Inspiration

The last week has brought a lot of Inspiration into the lives of almost everyone I know!  One name and you will know what I am talking about…Cadel Evans.

How incredible and inspirational can one man be? There have been a lot of sleepless nights in the last few weeks with thousands of Australians watching the Tour de France, hoping and praying that “Our Cadel” would finally win the big one!  Personally I watched the highlights each day at the respectable hour of 6pm because training in the early morning hours just doesn’t work on 4 hours of sleep!

However on the last weekend of the Tour I was on a girl’s weekend away and thankfully all of my girl friends were fans of the Tour so it was a must each night.  How incredible the last “true” race of the Tour…the Time Trial…was to be.  I don’t think I have ever seen a man so intent, so focused and so determined with what he had to do.

Cadel obviously believed in himself and knew what he was capable of achieving and he never hesitated to put it all on the line, whether his team was around him or not.  That to me is inspiration!  To be able to believe in yourself like that is incredible.

Cadel has dared to dream and then dared to act on his dream, which is true inspiration.

Your dream may not be to win the Tour de France but it is not any less important.  So if you have a dream, find out just how strong and capable you are. Put your own strength to a meaningful test.  See how much you can do by watching yourself do it.  You probably have the abilities to achieve those dreams you just need to believe in yourself. 

If you need inspiration just think of what Cadel has accomplished!

The First Test

I am about to embark on my first test after my first full month and a half of training as a cyclist tomorrow.

Throughout our lives we are tested.  It starts for us in those early years not only in school but in testing ourselves through every day living.

During our schooling years we are taught lessons and then given a test.  In life we test ourselves every day.   How much better we can we look after our families, how much better can we be at our jobs, how courageous we are and we test ourselves in how tolerant we are.  Actually in every part of life we are constantly tested by ourselves and others.

I have tested myself in so many different areas of life that I have lost count.  I have spent my entire sporting life being tested in so many different ways.  From speed to strength and everything in between.  In some of those tests I have failed and in some I have excelled.

Tomorrow, as I have stated, is the first test for me in cycling after a month and a half of solid training.  I am heading down to Phillip Island to race in a Time Trial.  There are two other Para-cyclists taking part but we are racing with the ‘able’ bodied riders.

I believe there are a number of tests for me in this race, have I gotten stronger, have I gotten faster?  But the biggest test for me is to see if I can finish strong!  As Ralph Marston has written “Start strong, stay strong, and finish strong by always remembering why you’re doing it in the first place.”

I have given myself a goal for tomorrow and that is to definitely ‘Finish Strong’ and this will lead me into the next month and a half of training before I head to Denmark for the World Championships where my goal of 2 gold medals will become a reality! 

This is why I am doing it in the first place!

The Cyclist

I have just finished my first full month of training as a cyclist.  Wow, this is something that I would never have expected even 6 months ago.  It is a real learning curve.

To be honest I have had a hard time thinking of myself as a cyclist as it is such a new thing for me.  I have been a swimmer, a triathlete and a rower, now I can add cyclist to that list.  But I certainly have a lot more to learn.  The one thing I have found are muscles that I never knew I had!  The physio and the masseuse at the VIS (Victorian Institute of Sport) have become my best friends.

I feel very lucky and privileged to have been offered a scholarship for cycling at the VIS for the next year.  Actually, it was through the VIS that I met my cycling coach when she was a scholarship holder there herself.

I felt that I had unfinished business with my rowing career and unanswered questions.  But after not getting the answers I was looking for have decided that it is time to just pack those questions up and put them away.  I am on a new path now and have to just concentrate on it. 

Albert Schweitzer the German theologian said “Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into flame by an encounter with another human being.  Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light.”  Well my light has been blown again into flame through the meeting of a number of people in the cycling community.  Those people who believe in me and my ability.  There has been no questioning my age, my disability or my desire to do the best that I can do.  There has just been support and support from every level of cycling.  To all those people who have been supportive and helped ignite that flame…thank you.

