeks prior to the Olympics, no-one gave her any hope of competing. In fact, Doctors suggested that at best she may be able to participate in social rowing sometime in the future. That obviously wasn’t an option for her as she started training in her hospital bed (pulling rubber resistance bands) the day after the accident and went on to win a Bronze medal just 10 weeks after the horrific accident. See her website at http://www.silkenlaumann.com/olympian
Later that same day, I was doing the tourist thing in San Diego, walking around Balboa Park. I love to experience excellence displayed by others, whether it be in dance, art, athletics or in any other pursuit. So when I heard a singer/ guitarist busker playing, who in my opinion sounded very good (my opinion being supported by the crowd of people surrounding him), I went to check him out. I was awestruck when I approached to find this guy had no arms and was playing the guitar with his feet. He was truly inspirational! He also plays in a band around San Diego and regularly busks at Balboa Park. Check him out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDLvlicXBV8
If only we could all remember to explore the possibilities when we hit any sort of obstacle. Imagine how much more we could accomplish.