More than the Topic of Timeshare Vacations: The Call to Amaze Yourself

For most of us, it was all we could do to reboot after a long weekend holiday and find our workplace groove again. For millions of children across the US, this week heralded in a new school year filled with challenge and anticipation.

And, like every week, countless amazing moments transpired as babies were born, books were written, and business ideas found their way to fruition. Despite all of the uncertainties and ugliness of economic hardship, illness, and threats of war, people still found a way to accomplish the joyful, the unexpected, and even the unexplainable.

We’d be remiss to let this week wind down without acknowledging one uniquely singular incident of amazing triumph, that of 64-year-old swimmer, Diana Nyad. In her fifth try, she accomplished a goal she had set for herself a lifetime ago. She swam the 100 plus miles between Cuba and Key West, Florida, crossing the Straits of Florida, the waterway connector between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

Nyad’s swim took her through open waters known for sharks, high winds, and the jellyfish that had ended at least one of her previous attempts to realize this record-breaking accomplishment.

Consider what really happened here:

• Nyad crystallized the dynamic of concurrently working alone and being totally dependent upon a team of others.
• Along with swallowing a great deal of seawater, she swallowed her pride, and in the most public of platforms took on a challenge at which she had failed 4 times previously.
• She allow the ticking clock to motivate her, not disarm her.

Nyad explains, “The thing about aging is, it’s true that the clock seems to be ticking faster as you get older. It isn’t, but it seems to be. Time seems to be running out. And I wanted to swim this endeavor not to just be the athletic record. I wanted it to be a lesson for my life that says, be fully engaged. Be so awake and alert and alive every minute of every waking day, because that’s where I had to be for these fortunately years to get this done.”

Wherever you are in life’s journey today, set aside the past, the incumbent, and even the logical, and allow yourself the space you need to be amazing. Life is both complex and short. But there’s no reason it can’t also be rewarding and truly amazing.