With one more quote to finish off, by Ralph Marsden, a motivational speaker,

“Don't lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations. Expect the best of yourself, and then do what is necessary to make it a reality." 

 I plan on expecting the very best of myself and that is ‘Gold’ not in one event but two at the World Championships and I will be spending the next 2 months doing what is necessary to make that a reality.

Growing Up

Someone said to me the other day “When are you going to grow up?”  Now I wasn’t sure whether to take this as a compliment or an insult!  Maybe it is because I am about to turn 50 but refuse to let the number of years in my life rule what I do in life!  I was also so stunned that I didn’t ask them what they meant.

I like trying new things!  I don’t tend to do things that are scary or very adventurous and I don’t wake up every morning thinking “Hum, what can I try today?”  I am curious and I question things, I don’t think that is so wrong.

What is “growing up” anyway?  Does that mean that we have to stop enjoying new things in life or are we just supposed to do things of a sedentary nature?

Have you ever noticed, I mean really taken notice of a child at play?  I’m talking about the child who is not sitting in front of a computer or television but actually playing.  They may be playing with others or they may be by themselves, but the joy and the laughter are unmistakeable!  We as adults don’t do that enough.  Children never lose their curiosity but we as adults tend to accept things on face value.

I know we have the world’s responsibilities on our backs, but some of us have forgotten how to laugh and enjoy life.  Happiness and joy must come from within not from external factors that we hope will make us happy.  Nothing should tell us that we can’t keep that child like happiness within our own lives.  Yes we have bills to pay and believe me that is something that I stress over daily.  But I also believe that it is important to have fun in life.

Ursula K. Leguin, an American author said “As great scientists have said and as all children know, it is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception, and compassion, and hope”.

If growing up means I have to stop trying new things in life, or being imaginative, or being curious, then I never want to grow up!  My body may realise that it is close to 50 but my brain still thinks I am much younger!  I will continue to attempt new things, be curious, questioning and to try to have a belly laugh at least once a week!

The Next Challenge

I have just come back from 4 days of racing in very cold, wet and windy Tasmania.  I was competing at the Master’s National Rowing Championships and what a wonderful competition it was!  Most of the members of our club, the Melbourne Rowing Club, were female with only about 5 male members taking part.  We had some tremendous success with the club coming 2^nd overall!  With 17 gold medals, 7 silver medals and 3 bronze medals we certainly came home with a lot of bling!  

 

Victorian State Eight Winners



What was even better was the fact that 7 of us women were part of the Victorian State Eight which raced against the other states and for the first time in a few years Victoria came out on top!

We had to unload, rig, wash and put boats away last night and after we had done that a number of us went for dinner to celebrate the end of the season.  Most of the women are taking a couple of weeks off as it has been a long season.  Even though we are Masters Rowers we also compete in the regular rowing season with rowers much younger than most of us, but then have our own season which starts right after that.  So needless to say most of us are extremely tired!  But as they say “There is no rest for the wicked!”  And when I say that I mean me!



World Cup Road Race

I am now embarking on the next challenge in my life and that is Para-cycling.  The World Para-cycling Championships in Denmark in September beckon.  I feel like I am on the cusp of something extraordinary!  It has reinvigorated something in me.  It has given me something new and exciting to aspire to.  Having a purpose and being involved with the possibility of something bigger than myself, this is what gets me out of bed in the morning with a sense of purpose and meaning…challenging myself!

I feel that I have more mountains to climb and to be honest there are times when I think “What will come next?”  I know that once I have conquered this next challenge there will always be another waiting in the wings.

I believe that it is important to constantly challenge ourselves in life, otherwise it can become very boring and mundane.  I think that with the right attitude and determination you can achieve any challenge you set yourself.  And being successful at that challenge is simply doing the best that you can.  I am meeting this next challenge with confidence.

This doesn’t mean the end of my “Rowing Career”, it is just simply put on hold for the time being.  I have come to love rowing and the friendship of the women that I row with.  That will never be taken away!  Who knows maybe I can get some of them on a bike to come and ride with me!

