At just 13 years old, Bethany Hamilton lost her arm to a shark attack. Yet just four short weeks later, miraculously, Bethany surfed a wave to shore.
Bethany joins us to share her incredible journey firsthand on the #LiveInspired Podcast ep. 178. Listen here:
My website: bit.ly/BethanyHamilton178
Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/BethanyH178
Or wherever you listen to podcasts!
Bethany Hamilton was just 13 years old when she became a household name after being attacked by a shark while surfing. She lost her arm and nearly her life, but just one month after the attack, returned to surfing.
Today, 15 years later, Bethany is a professional surfer, contestant on The Amazing Race, wife, mother and role model. Her amazing story has been shared in the award-winning biopic Soul Surfer and her new documentary Bethany Hamilton Unstoppable The Film. Today, Bethany shares her inspiring story with us firsthand.
If you ever face a challenge (and we all do, right?) this episode is for you – Bethany will show you how to overcome with faith and gratitude.
Listen to #LiveInspired Podcast ep. 178:
My website: bit.ly/BethanyHamilton178
Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/BethanyH178
Or wherever you listen to podcasts!
Six Flags
Disney World
Silver Dollar City
Just a few of the amusement parks I visited as a kid. Which ones did you visit?
We have fond memories of those parks as kids. Based on my last flight to Orlando, many of us still love to visit them as adults!
But not everyone is so lucky.
There are literally millions of individuals with challenges preventing them from enjoying theme parks and activities.
Recently, a group of individuals united to give their time and talent to take on the monumental task of developing an amusement park specifically designed for EVERY body, including those with physical and mental disabilities and special needs. Once built, families will visit this park without the fear of a loved one being left out of the fun
The concept is so cool, the idea so inclusive, the impact so profound.
The Spirit of Discovery Park is going to come out of the ground and ignite joy for remarkable individuals with special needs and their families.
They're hosting a celebration gala a month from tonight to share the vision, provide updates and ask for your help.
Check out the site to learn more.... and consider joining us on September 20th. This is an innovative, inclusive and transformative movement. Please share this post and consider joining this movement:
www.spiritofdiscoverypark.com
My friends, in a marketplace with so many divisions and challenges, let's seek to make a difference for some of the most truly remarkable and deserving among us.
This is your day. Live Inspired. J
Happy Monday Friends!
Have you ever wondered what the characteristics are that make someone successful?
Today's #MondayMotivation shares why two leaders in business think humility may be the secret, and it reminds us that we're far better together than we could ever be apart.
Check out the full blog here: bit.ly/2z1IwLt
* * * * *
I was reminded of the importance of humility while listening to the testimony of my most recent Live Inspired Podcast guests, Kim and Joe Koenig. As a couple, they have become closer while dealing with adversity, raising three boys, giving generously in the community, overcoming a life-threatening cancer diagnosis and growing World Wide Technology, Inc. -from a business generating a few million dollars in revenue to one that employees more than 6,000 and generates more than $11 billion in revenue.
How have they done all of this?
For Kim and Joe, it’s been simple, but rarely easy: Leaning into one another and their community with profound love and humility.
To learn more about their story and how you can thrive, too, listen to one of my favorite episodes here: bit.ly/Koenig176
“Pit race against race,
religion against religion,
prejudice against prejudice.
Divide and conquer!
We must not let that happen here.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
With the outrageous and unacceptable anger and bigotry being shown through the writings, words, and actions of weak actors on every side of just about every issue these days, it is important to remember those words written by a wise woman almost eight decades ago.
I recently had an opportunity to see a radically different approach not to dividing and conquering, but to coming together as one. Let me explain.
The Presidential Airlift Group is comprised of the very best of the Air Force and are elevated to this position only after decades of serving with extraordinary excellence. As pilots, mechanics, logistics officers, and leaders, they soar to the honor of maintaining, flying and protecting the magnificent national monument that is Air Force One.
Several hundred of these leaders gathered in the hangar where Air Force One is maintained for our meeting. These individuals work tirelessly to ensure the Office of the President may travel safely around the world. They paused for an hour from the exhaustive work they do each day to be reminded that we are grateful, that their work is worthy, and that their best days remain in front of them.
After speaking, my family and I had an opportunity to meet with many of these remarkable leaders. These men and women are from every background, every race, every sexual orientation, every religion, every political affiliation, and every ethnicity, yet unite together as one, tirelessly, not for some individual cause or even for some candidate for whom they voted, but for an office, for a country, for an idea that reminds all of us we are only as strong as we are united.
My friends, perhaps today we can turn away from the cable channel we turn into exclusively for our news, the blogs we read for our truth, the group of friends who hold our ideas as theirs, and the safety found in the walls that we construct to guard our lives so that we may come face-to-face with those who are different, those whose thoughts clash with ours, those who were raised differently, those who think differently, those who, gulp, may even vote differently. And in doing so perhaps we also can stop putting race against race, religion against religion, prejudice against prejudice, and be reminded instead that we are one.
And that we are far better together.
Put down the megaphone, drop the rock, unclench your fist and extend an open heart and hand.
You may be surprised the enemy you feared the most wasn’t on the other side of an opinion, but the one staring back at you in the mirror.
This is your day. Live (as one) Inspired. J
((If you’d like to stay On Fire with the limitless possibility of your life, check out the Live Inspired podcast for continued inspiration.))
