Courage, Determination and Commitment

Bernard Edmonds once said, “To dream anything that you want to dream, that is the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do, that is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits, that is the courage to succeed.” Nothing can stop you from being a winner if you really give it all you’ve got.

After suffering severe burns on his legs at the age of five, Glen Cunningham was given up by doctors as a hopeless cripple who would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.  “He will never be able to walk again”, they said, “no chance”. The doctors examined his legs but they had no way of looking into Glen Cunningham’s heart. He couldn’t listen to the doctors and set out to walk again. Lying in bed with skinny, red legs covered with scar tissue, Glen vowed: “Next week, I’m going to get out of bed. I’m going to walk.” And he did just that. Glen would reach up and take hold of an old plough in the yard. With a hand on each handle, he began to make those gnarled and twisted legs to function. And with every step of pain, he came closer to walking. Soon he began to trot, before long he was running. When he started to run, he became ever more determined. “I always believed that I could walk again, and I did. Now I’m going to run faster than anybody has ever run.”

Glenn began to run to school. He ran for the sheer joy of running and being able to run. He ran everywhere that he could. The people in his town would often see him run by on his way to who knows where and smile. Later in college Glenn made the track team where his tremendous determination paid off. He eventually received the nickname the "Kansas Flyer."

In February 1934, in New York City's famed 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 mile in four minutes and eight seconds, the world's fastest indoor mile! Later that same year in a prestigious outdoor track meet, he shaved another second off his record to run the world's fastest mile to that time.

“You and I can make our lives one of these legendary inspirations, as well”, says Anthony Robbins; famous American author, entrepreneur, philanthropist and life coach, “simply by having the courage and the awareness, we can control whatever happens in our lives. Although we cannot always control the events in our lives, we can always control our response to them and the actions we take as a result.”

And it’s a fact; most of the time what happens doesn’t affect us so much as what and how do we respond to what happens to us. So often people blame events for how their lives have turned out. Yet what really shapes our lives is the meaning we attach to those events.

How we deal with adversity shapes our lives more than almost anything else. Achievers usually see problems as transitory, while those who fail usually see even the smallest problems as everlasting.

The difference between the two is hope and despair optimism and pessimism. Just emotions, but these emotions have a profound effect on our body chemistry, they trigger positive and negative chemicals based on our emotion, and that chemical defines our responses, and that response defines, more often than not our future course.

Adopting the latter mind set is the first step into the trap of what Dr. Martin Seligman, an American psychologist, educator, and author of self-help books, called learned helplessness, which is caused by the following three perceptions: problem is permanent – rather than temporary, the problem is pervasive – instead of affecting only one area; the problem is personal – rather than an opportunity to learn.

Majboor, an old Amitabh Bachchan movie, had a situation where the character that Amitabh was playing was trying to console his sister, who was on a wheelchair and was very disappointed with life. In 70s and up till very recently most of our films were music dominated and had a song for every possible situation, so our character also had some beautiful lyrics penned by Anand Bakshi,

एक दिन बिगड़ी क़िस्मत सँवर जाएगी, ये ख़ुशी हमसे बचकर किधर जाएगी

ग़म न कर ज़िन्दगी यूँ गुज़र जाएगी, रात जैसे गुज़र गई सोते हुए

One of these days we will have our luck back, how long happiness can stay away from us, don’t worry, the problems will go away, as we sleep through the night. 

All these theories don’t define people, in fact its people define theories. As you go back to inspiring story of Glen Cunningham, you will find the pieces fitting in the exact right places.

Being courageous requires no exceptional qualifications, no magic formula and no special combination of time, place and circumstance. It’s not what we do once in a while that counts, but our consistent actions.

What ultimately determines who we become and where we go in life? The answer is our decisions. It’s in these moments that our destiny is shaped. It’s the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek. Even though circumstances may cause interruptions and delays, never lose sight of your goal.