if you were given the opportunity to
heal from potentially heal from an
incurable disease what would you do now
if that opportunity required you to sign
your body over to the US government what
would you do that’s gonna make you think
on January 4th 2005 I’m staring up from
a hospital bed at the National
Institutes of Health in Bethesda
Maryland I’m staring up at an IV bag
that was dripping salmon-colored liquid
into the tube connected to my chest
delivering my own stem cells that were
harvested from me some weeks before at
that moment I became the first person at
the NIH to receive a novel stem cell
transplant for lupus and among the first
100 in the world
I was also the sixth one in the world to
receive this who was affected by a rare
spinal disease called transverse
myelitis which had paralyzed me chest
down the previous seven years now this
IV drip lasted maybe 20 minutes and of
course I did not because I had survived
and endured five days of three different
types of chemo therapy the week before I
could hardly lift my head up from the
pillow so I fell asleep I fell asleep
during the most important 20 minutes of
my life yeah but when I woke I woke up
to choices and options if this worked
the way the doctors decided it could
work I would be cured of lupus by doing
nothing I would gain something but I
felt if I did something I could gain
everything I felt I had the choice to
learn to walk again
this was not designed to help me with
that yet I knew that this was the
passport to that dream in Robert Frost
famous poem he writes about two paths
that diverged into wood and as he says
he took the one less travel which made
all the difference but did you know that
there exists a third pathway he didn’t
talk about in that poem to me it looks
like a briar patch
there was no discernible forward path no
discernible action that I could take yet
I knew a couple things one this was
gonna hurt – it looked like an immense
amount of work and three like any
obscure path would not guarantee me
success yet I knew this was the
direction I needed to go so I embraced
it in the end I am a medical pioneer and
the one thing I know about pioneers is
that they have the they hear a voice no
one else can hear they see a vision no
one else can see yet they have the
courage to stand up and take that first
step into the unknown luckily for me in
the beginning I had a couple physical
therapists who decided they could help
me with that dream now I may have
threatened one of them with bodily harm
if they didn’t help but luckily there’s
no audio proof of that what does it take
to overcome the impossible it takes an
impossible dream from the moment my
symptoms led to me becoming paralyzed I
my doctors never acknowledged this over
the years yet I stayed with that dream
and it stayed with me it was my
motivation and it kept me going when I
couldn’t do it on my own
it was my fuel and my fire and it burned
throughout every part of me the engine
was desire and the fuel determination
the relentless pursuit of our dreams
will inevitably lead to a realization of
those dreams for me it required faith
when I wanted to give up the most it
required sacrifice of old ideas because
quite frankly healing is hell and why is
healing hell it required me to transform
into someone I’ve never been before
faith in that transition point is where
most of us slip back into fear and give
up the relentless pursuit of our dream
this is what separates those who achieve
their dreams
and those who continue to tell the story
of their dream the achievement of it is
entirely in our hands some years ago I
sought to further understand what
done by reaching my goal I consulted
professionals in various fields and
after contemplating their answers began
to more fully understand what it is I
did and the steps I took and I’d like to
share those steps with you today
I used the word media let’s start with M
mindset or as I like to put it
cette mind what is your mind set upon
what is your focus I once asked a
therapist friend of mine what he thought
I did and he responded with a one-word
answer hyper focus I’m like that’s a
word or diagnosis in your field and he
said yeah but he further stated that
because I was so focused on achieving my
goal there was nothing that was going to
stand in my way
develop focus he is for excuses we all
have them so what are yours and you
understand that the excuse making
machine which is our mind is there to
protect the status quo it doesn’t matter
if there’s changes for the better it
matters more that it’s going to keep
that balance what I had learned is I had
tricked my mind by not using the word
work I used the word process this is the
process to get what we want and I would
literally talk to myself like you would
a three-year-old trying to convince them
to eat their vegetables I learned that
by using we I changed the message by
changing the narrative
I changed the response the result fewer
excuses showed up so I could continue to
pursue my dream discipline discipline is
the cornerstone of any effort towards
our dreams discipline to me is when you
show up when you don’t want to but more
importantly especially when you don’t
want to what I’ve disciplined discipline
builds the endurance necessary for us to
follow our dreams when I first started
with my physical therapy where my
personal trainer I would see him
Thursday mornings at 7:00 a.m. where he
would work my legs so hard I literally
could not use them again until the
following Wednesday afternoon yeah
only to face seeing him again the next
morning at 7 a.m.
despite knowing this I would still show
up and this went on not for weeks and
months this went on for years before
that recovery period went from six days
to five days to three days to one day to
where now I can leave and be fine five
minutes later discipline is a measure of
commitment and commitment helps us
develop success in achieving our dreams
inspiration if you’re not a place to
inspire yourself then who inspires you
why do they inspire you what it is about
their skillset that inspires you and
what are you doing to instill those
principles into your own life we need to
be able to understand what inspires and
motivates us so that we can turn around
and help inspire and motivate others
some time during my process I was
contemplating that various question that
same question and I would show up for my
physical therapist I would show up for
my personal trainer I would show up to
the drip gym on my own but I discovered
I had not shown up for me so I decided
to and an interesting thing happened I
went from walking 1/10 of a mile to a
full mile in nine months I went from leg
press in 125 pounds to 240 in that same
nine month period
none of that would have happened unless
I began to show up for me a is for
action action is the cement that holds
all of these steps together if you’re
not willing to show up and do the work
you’re still in the wishing stage and
by utilizing these media principles I’ve
been able to surpass my dream of walking
again imagine what you could do and what
you could achieve when all of your
resources are properly aligned and
involved in accomplishing your
impossible dreams imagine what will
happen to those dreams that’s right here
full
yeah baby push it yeah let’s get this
full stack right here look at that stack
moving it’s freaking awesome come on
finish strong come on dude that’s the
bomb right here right here
yeah they got smiled 24 storey building
here in Salt Lake City there’s no
failure Oh Meggie I will crawl I will in
a tow-rope I’ll get it whatever I’m
obvious answers hardest elven I’ve been
working it a long time it’s best if to
get this point congratulations Sean he
works at a home improvement store
Lindsay I see him helping customers
there he’s in his wheelchair often but
he’s been telling me for some time that
he is coming back and he has been
working hard to do it yeah you succeeded
and what a great attitude you got
trampoline right as you can tell from my
stem cell transplant we have the medical
technology available right now to bring
the dream of a pain-free a disease-free
and as you can see even a paralysis free
future into reality I’m happy that my
doctors at the NIH are planning on
publishing the study that I was involved
with sometime this year because they’ve
effectively dealt with lupus none of us
have it any longer
and I am 13 years out imagine what we
can do now because it is time to start
the medical revolution it is time to
provide the dream for others so they can
live their dream of health impossible is
somebody else’s opinion
I am possible is my opinion the opinion
that you believe will become the reality
that you achieve how’s that for an idea
worth sharing thank you
[Applause] [Music]