Determination

I have had a dream and a goal since the age of 10…to compete at an Olympic Games. I was always mesmerized by the athletes as they marched into the stadium behind the flag of their country and wearing the colours of their country.

I had always been involved in sport of some kind and at the age of 11 was doing gymnastics and thought that this was the way to go.  That is until a very uncaring woman at a very prominent gymnastics club told me I would never make it as I was too fat!  My best friend at this ripe old age of 11, Sharon, had been invited to join this exclusive club but I was turned away.  I remember being crushed and the feelings of utter devastation that I couldn’t go with her. 

But then at the grand age of 12 I started competitive swimming.  I had always been a good swimmer and at my first competition I remember winning my first ribbon.  Actually I still have that first ribbon!  So that was when I decided that I was going to swim for Canada at the Olympics.

It's funny how as children we have no inhibitions and don’t believe that there are any walls in our way.  It is just matter of fact… “I am going to swim at the Olympics”…plain and simple.  So for the next 6 years that is what I did, I swam.  There was nothing I wouldn’t do to make sure I was at training.  I was lucky enough to have very supportive parents and whether they believed I would achieve my goal or not, they never said never!

Unfortunately the Olympic Games that I was targeting was the 1980 Moscow Games and due to political upheaval, the USA decided to boycott these games, so Canada followed right along.  Devastation…my dream was gone!

But determination is a funny thing and with the diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis I wasn’t going to let life pass me by.  I believe it is your life and your choice and that we must all embrace new opportunities and challenges with confidence and self belief.  I honestly believed that I would make it to the London Paralympics as a rower, but the tide has turned (no pun intended!) and it looks like I am aiming at being a cyclist in London.  My first step in this pursuit is the World Para-cycling Championships in Denmark in September.  If I can medal there, I know I will make it to London.

I am sure that there are some people who must think I am absolutely nuts!  But I believe that you should pursue your dreams at full throttle, you can’t worry about what people think.  With determination and the right attitude you can achieve your goals.  Michelangelo once said “The greatest danger for most of us is not that we aim to high and we miss it, but we aim to low and reach it.”

Determination is the result of desire and it doesn’t matter how mundane your goal might seem to others, if it is important to you, then go for it!  Who would have thought back in 1980 that 32 years later that dream would be just about to come true?

Remember, you’re never too old to make dreams come true.  I am living proof of that!

Motivation

The other day I was at Latrobe University speaking with Physiotherapy students.  We were discussing communication between patients and clinicians and how to get patients motivated.  One of them asked me a question…”Why is it that you are so motivated?”

This question got me thinking and I had a really hard look at myself.  At first I didn’t know the answer but the more I thought about it the more I realized that I am motivated by fear.  Yes Fear!

But what is it that I am afraid of?  There are a couple of different things, the fear of not doing something to the best of my ability and the fear of my MS getting worse.

Fear is a primitive emotion and it causes us to obsess over even the littlest things.  I know that no one is perfect, but if I am going to do something then I want to do it to the best of my ability.  I am motivated not by ruthless determination to the tasks I undertake, but by the fear that I will fail at them.

Then of course there is Multiple Sclerosis.  I think that the worst thing about having MS is the unpredictability of the disease.  It creates a world of never-ending uncertainty.  I think that subconsciously I push myself to my limits because of the fear of not being able to do the things that I do, in the future.  I want to be able to accomplish my goals before I’m not able to.  I am not saying that my MS will get worse, no one can tell me that, but it is the fear of the unknown and what can happen.

So is it bad to have fear to keep me motivated?  I really can’t answer that question right now.  Maybe I need to realize that by continuing to strive to my best potential that I am actually overcoming that fear.  I don’t want to believe that all my motivation is driven by fear and maybe I am slowly overcoming this.

Nelson Mandela once said “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."

One day maybe I will be able to say that my motivation comes from the conquering of that fear.  But until then I will continue to do what I do because of it.

So what motivates you?