“Find Your Why”
Can a man with no arms or legs…
- Live in a 3-story town house
- Shave with a double-edged straight razor
- Summit Mount Kilimanjaro?
If you said no, you haven’t met Kyle Maynard. Kyle is one of the most recent additions to the Calibration Marketing Speakers Bureau and his story is unmatched. To call him inspirational is an absolute understatement. Kyle’s message is one of sheer will and determination to find his life’s purpose after being born with no arms or legs.
According to Kyle, failure is a gift. He asserts that without life’s struggle, achieving our end result wouldn’t be so valuable. In our everyday life we take our abilities and spiritual gifts for granted. As you sit and experience one of Kyle’s speeches, you’re in awe with what he’s accomplished. You’re immediately smacked in the face about all you take for granted on a minute by minute basis. Kyle gives some examples of some of his early lessons like learning how to eat after dropping a spoon 1,000+ times, putting on his socks and using his iPhone (he texts faster than an “able-bodied” person).
But Kyle doesn’t spend his time explaining how difficult life has been or how many tiny little things we all take for granted every day. He turns the mirror around and demands the question: What would we be capable of if we believed our dreams were possible?
Kyle credits his parents with allowing him to fail until he figured it out. Out of these trials and struggles, a young Kyle Maynard learned who he was and what he was made of – tenacity, courage and will. Because it’s the struggle that makes it worth it!
Kyle operates off the premise that everyone has a disability of some kind. Some are seen and others are not. But it’s what we choose to focus on that matters. It’s what we choose to accept in our lives that makes us who we are, that defines our disability. What can we control? What lies are we telling ourselves?
As individuals, we can’t buy into what people say. We will always have critics telling us it won’t work or we are not good enough. But the trick is, if we silence those critics…more emerge. That’s why it’s so important to live for you. Find your why, as Kyle likes to say. What is possible when you stop making excuses and start living your dreams?
It’s inevitable as Kyle speaks not to start internalizing these questions. What monologue am I listening to in my head? Is it written by me or my critics? Is it filled with doubt and excuses? And if so, how do I change it? Kyle is ready with some answers.
First, ask yourself these questions and start getting real:
- What lies am I telling myself that get in the way of living my dreams?
- What excuses am I making?
- Who am I surrounding myself with? Are they positively effecting my life experience?
- What if I changed?
- What if I chose to make others’ lives better by living my dreams?
Do you really know what you’re capable of? When everything is quiet. Your room is dark and the cell phone has finally stopped buzzing. What monologue is playing? Excuses? Or dreams? Fulfilled or not?
Watch Kyle fight through life and accomplish more meaning in his life than those sitting on the sidelines throwing stones. Go ahead…if you dare. Change is coming. “Find your why,” Kyle Maynard.