Aptitude versus attitude
“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.”
The importance of our attitudes in life, and how each morning when we wake up, we have a choice as to which attitude we will choose to embody that day
Our First inspiring Story
This inspiring story of the first female amputee to climb Mount Everest will make you proud.
Arunima Sinha waving the Indian flag.
As she lay in the hospital bed, with one leg amputated, Arunima Sinha took a vow that many would think impossible. Her goal, from that day onwards, was not just to become adept at walking with a prosthetic leg but scale the highest point in the world–Mount Everest.
It was a feat–which many would consider impossible–that not only brought back her self confidence but made her an inspiration for everyone back home. Even before the horrible accident which left her an amputee, Sinha was a force to reckon with.
As a national level volleyball player, she already was in possession of an indomitable spirit. When a few robbers pushed her out of a moving train in 2011, resulting in her getting seriously injured, she decided that she would not cower down but fight back. “I was an amputee now, and people were looking at me with pity in their eyes. I decided then and there that I would do something to prove myself. And mountaineering was the only option. It was the only option where there were no chances of saying sorry. If you committed a mistake, life would be the one saying sorry to you,” she says.
For the next two years, she trained continuously in mountain by Srijani Ganguly. There was “no Sunday, no Diwali and no Holi” for her. Nothing could waver her from her goal. Her first feat on the way to the summit was wrought with injury. She was so happy to have reached the base camp that she lost her balance and fell to the ground, injuring herself in the process. Mistakes, in fact, came and went on her way to the top.
There were many points in the trek where there were no ladders to support her to the other side of the wide gap. She was forced to, on such instances, jump across gaps which if she missed, would have ended her life. Once, she came across a point where her legs gave way.
She crept to the ground while people behind her in the queue made a fuss about the delay.
On the day she attempted to summit the Mount Everest, she and her sherpa were the first to leave the camp. But as time went by, they were overtaken by many.
Daylight too left them behind. When she and her sherpa were quite near the summit, her sherpa presented her with some bad news. Their oxygen levels were fast depleting, and they had to come back the next day for another attempt.
“I felt really bad at that time but I knew I couldn’t go back. I told the sherpa I wouldn’t, and even tried reasoning with him. When he refused to listen to me, I told him, ‘Fine, if you want to come then come. Otherwise, I’ll go on my own.’ The moment I said those words, and placed a foot ahead, I found that my sherpa was right behind me. After that, he never left my side. Two hours later, we were at the peak,” says Sinha.
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Our Second inspiring Story
Morris E. Goodman (born November 9, 1945, is an American Motivational speaker and author. Goodman has been called “The Miracle Man” following his recovery from a plane crash which left him paralyzed and unable to move, breathe, talk or swallow.
In the summer of 1970 Goodman “was a college dropout, lacking purpose and direction” according to his 1985 autobiography. At a local book store, Goodman found the 1937 book, Think and grow rich, as well as other books and tapes by motivational speakers such as Zig Zaglar. Following this, Goodman sought a sales career in the insurance industry, where his uncle worked. Within a year, he had joined the Million Dollar Round Table. Within ten years, he was running his own company, Morris Goodman and Associates.
In March 1981 Goodman had obtained his pilot’s license and had bought his own airplane, a Cessna 172. On March 10, 1981, Goodman took a flight around Chesapeake bay and the southern tip of the Delmarya Peninsula, without any warning, the plane’s engine lost power. Goodman attempted to maneuver the aircraft back toward the airstrip in Cape Charles, Virginia to make an emergency landing. As he approached the runway, the plane flew through a low-hung set of power lines, crashed to the ground, and flipped over. Goodman broke his C-1 (atlas) and C-2 (axis) Cervical Vertebrae and was left fully paralysed. He was unable to breathe, talk, or swallow on his own and could only communicate by blinking his eyes.
Goodman’s sister, Pat Waldo, realized that Goodman was conscious by noticing his limited eye movement. Waldo constructed a series of charts which contained the alphabet and other important subjects, each item correlating to a particular number. Goodman was able to blink his eyes for the number of times to relate to a particular object on each chart, which allowed Goodman to communicate in a limited capacity.
After weeks of intense practice, voluntarily using other abdominal muscles, Goodman was able to take his first breath without the use of a machine.
Doctors slowly reduced the settings on Goodman’s ventilator and he was finally able to breathe on his own. Soon Goodman began working with speech therapists until he was able to utter a single word – “Mama.” On June 1, 1981, Goodman was moved to The Towers – a former rehabilitation center, where he began to eat, and began working on learning to walk again.
On July 6, 1981, Goodman continued to work to improve his leg muscle strength and stamina until he could stand on his own. After several weeks, Goodman was able to walk unassisted, and was released on November 13, 1981.
Morris has since gone on to become a world-renowned motivational speaker who has worked with many Fortune 500 companies and religious organizations. Goodman also appeared in Rhonda Byrne’s documentary film and book The Secret.