A short while after being paralyzed, I made my way back into the gym. Since I wasnt' able to use my legs, I gravitated to the bench press. There was a lot of uncertainty with my ability, but I set a goal or 275 lbs and pushed forward. Where I ended up at 405 lbs is much further than what I thought I could do and in the process of achieving more, I learned a lot along the way.

This journey we call life will rob you of many things including your happiness, peace, joy, and safety. We lose in life if we sit back and let life take these things from us. Winning in life happens when we decide we want to rob life of its ability to take those things that are important to us.

I can make myself cry at almost anytime I choose to. All I have to do is take myself to a place where I bring back feelings of hurt or sadness from experiences that I have had in the past. Every experience has different senses and emotions that are woven into them. When we have experienced negative things in the past, it can be easy to bring ourselves back to those negative feelings by what we chose to surround ourselves by. If we want to change how we feel and create a more positive space, we can choose to surround ourselves with those things that will build that more positive space.