We all have challenges! There will always be obstacles to fulfilling our dreams and goals. The difference between successful people, champions, and everyone else is that champions know how to take those obstacles and turn them into stepping stones for success. My obstacle came in the form of paralysis when at the age of sixteen, I flew off a downhill training course and slammed into a tree, crushing my spine and my dreams of being an Olympic ski racer. But I quickly learned that my dream didn’t have to die, that if I wanted to, I could still ski race, adaptive ski race, in the Paralympics, the Olympics for people with physical disabilities. After many grueling years re-learning to ski and with a wonderful support system behind me, eventually I was able to accomplish that lifelong dream and medal in the 1998 and 2002 Paralympics.
We all have challenges. We can let them stop us from reaching our dreams, or we can keep fighting and never give up until we are standing on top of the podium, victorious. As the late Carnegie Mellon Professor, Randy Pausch says in The Last Lecture, “Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.”
The next time adversity looks to challenge your dreams, don’t give up. Find a new way to scale that wall!
Muffy Davis is a four-time Paralympic Medalist and World Champion disabled ski racer. www.muffydavis.com
