Number one best-selling author Erik Qualman. Most you know me as I didn't say motivational speaker
Been there for at least 40 to 50 years and what it...
I'm old, man. I can't get the lines right
Welcome to today's 7 Super Tips
I'm your host Erik Qualman. Most of you know me as Equalman
On today's show we are gonna learn from American journalist, motivational speaker,
and long-distance swimmer, Diana Niyad.
I was so lucky to meet her at an event. We both spoke on
stage right after each other in Atlanta Georgia but then I got to spend time
with her after hours after the event and it was so fun to really learn her entire
story it is incredible. Think about it, she swam for basically two days from
Cuba to Miami. No cage, sharks all around her, jellyfish, and she
did it at the age of 60. She swam for two days with all this stuff going on around
her so without further ado here she is with 7 Super Tips
When I turned 60 the dream was still alive from having tried this in my 20s and dreamed it and
imagined it the most famous body of water on the earth today I imagine Cuba
to Florida and it was deep who was deep in my soul and when I turned 60 what
does so much about the athletic accomplishment it wasn't the sort of ego
of I want to be the first that's that's always there and it's undeniable but it
was it was deeper it was how much life is there left let's face it we're all on
a one-way street aren't we and what are we going to do what are we going to do
as we go forward to have no regrets looking back and all this past year in
training I had that Teddy Roosevelt quote to paraphrase it floating around
in my brain and it says you go ahead you go ahead and sit back in your
comfortable chair and you be the critic you be the observer while the brave one
gets in the ring and engages and gets bloody and gets dirty and fails
over and over and over again but yet isn't afraid and isn't timid and lives
life in a bold way and so of course I want to make it across it is the goal
and I should be so shallow to say that this year the destination was even
sweeter than the journey.
It would be silly for me to look at it you
San Francisco peace out. And try to give you any advice out of how to live your lives
clearly your type-a personalities
accomplishing achieving but I'm a living proof and my team is living proof that
whether it's your profession and you're up against it and the innovations that
you want so badly to to push through or being stymied in some way and your
personal relationships and your health
if you want to reach that other Shore of yours you will find a way I don't know
if you familiar with the Henry David Thoreau quote but this past year it says
it is rung true for me so profoundly and it goes something like when you achieve
your dreams it's not so much what you get a my goodness how humble could I be
as to what I've been getting this last year and the end of that quote goes when
you achieve your dreams it's not so much what you get it's who you become
So there won't be another epic journey in the ocean but the point is and the
point was that every day of our lives is epic and I'll tell you when I walked up
onto that Beach the three things I did sort of blurred out when we got there
was first never ever give up I live it what's the phrase from today
from Socrates to be is to do so I don't stand up and say don't ever give up I
didn't give up it was action behind these words the second is you can chase
your dreams at any age you're never too old 64 that no one at any age any gender
could ever do has done it and has no doubt in my mind that I am at the prime
of my life today
And with all sincerity I can say I'm glad I lived those two
years of my life that way because my goal to not suffer regrets anymore I got
there with that goal when you live that way when you live with that kind of
passion there's no time there's no time for regrets you're just moving forward
and I want to live every day the rest of my life that way swim or no swim but the
difference in accepting this particular defeat is that sometimes if cancer has
won if there is death and we have no choice then grease and acceptance are
necessary but that oceans still there this hope is still alive and I don't
want to be the crazy woman who does it for years and years and years and tries
and fails and tries and fails and tries and fails but I can swim from Cuba to
Florida and I will swim from Cuba to Florida
But the journey itself was worthwhile taking and at this point by this summer
everybody scientists sports scientists endurance experts neurologists my own
team Bonnie said it's impossible it just simply can't be done and Bonnie said to
me but if you're gonna take the journey I'm gonna see you through to the end of
it so I'll be there and now we're there and as we're looking out kind of a
surreal moment before the first stroke standing on the rocks at marina
Hemingway the Cuban flag is flying above all my teams out in their boats hands up
in the air we're here we're here for you Bonnie and I look at each other and we
say this year the mantra is and I've been using it in training find a way you
have a dream and you have obstacles in front of you as we all do none of us
ever get through this life without heartache without turmoil and if you
believe and you have faith and you can get knocked down and get back up again
and you believe in perseverance as a great human quality you find your way
and Bonnie grab my shoulders and she said let's find our way to Florida
It's been important for me to hear this crossing borders because since I turned
60 and I'm now 63 I have been thinking this isn't just a sport this isn't just
about getting there and getting some name in a record book honestly I don't
care anything about that anymore what it's been it's been the wake-up call I
wanted it's been the crossing of the borders of the mind and the will that I
wanted I've been awake and alert and alive like
these last three years like I wasn't from thirty to sixty and so when I get
done this time I'm gonna make the promise to myself when I see those
condominiums on that Florida Shore this time and I go off to live the rest of my
life outside of sport now I'm gonna remember every day to feel that
commitment to put it towards something to to live alive and alert and I want to
leave you with I don't know if you know the American poet Mary Osborne Oliver
Mary Oliver I don't know if you know her but she is a phrase and it made me think
again of Anwar this morning looking out like this are you crossing borders how
about you he said how about you how about you how about you well Mary's
phrase goes like this so what are you doing with this one wild and precious
life of yours so it's not to judge but now that Stefan's put out the phrase
I've decided that's what I'm doing with my life I'm crossing borders
And I started grappling with this existential angst of what little I had done with my
life it wasn't the the resume of you know
breaking this record here it was more like who would I become why would I
spend my valuable time how could this have gone by like lightning and I
couldn't I couldn't forgive myself for the countless countless hours I had lost
in negative thought all the time I had spent beating myself up for losing my
marriage and and not stopping the sexual abuse when I
was a kid and career moves and this and this and this just why why didn't I do
it better why why why and that my mother died at 82 and so I'm starting thinking
not only am I not happy with the past now I'm betting choked with I've only
got 22 years left what am I gonna do with this short amount of time that's
just fleeting and I'm not in the present whatsoever and I decided the remedy to
all this malice was going to be for me to chase an elevated dream an extreme
dream something that would require utter conviction and unwavering passion
something that would make me be my best self in every aspect of my life every
minute of every day because the dream was so big that I couldn't get there
without that kind of behavior and that kind of conviction
What an incredible story what a blessing that I was able to meet her personally
Just think about it
She swam at the age of 60 on something that everyone thought was impossible on
something that she already failed several times in fact almost died trying
to do it earlier in her younger years and yet at the age of 60 she knew it was
in her heart I need to do this. So remember out there it's about
Failing Fast, Failing Forward, Failing Better. And the other thing that's inspiring about
her it's never too late to start everyone thinks it's all about if you're
20 or 30 you can do it when you're 60 just like she did so anyways I hope
you're inspired today from her 7 Super Tips. I hope you hit the subscribe
button to make sure you don't miss our next episode because this show is all
about unlocking and unleashing your inner superpower
I'm your host Erik Qualman. A lot of you know me as the Equalman. Until next time
remember it's not what we take from the world it's what we leave behind
Sign was faded. It was rusty. Definitely been there for at least 40 to 50 years but what
caught my attention... I already said that once right for those who don't know the
microphones hidden right here I don't have a
bomp on my sternum well I do but not that pronounced maybe