FATE STRUCK TWICE
It's like many people live their lives looking at the rear view mirror-It could have been...if only I would have....how nice it would have been.....if only i had done that!
There is a reason why the car manufacturers make the windshield much bigger than the rear view mirror.
Furthermore, all of this did not happen at once. I did not have the ‘luxury’ of one great, grand accident to get over. First, I was burned nearly to a crisp (Motorcycle Accident: 65% of his body burned). There is probably not one person in a billion who has endured more physical pain than I have. Then, four years later, in an entirely separate accident (Airplane crash), I was paralysed from the waist down. The average person might call me the unluckiest man alive.
"Life is what you make it,” some people say. But most of us don’t really believe that. “If only,” you might say, “If only I weren’t so old. So broke. So saddled by my mortgage. If only I had less pressure in my job. A family that understands me. There’s nothing I can do, Mitchell.” To which I simply say, “Look at me.” My face looks like a badly made leather quilt. It has literally made children chant, “Monster, monster,” as I pass by. I have no fingers. I cannot walk.
What I want, is to be a symbol for you. With my scarred face, my fingerless paws, my wheelchair, and real genuine happiness in my heart, I want to be your mental image of the power of the human mind to transcend circumstances. As I say in my speeches and my book, “It’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do about it.”
But, what I hope to do in these articles and in my speeches is toteach you not to think like the average person. To show you that nothing, absolutely nothing is absolute. Your life is entirely what you decide it is. The universe starts in your head and spreadsout into the world. Change what happens in your head and the universe changes.
When you feel you have met an insurmountable obstacle, I want you to think of me. And, then say to yourself, “If he can be successful, I can, too.” What kind of success are we talking about? I can rattle off my resume if you like: millionaire, Mayor, member of many boards of directors, environmental leader, media personality, political commentator, commercial pilot, international public speaker, even river-rafter and skydiver.
It's like many people live their lives looking at the rear view mirror-It could have been...if only I would have....how nice it would have been.....if only i had done that!
There is a reason why the car manufacturers make the windshield much bigger than the rear view mirror.
Furthermore, all of this did not happen at once. I did not have the ‘luxury’ of one great, grand accident to get over. First, I was burned nearly to a crisp (Motorcycle Accident: 65% of his body burned). There is probably not one person in a billion who has endured more physical pain than I have. Then, four years later, in an entirely separate accident (Airplane crash), I was paralysed from the waist down. The average person might call me the unluckiest man alive.
"Life is what you make it,” some people say. But most of us don’t really believe that. “If only,” you might say, “If only I weren’t so old. So broke. So saddled by my mortgage. If only I had less pressure in my job. A family that understands me. There’s nothing I can do, Mitchell.” To which I simply say, “Look at me.” My face looks like a badly made leather quilt. It has literally made children chant, “Monster, monster,” as I pass by. I have no fingers. I cannot walk.
What I want, is to be a symbol for you. With my scarred face, my fingerless paws, my wheelchair, and real genuine happiness in my heart, I want to be your mental image of the power of the human mind to transcend circumstances. As I say in my speeches and my book, “It’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do about it.”
But, what I hope to do in these articles and in my speeches is toteach you not to think like the average person. To show you that nothing, absolutely nothing is absolute. Your life is entirely what you decide it is. The universe starts in your head and spreadsout into the world. Change what happens in your head and the universe changes.
When you feel you have met an insurmountable obstacle, I want you to think of me. And, then say to yourself, “If he can be successful, I can, too.” What kind of success are we talking about? I can rattle off my resume if you like: millionaire, Mayor, member of many boards of directors, environmental leader, media personality, political commentator, commercial pilot, international public speaker, even river-rafter and skydiver.
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