Nick - The Man With No Arms, No Legs and No Limits

A good friend gave me a book for Christmas. The book was called Life Without Limits by Nick Vujicic, a man who has lived with no arms and no legs all of his life. The book was very inspiring and made me think constantly about myself. After finishing the book I looked for videos on Nick on YouTube and read a few more articles about him. After watching a few videos, I was impressed by how much Nick would smile.

Nick lived a rough life during his youth. He was teased frequently by other kids and called names such as "freak" or "alien." Nick grew up watching other kids play basketball, surf and go on dates with girls. At age 8 he contemplated committing suicide since he believed at that time that his life was already pre-determined: he couldn't do anything, he wouldn't get married and he would always need others to help him because of his disability.

However, Nick's attitude was impressive. He relied on God to remain positive and used his huge heart to get through some tough times. He learned how to swim, how to surf, how to use a computer and type, how to run a business and how to speak in public. Now, Nick goes throughout the world motivating other people and preaching how life can be lived without limits. He speaks to children about bullying and about loving themselves and each other.

Many times we are angry about the things that we don't have or the things that we do have that we don't like. We'll hate ourselves because we feel we're ugly or we're fat, we'll convince ourselves that we're not smart enough and we'll believe that we're not capable of achieving success. Yet, we forget the things in our lives that should matter. We forget that we have the blessings of our family, of our close friends, of the music we love, of the hands that allow us to hold our babies, of the lips we possess to kiss our mom on the cheek, of the dirty little car that has more than 200,000 miles but is still going, of the home that provides us a bed to rest, of the food we eat every single day and of the heart that allows us to forgive and love with no limits.

You are better than you think. You are beautiful. You are strong. You are smart. You can accomplish anything. The only limits you have are those you are setting for yourself.

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't - you are right."

- Henry Ford

"You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude towards what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you."

- Brian Tracy

Don't forget to share this blog so you can encourage others: family, co-workers, friends. Give them something to get motivated! You never know what they might be going through. A few words of encouragement can go a long way. 

What Would You Do If Everything Was Possible?

One of my favorite stories is a story I read in an article four months ago. The story was about a seven year old girl who was fascinated by the game 'catch.' She began playing catch with her dad, trying to count how many times they could catch the ball without dropping it. At one point they reached 50 catches and the girl and her dad were excited because they just beat their old record.

One day though, the focused little girl requested a game of catch in order to break their previous record of 50. The little girl wanted to get to 100! The dad chuckled a bit because he knew how much trouble it took them to get to 50. A few days later they reached their goal of 100. The next day the little girl said to her dad, "Dad let's go for 300 in a row!" The dad tried to convince his daughter that maybe they should try 125 or 150 because 300 was a stretch. Despite the push-back, the father agreed and a few days later 300 catches became their record. However, the daughter wanted to keep going. Challenging herself, she now wanted to go for 500. The dad said nothing this time but thought to himself, "You got to be kidding me!" Surely enough, after a few days, they reached 500 catches. The little girl didn't stop there.

"Dad," she said, "let's now go for 1,000 in a row!" The father at this point believed that this was impossible. Embarrassed to say anything to his believing daughter he unfaithfully agreed to try to get to that impossible goal. This time, in less than 24 hours, they reached 1,017 catches!

Earlier this week I wrote about fear and how fear prohibits us from reaching goals or trying things for the first time. Many times, we are the ones who limit ourselves and we are the ones who convince ourselves that things are impossible. What if you didn't set any limits? What if you stopped using the words 'I can't'? What if you truly believed that everything in this world was possible? Are you the one limiting yourself?

"Everything is impossible until somebody does it"

- Bruce Wayne (Batman) 

"Nothing is impossible. The word itself says 'I'm possible!"

- Audrey Hepburn

Don't forget to share this blog so you can encourage others: family, co-workers, friends. Give them something to get motivated! You never know what they might be going through. A few words of encouragement can go a long way. 

What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid?

This week I saw a very inspiring speaker. She was a young black female that left the audience speechless. After she was introduced, she took the stage, didn't worry about the microphone and began her short speech. She made great eye contact and spoke clearly to her audience. She was very powerful. Her goal was to convince the audience to volunteer for a youth group. I was so moved by her words that I signed up myself as a volunteer (and later as a coordinator) for the youth group. This person was only 8 years old.

So many times do we get filled with fear. The girl that influenced me to volunteer had no fear. No fear of public speaking. No fear of making mistakes. She wasn't even nervous. As adults, we fear too much. Have you ever asked yourself, 'what would I do if I wasn't afraid?' Fear keeps us from pursuing our dreams, taking risks and eventually getting ourselves out of a hole. We sometimes don't want to speak up, don't want to confront others and we just continue to hurt ourselves. We let fear overpower us.

Time and time again, I hear people saying why they can't play the guitar. Most of the time they say "my fingers don't stretch that far" or they make up excuses such as "I'm just not musically talented." I added a video to this blog to show you that anyone can learn how to play guitar. It doesn't matter the size of the fingers (or the size of the person), it is something that can be learned.

What would you do if you weren't afraid? What would you do if you didn't care if you were embarrassed or ridiculed? What would you do if you weren't afraid of trying or failing? If you have read a blog like this before, then why are you still afraid? You are the one stopping yourself. Where there is a will there is a way.