How a positive mindset can lead to achieving impossibility

This week I came across one such person whose story I’d like to share with you today...

An old-fashioned, pot-bellied coal stove heated the little country schoolhouse. A little boy had the job of coming to school early each day to start the fire and warm the room before his teacher and his classmates arrived.

One morning they arrived to find the schoolhouse engulfed in flames. They dragged the unconscious little boy out of the flaming building more dead than alive.

He had major burns over the lower half of his body and was taken to a nearby county hospital. His brother died in the same fire.

From his hospital bed, the dreadfully burned, semi-conscious little boy faintly heard the doctor talking to his mother. The doctor told his mother that her son would surely die – which was for the best, really – for the terrible fire had devastated the lower half of his body. It seemed that at 13 years of age, the young boy was sentenced to death.

But the brave boy didn’t want to die. He made up his mind that he would survive. Somehow, to the amazement of the physician, he did survive. Days after the mortal danger was past, he again heard the doctor and his mother speaking quietly.

The mother was told that since the fire had destroyed so much flesh in the lower part of his body, it would almost be better if he had died, since he was doomed to be a lifetime cripple with no use at all of his lower limbs. So now the death sentence had been changed into a cripple sentence.

Once more the brave boy made up his mind that he would not be a cripple and that he would eventually walk again. Though he was very determined, unfortunately from the waist down he had no motor ability. His thin legs just dangled there, lifeless.

Ultimately he was released from the hospital. Every day his mother would massage his little legs, but there was no feeling, no control, nothing in them.

Yet his determination that he would walk was as strong as ever. When he wasn’t in bed, he was confined to a wheelchair and when he was not on the wheelchair, he was in bed.

One sunny day his mother wheeled him out into the yard to get some fresh air. This day, instead of sitting there, he threw himself from the chair. He pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs behind him.

He worked his way to the white picket fence bordering their lot. With great effort, he raised himself up on the fence. Then, stake by stake, he began dragging himself along the fence, resolved that he would walk.

He started to do this every day until he wore a smooth path all around the yard beside the fence. There was nothing he wanted more than to develop life in those legs.

Ultimately through his daily massages, his iron persistence and his resolute determination, he did develop the ability to stand up, then to walk haltingly, then to walk by himself – and then – to run.

He began to walk to school, then to run to school, to run for the sheer joy of running. Later in college he made the track team. Still later in Madison Square Garden this young man who was not expected to survive, who would surely never walk, who could never hope to run – this determined young man, Dr. Glenn Cunningham, ran the world’s fastest mile**!
Story Told By Burt Dubin,
Developer of Speaking Success System.

On June 16, 1934, Glenn Cunningham ran the mile in 4:06.8 minutes, breaking the world’s record at the time. His effort portrays that whatever you want to create in your life is yours for the making.

As long as you desire it enough and allow your will to guide you, you can have and be whatever your heart desires. The only one that can put limits on our personal will is ourselves. Develop and encourage your will to create and all the forces of nature within and without will help you bring your desire to pass.

Take a few minutes to recover from the sheer audacity of this athlete. I needed a few minutes too and after reading this story, the issues that were putting me down paled in comparison to the life threatening issues he went through, and overcame.

Friends there are a few lessons we can derive from this story, and all of them depend on you.

The first lesson is that unless you “make up your mind, you determine or you make a decision” to do something, to overcome a certain challenge, no one else will overcome it for you.

Actually, you are more likely to face discouragement than encouragement from the rest of the world. In Glenn’s case for instance, the one person who was supposed to be helping him (the doctor) is the one who was saying the most negative things one could ever imagine; he committed him to a death sentence the first time and when that didn’t work, he sentenced him to a life in a wheelchair.

If Glenn had listened and agreed with the doctor, we’d probably never have known there ever was a Glenn Cunningham in this world.

The second lesson we learn from this story is that for you to be motivated, you have to have a dream/goal that you look forward to achieving every day.

Every day you wake up this should be the single thing you think about. Glenn had a dream; to walk again regardless of what the facts surrounding him said.

This one dream kept him focused and determined to achieve it, no matter how tough the situation was. The story might not mention it but I am certain that he went through a very rough and tough time trying to bring life into his lower body.

However, I believe that the magnitude of his dream overcame the pain of trying to walk again. You need to have a dream that inspires you to follow it through even when everything and everyone else around you makes you feel like despairing.

Another lesson we learn is that it takes time to accomplish your goal. You have to be consistent and focused. Consistency and focus requires you to invest in a lot of time, a lot of work, a lot of sweat and tears before you arrive at your glory.

There will be times when you will feel like giving up because it seems like nothing is happening. Don’t give up. It is not what you do once in a while that brings results, but it is what you do everyday consistently that does.

Eventually you will look back and realize you achieved your goal. If Glenn had given up trying to get back on his feet the first day he dragged himself around their picket fence, today we would have no idea who he was.

Another lesson we learn is that your dream can have levels. Initially when he was still in hospital, all he wanted to do was get back on his feet again and walk.

So he started with dragging himself around, then he was able to stand shakily, then comfortably, then he started walking then running and eventually he became an athlete. The day he was able to walk, he could have relaxed and said, “mission accomplished”. He didn’t. He kept pushing himself until he surpassed the greatest expectations anyone could have had about a once crippled boy.

Today you are reading about the late Glenn Cummingham because he epitomizes determination, hope and never giving up. He is long dead but the story of his unprecedented determination and achievements still lives on. You too can be remembered decades after you’ve left this world.

Question is, what dreams have you convinced yourself to give up on because of the challenging facts surrounding their realization? What achievements would be synonymous to your name if you were to decide and determine in your heart that you will pursue those dreams no matter what?

Take some time and reflect on Glenn Cummingham’s story. Is there something you’ve given up on because of challenges you think are insurmountable? I believe if you make up your mind to, you can change your story like he did.

If Glenn didn’t allow the doctor to kill his dream, why allow your dream to be killed, yet you know you can do something about it? Determine in your heart to not give up. Remember, nobody has the power to shatter your dreams unless you allow them to.

*In our last Sunday’s edition, the article by Liz Wachuka wrongly appeared on page 11 instead of its regular page 8, and even then without attribution of the author. The error is regretted.