Never Give up...

Posted on June 04, 2012 by Servando Navarro, One of Thousands of Performance Coaches on Noomii.

In January 7th, 2000, when I was 28 years old, I had an accident in Costa Rica, while attending a convention; as a result of the accident I was a quadriplegic, caused by an injury to the spinal cord between C3 and C4.

Quadriplegia is a traumatic life-changing event. At 28, I knew little about quadriplegia. That was all about to change. Laying in a hospital bed I remember thinking of all things I would love doing again. The main thing that I missed the most was running. Until that day, I had been a runner for many years; actually the day of my accident, in the morning, I had gone for a run without knowing that it would be the last. In spite of my condition, I kept a positive attitude towards life that prevented me to fall into a desperation.

Thanks to God, after two months under this circumstance, I started moving my toes just a little bit. Then is when I started a long and excruciating therapy treatment; 10 hours a day of physical therapy that even for the average healthy people would have been very challenging. After six months the doctor said the therapy was over; and I was allowed to resume my professional life. I was already walking without any help, and able to have a normal life –in spite of a few small consequences.

The first thing I tried was running; I went to a park and start running. Unfortunately, I couldn’t; my body was not behaving the way I expected and was unable to do it. Nonetheless, I tried again… same results, it wasn’t a confortable experience, and after a couple minutes I couldn’t go on. Although I was not having a good time running, my heart kept dreaming of this old passion.

As a runner, I had learned that to succeed in a race three things are essential: passion, determination and training. Determination is all about supporting your intentions –or your dreams– with a strong will. Although physically I was not the same, my will was still invincible. I was not the kind of runner who would get disheartened because my competitor had an insurmountable lead in the race. I kept trying because I was determined to run again. After several years of hard work, I can tell I am a runner again and participate on races, where nobody could tell or even believe what happened to me.

Now after that experience, I’ve found the courage and determination to help others in having the life of theirs dreams. Because when there is little you can do, there is a lot to fight for. As long as there is something you can do, no matter how difficult it may be, you should never give up. Passion, determination and commitment to our dreams is what keeps us alive.