This last weekend I was invited to Lewis Howes' Summit of Greatness, and it felt like I experienced a new dimension of life.
I've talked about how your environment shapes you, and this weekend was a prime example.
Being in a space with 2,000 other entrepreneurs, creators, and coaches all looking to grow, the atmosphere was super-charged with encouragement, wisdom, and emotions.
There is one particular story we heard I want to share today with you: the story of Inky.
Many would see Inky's story a tragic one, a star college football athlete injured during practice, his right arm permanently paralyzed.
Raised by his teenage mother in a low income household, football seemed like the way out. So when the injury happened, most people would call that the end of a dream.
But Inky didn't see it that way. He continued to attend university, learning to write with his opposite hand and persist forward.
"When I shifted my perspective and my focus, it made me look at the bigger picture and how it could serve as a blessing and source of encouragement and empowerment to other people."
When Inky experienced what most people might deem a "career-ending" injury, he chose not to let that be the end of his story. He decided to see what good could come from such an occurrence, and went on to complete his Master's degree, write a manuscript, and hand-deliver his book to Oprah.
Inky now shares his story at the top sports institutions, corporations like Coca-Cola & Dell, and last week in front of us at the Summit of Greatness.
Most of us navigate our lives with the lens we've crafted through the years of our experiences. This lens can serve us with sight and beliefs, but it can also blind and mislead us.
Something traumatic that happened to us in the past can blemish how we perceive life even today. But through stories like Inky's, we learn we have power to look at the things that happened to us, and ask not what we lost from them, but what we gained from them.
"Perspective drives performance." -Inky Johnson
What is a self-limiting belief you carry with you? How would you like to change that?
Looking forward to hearing from you friend,
Kai