If you're looking for more reasons to get rid of your excuses, check out "The Badass Project." These are podcasts where the guy interviews people with different disabilities who are doing seriously epic shit considering their limitations (or even not considering them) - the intent is to show mainstream people their excuses are bullshit though.
One of my favorites is the interview of Jon Morrow, an associate editor at Copyblogger who can't move from the neck down. Inspiring interview. Doesn't look like I can embed the video, so you'll need to go check it out on site.
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By most standards, going to work at the office — which also doubles as your residential 8th floor balcony overlooking the ocean in coastal Mexico — is pretty badass. But what makes it even more remarkable is knowing how Jon Morrow arrived there in the first place.
Jon was born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a degenerative neuromuscular disease that progressively weakens the body to the point of complete atrophy, and eventual death. For most families, it would be an excuse to throw in the towel and give in before ever giving life a shot. Not for the Morrows.
“I was really lucky to have two incredible parents,” Jon says. “It’s one of the reasons why I’ve survived this disease. But it’s also one of the reasons I’m able to do these things.”
Those things that he refers to are accomplishments that most able-bodied people would not believe possible even for themselves, much less for someone unable to move from the neck down. Things like graduating high school at 16, starting three businesses by 18, graduating college magna cum laude with a 3.9 GPA by 21, and buying and selling millions of dollars in luxury real estate at 22 without ever being able to see the inside of a single property.
Having left real estate behind, today Jon Morrow goes to work in that beachside “office” as Associate Editor of Copyblogger.com, is a creator of a guest blogging course, and licensed his Partnering Profits course to Lateral Action. The key to success for him, he says, and anyone else for that matter, is discovering what’s really important to you, deciding that you’re willing to pay the price, and then fighting for your ideas. Anything else is living a life of disability.
“I would rather die doing what I want to do then die in a nursing home bed somewhere watching TV for 15 hours a day surrounded by other people waiting to die,” he says. “To me that is the scariest thing imaginable.”[...]
http://thebadassproject.com/jon-morrow-entrepreneur/
Another favorite of mine is the interview of Kyle Maynard, a fucking stallion if there ever was one. Guy has no arms and legs and was on of the best wrestlers in the country in his weight class, became a cage fighter, owns a crossfit gym, and has climbed Mount Kiliminjaro.
![[Image: kyle_maynard-260x152.jpg]](http://thebadassproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/kyle_maynard-260x152.jpg)
Here's an ESPN video of him
Nothing much to say after that....
But also check out the Baddass Interview with this guy. Seriously inspiring!
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In his senior year of high school, Kyle Maynard became one of the top 12 wrestlers in the country for his weight class, won 36 varsity wrestling matches, beat several state champions, and had over 120 takedowns on the mat. And, oh yeah. . . he has two arms that end at the elbow and legs that end at the knees.
Born with congenital amputation of the forearms and lower legs, Kyle was raised in a family that refused to treat him any differently. Encouraged to be “normal,” his parents groomed a life for him that included all the benefits offered other children, including athletics. By 6th grade, Kyle was playing football. By high school, he had added wrestling to the mix.
“The cool thing was, my parents kind of looked at me and treated me the way that I learned to treat myself, which is without a disability at all,” he says. “Their biggest point in raising me is they wanted to make me independent and that’s really all anyone can ask for.”
That isn’t to say that success came easily. He lost his first 35 wrestling matches. But he kept a goal of never getting pinned and by his senior year, he’d hit his stride. It’s this type of perseverance that has guided him every step of the way.
“You can buy into the fear, you can buy into the ‘whoa is me, this is all there is to life,’ and frankly, you’ll be in with the majority. [But] I don’t want to be there. I want to be in the group that says ‘I’m going to write my own reality, regardless of what I’m up against.’”
Today, Kyle is much more than the wrestler who made his mark without fully-developed limbs. He’s a MMA fighter, a motivational speaker, an author, an owner of a CrossFit gym in Georgia, and he’s his own man. In refusing to make excuses, Kyle is getting in all that he can, each and every day.
“There’s more that we can get out of this life,” he says. “There’s more that we can get out of all of our goals, whether it’s running a marathon, whether it’s running a business, [or] whether it’s just waking up in the morning and believing [that] what we can do is possible.”[...]
http://thebadassproject.com/kyle-maynard...d-fighter/
Don't just read the excerpts - go to the site and check out the interviews. Really great stuff. You're pretty much free to set down your tampons after seeing what these guys do with their lives.
I downloaded them to my ipod and listen to them while jogging.
Beyond All Seas
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling
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Great thread.
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