Like on Facebook
Diana Nyad is truly remarkable. I am truly inspired by her. In the 1970s she set long-distance swim records and thirty years later at age 60, she attempted her longest swim yet, from Cuba to Florida. Sometimes I have a hard enough time going from my home to the grocery store and to think she swam that far…
Part way through the swim she was stung by the Box Jellyfish, one of the more venomous creatures in the ocean. She was assisted by support and stayed in the water swimming. She fronted the pain and proceeded to swim. Not long after the first sting she was hit again; she was treated once more, but hours later she was unable to complete her dream, her mission.
Did she quit? Absolutely not.
What things have you tried to complete and have failed? Were they greater than attempting a swim from Cuba to Florida and being stung by deathly jellyfish? I sincerely doubt it. It doesn’t make yours less important, so don’t quit. Set your goals again. Get back up and make them happen.
Simply amazing! I want to be like that, when I get older…
great stuff – thanks for the reminder about resetting goals
Am I the only one who gets tired of these extreme adventure types inventing more and more preposterous challenges for themselves? What are they trying to prove by these ultra self-centred “missions”? Think of all the thousands of hours this woman has spent alone in a pool, training. Lap after mind numbing lap. I cannot think of anything more boring or less constructive for her family, friends and community.
I am all for setting goals for oneself. I have a few too. But none of them involves me sailing around the world in an IKEA-bookcase or walking backwards up the Kilimanjaro.
BTW: I normally love your blog and check in almost every day. Keep up the good work.
BR/David from Sweden.
@David,
Thanks for stopping in on the regular!
Just to stimulate your thoughts a bit further: try thinking of this in terms of doing what you love. Why do you do what you love to do? The simplest answer is because you love doing it. I personally don’t enjoy swimming all that much, but Diana’s success and the success of others is inspirational to me.
To each is their own goals. Rather than looking at this as a self-centered or non-constructive mission, an approach asking yourself why you you do what you do, it will become easily apparent that the same could be said for anything you do on a daily basis—this also involves those things you love doing most.
Diana’s thousands of hours spent practicing is all the same as my thousands of hours spent designing. It’s not about proving that you did something to everyone else, it’s about proving to yourself that you can do it. There are a few amount of things that give better enjoyment than accomplishment self-goals.
You have the best motivational posts, very inspiring!