Extraordinary.

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amputatee, chemotheropy, desease, extraordinary, faith, games, hope, invictus, love, premier, self

Invictus games, funny how spell check wants to change that to “I victims”  but what does extraordinary mean to you. One of my friends wrote on face book the other day. 

COMMON…..being “common” is a very easy way to “fit it”, listen to common people, doing what common people do, living how common people live, going to common places,driving common cars,living in common houses, having a common bank acount…….I preferr to listen and take advice from EXTRAORDINARY people, so I can live an extraordinary life,go extraordinary places, drive extraordinary cars,live in extraordinary houses, have a extraordinary bank acount…….so the extraordinary becomes my “common”!!

The man that wrote that, had his career cut short. He was at the top of his game and someone I respected greatly and respect greatly to this day. You see it’s not what happens to us that make extraordinary people just that. It’s our response to what happens in our life that makes us who we then become. Many times in my life I have heard or even said. “I can’t because” I hate those three words, I even despise them.  But I have learnt to see those words as as a way to show the world I CAN. That attitude is how things get done. Now please don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I am extraordinary. But I do know how it feels to do an extraordinary thing. To beat cancer twice is extraordinary in anyone’s book. To cheat death is an amazing thing. 

You have to then turn your thoughts to the up and coming invictus games where there are many many people that will be competing in a games invented by an extraordinary Prince Harry. There are many many people on this planet where we can gain encouragement from. Doing something extraordinary starts with one step, it is a choice to become something or achieve something no matter what the world throws at us. 

Anyone that beats the odds are amazing in my book, you don’t need to have an extraordinary bank account to be extraordinary. But you do have to be willing to make the first step forwards. That choice is yours.

Fonz

The greatest love of All…

Tags

belief, confidence, hope, iam, self, spiritual, youare

Although I have blogged about this before, You are what you say you are. This is how coach Jerry puts it in his blog. This is his web site address. 

http://www.80insights.com

So I was chatting to Jerry this morning backwards and forwards on WordPress commenting on each other’s posts. He mentioned to me about the power of words, how we can speak life to ourselves by saying the words “I am” 3 letters but yet possibly the most powerful words we can say. As Jerry reminded me the bible starts with those words, as was the world if you believe it happened that way (I do).

So for me this is where confidence starts, by saying those words. I remember a long time ago hating the reflection I saw in the mirror, the events that led to me believing that of myself makes no difference here. But the point is, the man/boy that looked back I disliked intensely. I said sentences like “I am useless” “I am a failure” “I am a waste of space” I believed it. So if I believed it why would anyone else think better of me. It had to start with me saying the words, before I would in fact start believing it. It may sound strange the sentence “I am beautiful” but that’s what I started to say when I looked in the mirror.

  Vivid life.me
Ok so I did not believe it, in fact I spoke some pretty blue language the first time I said it. I did not believe it at all, my self esteem “well I did not have any”  I believed who was looking back was worthless and it had to start with the words ” I am beautiful” slowly but surely my confidence grew. Every time I looked at my reflection saying the words that I did not believe. There were tears, there were arguments with myself. But confidence is not a gift, you don’t get a gift of confidence. It is something you choose, something you cultivate. It starts by speaking life into your own life, it starts with the words “I am” but it’s what ever you choose to put after those 3 letters that is in your destruction or in your victory. 

I can be what ever I choose to be, it started with I am. Here I am so long after that in fact 24 years of building my own confidence, choosing to speak life to myself. Then leading me to a diagnosis and a long arduace fight having my confidence tested, time and time again. It’s about what you choose this life, you can help someone grow over time. But it can be destroyed by saying one sentence. So thank you Jerry for reminding me of that “I am” and I hope that someone out there reads this and becomes confident because you read it.

Have a great weekend

Fonz

Today is a gift.

Tags

belief, believing, Belive, empathy, fear, gift, giving, healing, hope, life, living, love, motivation, self, today

I am remembering a story I was told as a child, a parable about a blind man. Jesus put mud on his eyes . After removal of the mud, the man could see. This is a bit like me now, knowing what it’s like to have cancer makes you see the world differently. It’s like you have been blind but you can see again. I saw life very differently before I had cancer, maybe even thought I was indistructable. I did not ever think that the man that I was would become so ill. I never thought I would have to fight for my life. 

  
One thing I always believed though, was that I would win. Don’t get me wrong I had days even weeks where I felt I would not make it, but I always believed with Faith no matter how hard it was. I know my friend Deanna watches my journey as I do hers, we have both been on a similar journey both beating cancer twice with similar attitudes to life. You can’t feel what we feel unless you have had to fight like we have. Beating it twice makes the world seem like a different place, I am still here with a life. 

  
What am I trying to say, well I want you to know that life after cancer, is like have the mud removed from your eyes. It means you can see again, we imagine our future very differently to life before cancer that’s for sure. Compassion is more real, love is more meaningful. Family becomes more important, things become irrelevant. Whilst at the same time appreciating what you have. One thing I do know is, that my life needs to benefit others daily. My life needs to help others, after all I would have been dead without the fight that’s now behind me. 

  
Parts of me are glad I have been touched by cancer, to enable me to see life in this new positive way. I have always been positive, but it’s a different  kind of positive now. It’s a place where I see the good in nearly all situations, a place where I am grateful to have what we have. I am pleased to see the sunshine or the rain, what ever happens it’s a new day and the past is behind us. We can only change who we are today, it’s the only day we have. That’s how I see life now, that today is a gift. That today is more special with you in it, your reading this because you have a life. Because you are living your gift, don’t you think that’s amazing.

  
Well  be amazed because you are amazing. But you have to believe that. You have to look in the mirror and tell yourself that. God knows I have made mistakes, I still do.  Am grateful to be alive, and I hope you are able to see a snippet of what today really means.

Enjoy today,

Mark