Inspirational People
Aside from all of the great friends that I have made here a bb.com, sometimes you can unexpectedly run into someone who truly changes the way that you think about yourself, inspires you and puts your thinking into a better perspective. Last week on my chest day, a guy hobbled into the weight room. He had on a walking cast and he was shorter than me but was really cut and built. One of my goals is to be cut and built like that. Within 5 minutes of entering the room people started asking him how he broke his foot. By the time the 4th and 5th person asked him I could see the tired look on his face from answering the same question over and over. He told all of them that he didn’t know how he broke it.
Anyway, 4 days later, I was doing pull ups and he hobbled over, sat down and started working out on one of the back machines. I looked over at his foot and told him that I wasn’t going to ask him about it because I heard everyone else ask him about it and we both laughed.
It is amazing what you can learn about people and how they handle and deal with everything that life throws at them. He told me his story. Aside from the broken foot, he survived a kidney transplant and his heart had stopped twice. He is also dealing with lupus and told me HE DECIDED that these obstacles are not going to get him down and are not going to make him quit. Hearing what he went through and seeing how far he achieved in bodybuilding, made my old back problem seem completely insignificant.
Aside from that, the thing that inspired and motivated me the most was his ATTITUDE and DRIVE. It was completely positive in spite of all the obstacles. That kind of attitude is an awesome paradox, challenging and conquering the obstacles, not giving in and not getting down about it. How cool is that?
So the next time I start feeling down about myself, the next time when I catch myself sweating over the small stuff, I am going to remember that there are others who have it a lot worse who made the choice to tackle the problems and adversity head on and succeed.
Nothing is impossible.
March 31, 2009 at 7:31 am
Great post! I love meeting those unexpected inspirations!
March 31, 2009 at 7:31 am
Joe… good stuff; thanks for putting it out there for us to read. We are never guaranteed a perfect life, but we can work to make it a great one. This was a great story about determination and drive and we are all better-off for it! Thanks again!
March 31, 2009 at 7:40 am
Hi Joe - nice post. It’s amazing some of the stories other people have to tell and how unexpectedly motivating they can be. Good work on really being a listening ear for the other guy too - not just taking the most obvious route to strike up conversation and satisfy any curiostiy but actually making a comment aimed to enable a two-way discussion if he wanted.
Have fun! Stay strong!
March 31, 2009 at 7:44 am
That is a good post and should be an inspiration to the rest of us as well. We ALWAYS have so much to be thankful for.
March 31, 2009 at 7:45 am
Great story, thanks for sharing your experience.
March 31, 2009 at 7:51 am
Thanks for sharing. It’s amazing how much we can learn about ourselves through others as long as we’re willing:)
March 31, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Nothing is impossible…..I agree.