Winners Have A Fighter’s Attitude -They Don’t Quit!.

How resilient are you? I brace myself, grip my cane and look up the long sidewalk climbing the hill in front of me.

.Cool spring air whistles over my teeth as I suck my lungs full. The sun shines behind me and my long shadow stretches up the hill. This early spring morning seems so fresh and alive that optimism tries to crowd out the negative disability feelings that weigh me down like a mule pulling an overloaded wagon.

The doctors say I’ll never walk without a cane, but I have to walk without a cane. It’s not just about proving them wrong. I’m only thinking about how bad I want to walk. I hold my cane off the ground, determined not to let my disability hold me down, and start hobbling up the hill. Every time I start falling, I plant my cane and try to catch myself. (Winners Don’t Quit…)

Winners Keep Getting Up

I usually catch myself, but sometimes I don’t. I fall so much, I actually get used to it. Three scars on my face, gashes that required stitches to close, remind me of the days when walking without a cane was my only goal. It doesn’t matter how many times we fall. What matters is how many times we get back  up.

One day, a well dressed, middle aged woman and her apparent grand daughter are walking behind me when I fall. They stop. The woman says, “Are you OK, sir?”

.I hate falling in public. I hate the idea of people feeling sorry for me. I try to sound like nothing’s wrong, “Oh, yeah. I’m fine. It’s all good.”

.The woman hears my speech impairment and grabs the girl’s hand. “Come on Sally. He’s intoxicated!” She spit the words out.

.Don’t Worry What People think!

She drags the kid off up the hill. He looks at me over his shoulder as he’s being pulled away. I scramble to my feet and follow after them. How resilient can I be? Will my disability keep me down or will resilience win, again? Holding my cane off the ground, I repeat the speech exercise my speech therapist gave me..

“WINNERS don’t quit! Winners DON’T quit!! Winners don’t QUIT!!!”.

I like to come across as a competent person, but one of the worst things I can do to myself is let how I think other people think of my disability keep me from doing what I need to do. I’m happiest when I remember, that as long as I am treating others with respect and compassion, how others think of me says more about them than it does me.

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To hire Al to share his humor and motivation at your event, or to participate in his seminar, contact him by clicking  Attitude man Al Foxx. He’ll customize any of these  topics for your event. His book No Limits can be obtained separately or  in bulk as part of a package deal.