Believing & Achieving Against all Odds

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Many of us grew up reading comics or watching movies with superheros who used their special powers to achieve the impossible in difficult situations and eventually save the day. While battling with the villains in what initially looked like impossible situations, they needed to use their super powers to overcome the challenges they faced, and eventually helped good win over evil.

As I grew older I realized that superheroes were fictional and the magic of it all, ebbed away. But here is a true story of a super woman that touched me deeply and was thought provoking.

A few days back, my older daughter who is 11, and reads voraciously, borrowed a book titled “Girls Who Rocked the World” from her school library. Over dinner one evening she shared the story of Wilma Rudolph who truly rocked the world.?She was an African American born in the year 1940 in Clarksville, Tennessee and was the 20th of 22 children (I’m sure at this point you must be wondering as I did, what mayhem must have prevailed in that home).?In her early childhood Wilma battled with measles, mumps, chicken pox, pneumonia and scarlet fever.?When she was 4 years old, she contracted polio, that left her unable to control the muscles in her left leg.?Wilma was told she would never walk again, but she and her family refused to believe the diagnosis.?In fact, when Wilma was later asked about her diagnosis she said, “The Doctors told me I would never walk, but my mother told me I would, so I believed my mother.” Wilma’s brothers and sisters took turns massaging and exercising her leg every day.?Twice a week, Wilma and her mother rode the bus to the hospital at Nashville that was 50 miles away from her home, for physical therapy treatment that would strengthen her muscles.?Since racial discrimination was quite blatant in the Southern US in those days, her mother and she were forced to ride in the back of the bus all the way to the hospital and back.?

With an amazingly supportive family, Wilma made slow but encouraging progress.?Her legs got stronger and by the age of 6, she could walk with the help of a special brace.?She then started to go to school with her siblings but still could not participate in games and sports like other children her age, which made her even more determined to try and get stronger.?By the time she was 10, she could walk short distances without the brace.?When she was 12, she happily mailed the brace back to the hospital and even began to play basketball.?

In her seventh grade she earned a place in her school basketball team and within a few years she became the team’s star player and set a new record for Girls Basketball in the State of Tennessee.?Wilma’s amazing talent, speed and determination caught the attention of Ed Temple, a women’s track coach from the State University & he invited her to attend a summer track program at Tennessee State.?This gave her the platform she needed to practice and improve her skills. When she was 16 years old, she was such a fast runner that she qualified as the youngest member of the US Olympic Track Team to travel and participate in the Olympics.?At the 1956 Summer Olympics held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, she won a bronze medal in the 400 meter relay.?

She was determined to participate and do better in the next Olympics and in the subsequent 1960 Summer Olympics held in Rome, Italy, she made history with stunning victories in the 100 meter and 200 meter dash and the 400 meter relay.?She was the first American woman runner to win three gold medals in one Olympics.?She was officially called the FASTEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD!?When Wilma returned home after her Olympic victory, she was greeted by cheers and banners.?The town held a grand parade in her honor which was attended by both African Americans and Whites and was the first ever integrated event held in Clarksville’s history.?

Did you have goosebumps or were you deeply moved reading this story??I experienced both when my daughter related it to me!?This is such a powerful story of grit, determination and so much more!?The so much more is this – even when the doctors told Wilma she would never walk, her mother told her she would, and she chose to believe in the words of her mother.?You hear so much these days about positive thinking and the power of it, but Wilma’s story goes beyond it all – it is not just positive words spoken but both her mother and her STANDING IN AGREEMENT, her BELIEF in it and her subsequent ACTION with a determined effort.?This story makes me truly believe that “the impossible” is only in our mind.?“The real battle is in our mind”.?Against all odds, Wilma achieved much more than what a normal healthy person would have achieved.?I have read and I’m sure all of you have read about many people who started off with huge setbacks in life in the areas of education, health, finance, etc but have excelled in life and made a name for themselves.?I believe that many times it is the lack of something that makes people a lot more determined to persist and persevere with what ever talents and gifts they already have.?Sure enough, everyone faces a few bad days or off days, and times when they feel down and frustrated but they press on, believing in themselves until they get somewhere.?

I have been listening to a few podcasts by Dr. Caroline Leaf, a Neuroscientist (amongst other qualifications) who since the early 1980’s, researched the mind-brain connection, the nature of mental health, and the formation of memories. She was one of the first in her field to study how the brain can change (Neuroplasticity) with directed mind input.?She talks about how the mind (made up of our Thoughts, Will and Emotions) is extremely powerful and guides our brain on the path it should follow.?She developed her theory of how we think, build memory, and learn, into tools and processes that have transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury, various Learning disabilities and mental ill-health issues. She has helped hundreds of thousands of students and adults learn how to use their mind to detox and grow their brain to succeed in every area of their lives, including school, university, and the workplace. Wilma’s remarkable transformation is a true testament of this.

For those of you facing a mountain today, be it a challenging situation or circumstance at work or otherwise, remember that you can make the difference by thinking and speaking about a Positive Outcome, Believing in it and Acting in a determined way to achieve what you believe you truly can!??