The GOODS #83 / August 29, 2018
🛫 Waaaay up
Hey pals!
We’re taking our own advice ☝
So ya, these last two weeks we’ve been rolling with some cray cray stories of some incredible people — hey 👋 Claire, hey Mandy — overcoming some pretty big odds.
This week, we told ourselves, why not? Let’s do it.
Let’s make it three in a row.
Get your inspo shoes on.
Let’s get reading.
Is exactly
What Janine Shepherd told herself 👀 as she beasted her way up through the famous Blue Mountains 👆 (just west of Sydney 🇦🇺) on her bike back in 1986 — most probs rocking out to this tune.
She was in full athlete mode preppin’ for the ’88 Winter Olympics ⛷
That day, the universe, however, had a different future in store for her.
Janine was hit by a truck and was left with so many injuries (stuff like, a broken neck, her head being torn open exposing her skull, losing basically all of her blood, and the list goes on, seriously) that the doctors saving her life in the ER weren’t sure she’d ever make it.
She was beat up real bad. Doctors told her she’d never walk again, nor ever get the chance to bear children 😟
As the universe would have it though, they ended up being wrong.
Phew 😉
They sure do
Being an elite athlete, Janine had a short list of what her life was all about.
Sports.
Period.
Nothing else.
But now (or rather back then in the mid-80s), after her scary brush with death, everything she knew about her life was about to change.
It was in the spinal ward of the hospital, sharing a room with other paralyzed survivors, that Janine explains (in a super duper inspiring TED Talk ) how deep her thoughts went when it came to thinking about what she knew about life.
She explains how the day she left the hospital, she knew for she would never look at her life the same way again.
After spending six months in the spinal ward, she was whisked out by her dad in a wheelchair, and as the warming rays of the 🌞 beamed on her face, she asked herself “How could I ever have taken this for granted?”
Bet you didn’t think about that this morning as you walked out the door, now did you?
She sure loves a good challenge
To go from high-intensity, Olympic training 🏋️, to being put in a full body cast, unable to use her legs and uncertain of whether or not she would ever be able to walk again was hard for Janine.
Very hard.
Everything she had focused on and worked hard to achieve was gone.
You know what?
Sometimes, that’s a good thing.
Her eureka ❗
One day, when sitting down at home, lost in thoughts about what her life’s purpose was, she took a moment to look up.
She saw a plane and in that exact moment — 💥 — that was it.
Since “Janine the Machine”, as she was once known, couldn’t walk, she might has well fly.
She rang up the local flight school and booked her first lesson.
You might be wondering, “Wasn’t she in a cast, unable to walk?” 🤔
If you did, you’d be right.
Janine was indeed all wrapped up solid and barely had any use of her legs, but she could use her mind, her arms and her arms 👐
So that’s exactly what she did. She focused on what she had, rather than what she didn’t have.
Veryyyyy smart.
She showed up to her first lesson in a wheelchair, and over time, she went from being rolled over to the plane to walking with a brace to limping across the tarmac, to finally being able to proudly walk on her own.
And almost 18 months from the last day she was in the hospital, unable to move, not only was Janine flying planes like a pilot boss #aviatorlife 🕶, she got her instructor license and was teaching other people how to fly.
She later got her aerobatics flying instructor.
If that don’t inspire you, we don’t know what does.
Life, man
Janine’s story is huge reminder that, damn, we really can do anything we put our minds to.
While she studied flight theory, she worked her butt off to regain the use of her legs.
Even though all the “experts” told her she couldn’t do it, she did it anyway — Janine, you little rebel you.
Everyday, she stood up a little longer. Every other day, she took a few more steps than the last time.
It’s almost as if the walking part came secondary to her achieving her ambitious decision (as someone paralyzed in a wheelchair) to fly planes.
She had her goal in mind and once that was there, nothing really got in her way 🙅
One more thing
Janine’s uplifting story also serves as a fantabulous reminder that sometimes we need to let go of what we “think” defines us.
Stuff like our jobs, our education and our past seem to have such a strong grasp on who we believe we are.
Rarely are we able to see past these constructs we force onto our identity, silly us.
Our suggestion of the week is to do a little Frozen and let go.
Janine had the chance to rethink who she was and what it is she is able to accomplish. And we’re confident you can too 👍
If something in your life doesn’t feel right. That’s cool. Find another outlet and start your version of learning to walk anew.
Her story is proof that you can really be whoever you want to be, and that you can do whatever you want to.
And if it means teaching others how to do barrel 360s in midair, awesome. (That’s too scary for us. We’ll stick to writing weekly inspo emails.)
⛰
You sure got a point there white words on a blobby, blue background.
Wishing you all a week of safe bike rides (wear your helmets!) and lots of fresh thinking.
Deep down you know what’s up, you just gotta make it so ;)
Much love. All the love 💙
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