Overcoming life's challenges and disabilities

Life is tough. And sometimes doesn't seem to follow the path of fairness. It's easy to look at others and compare my particular situation to theirs and think to myself "what if . . . . ?". Or to look at opportunities others have and say "well, they were able to succeed because they had . . .?" But in the end, life is what you make of it. And obstacles, hurtles and my own disabilities . . whatever they may be . . . are just opportunities for me to learn a new way of doing something. I remember reading a book almost 25 years ago that I still enjoy reading today. The Seeds of Greatness by Dennis Waitley. In that book, he interviewed highly successful people from a variety of fields and endeavors. Not all were measured by financial success. Some might have been great educators, scientists, investors, corporate titans, or clergy. And he tried to identify in each the common denominators that each had and shared with the others. He found several common characteristics. But the one that I remember most was that they all had an attitude about adversity that was unique to successful people. They each expressed it in their own way, but it could be summarized by saying that each looked at adversity and disability as an opportunity to learn a new way of doing something. This point was driven home even more recently when it was discovered that my 7 year old grandson is dyslexic. He's a remarkable, bright, and very smart young boy. But it seems life has thrown him a little curve and my first thought was that this was going to be a great hurtle for him to overcome in the future as he goes through school. And then the same day I heard of his disability I happened to tune into a television program that night with an interview of a best selling author, Vince Flynn. And during the interview (click here for the video and written transcript) he began to talk about how he came to realize that his own disability of dyslexia was actually a gifting and gave him the ability to do visualize things that others couldn't. In fact, he attributed his greatness at writing to being dyslexic. And he also talked about children with Attention Deficit Disorder and how that can become a gift and asset in an adult's life and not a disability. It was . . for me . . a very insightful interview. And it renewed in me that attitude of realizing that challenges and adversity were not just things to overcome, but were opportunities for me to learn a new or better way of doing something. Today I saw an interview with another man, who has his own disabilities that he's overcome. Very challenging. And yet . . this man . . .that many would pitty, has actually become the one to be a teacher and inspiration to others. It's a wonderful video, whether you play golf or not. And it inspires me to press on. As I sit here today thinking about how much I have to do, and how hard I have to work and how full my hands are . . . I am most grateful that I have two hands to be full in the first place. If you will watch this, you will agree with me, that it's not about Golf. It's a video about life.

Click here: Butch Lumpkin and His own Seed of Greatness