Transform your Life Today

Chirry Kim
Nov 8 · 3 min read

Are you grounded by challenges in your life that seem insermountable? Find inspiration in these 3 poweful life changing stories that could potentially transform your life.

These are the stories of Jimmy Valvano, Antoine Leiris and Theodore Roosevelt.

Jimmy Valvano-Don’t Give up, don’t ever give up

Jimmy Valvano was an American basketball player and a coach. He led his team to win in the 1983 National tittle. Jimmy would always encourage his team never to give up. This attitude would prove to be so useful to him, when he was diagnosed with cancer.He gave a memorable speech in 1993 when he was accepting the inaugural Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award. This was shortly before he died of cancer.

"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives.Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day.Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought.Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy.But think about it. If you laugh, you think and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special. I got one last thing and I’ve said it before and I want to say it again. Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever"

Antoine Leiris

Antoine Leiris lost his wife in the 2015 Paris terrorist attack in which 89 people were killed. He wrote a letter on Facebook to his wife’s killers.

“On Friday night, you stole the life of an exceptional being, the love of my life, the mother of my son, but you will not have my hate. I will not give you the satisfaction of hating you.” He made a promise to defeat hate by not allowing it to affect his seventeen month old son “We will play as we do every day, and all his life this boy will defy you by being happy and free. Because you will not have his hate either.”

Theodore Roosevelt -The man in the Arena

This is a speech that Theodore Roosevelt gave at the Sorbonne in 1910.It is a message on how we can stand strong when we face challenges.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."-Theodore Roosevelt

Remember to laugh, to think, to cry, to be happy, to be free, and most importantly to never ever give up even when you are the only man in the arena.

    Chirry Kim

    Written by

    Writer. Loves to learn and unlearn. Fascinated about all things personal transformation.

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