no excuses

I was watching this show this morning, where they were inviewing this nineteen-year-old named Kyle Maynard. Kyle was born without his arms and legs missing below his knees and elbows. The book shown above is the story he has written about himself, in hopes to inspire other people to achieve anything. And he actually typed the book himself. So amazing.

But what I found so amazing was, here was this kid who has no hands or feet, and he couldn't have been more excited and passionate about life. He experienced things that most people, typically, get to experience. He played football. He wrestled. He even did modeling. He explained how his parents never gave him any excuses to feel sorry for himself. They never gave him any excuses to stay inside and think success was impossible. They pushed him to do things people never thought possible. And he did. This kid has such an amazing outlook on life, and such a passion to impact other people. At the end of the interview, he said something to the effect of "I found out that this book kept someone from committing suicide. To be 19 and have that kind of an impact on someone, is amazing."

It totally made me think about how often I give myself plenty of excuses. Excuses not to pursue the things I want. Excuses not to do the things I ought. Excuses... for just about anything. Excuses are SO much easier than the pain of pursuing something that's hard. Kyle was talking about when he first started wrestling, and that he lost the first 35 matches he wrestled. He said typically, one would give up after that. He likened it to basketball. If you were to shoot 35 shots, and not make one of them, you might come to believe you were just a bad basketball player and give up. However, he was persistant in learning how to wrestle - how to use his build, his size, and his situation to his advantage. Sure enough, he started to win some matches. Crazy. The amount of dedication and persistence this kid has - brilliant.

So I think I'm going to pick up the book. Sounds totally inspiring. And I don't know about you, but I could totally use a good dose of inspiration. Seems as though too many excuses seem to be floating around...