Luckiest Person Alive Today

?I believe I'm one of the luckiest persons alive today!

26th October is a date that is now engraved on my mind, body and soul.

8 years ago on this date, I had my ''Re-Born to Live'' or ''Die Another Day'' experience. Before, I share more details about my experience did you know;

• 17.9 million people died in 2019 from a cardiac disease*
• Representing 32% of all global deaths
• 85% of these deaths were due to heart attack or or stroke
• Over three quarters of CVD deaths take place in low-and-middle income countries

But most cardiovascular diseases could be prevented, by addressing behavioural factors, such as tobacco use, unhealthy diets, obesity, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol.

Sunday 26th October 2014, I had been running at the beach, when on return to my car, I had a sudden cardiac arrest and hit the ground dead.

Unknown to me then, and luckily for me, 2 guardian angels came to my rescue, gave me CPR, called the ambulance and administered not once but twice a Philips AED to bring me back from where I was going.

Clearly, life for me wasn't up - Yet!

Although I don't remember any ''bright-light'' or out of ''body experience''. I do remember a nurse from LUMC hospital holding a mirror up at me to look into.

I now use ''the mirror'' when talking to anyone or discussing any change that they or their company wants to embark on. It's a wonderful visual for seeing the ''real you'' and in my experience and as you can see from the photographs attached, the bewildered, drowsy person thinking and then asking

''Where am I? what happened and Why am I here?

While I can only guess on why I didn't carry out that fatal journey, I can say that the root cause was my unhealthy lifestyle my work ethic, diet and alcohol were to blame no one else.

No matter how many times I looked out the window for someone else to blame, it was only looking into the mirror (and still today this can be ugly, and vulnerable) it was those unhealthy choices I made. No one told me to work around the clock, eat high calorie and fatty food, washed down with enough alcohol for two people.

So, looking into the mirror now - who do I see? I'm still Craig, but most definitely and without doubt through discipline, focus and better self-control I can proudly say version 2:0 not version 1:0

Many ask why do I put myself through months of training to attempt the world's toughest running multi-day events in the hottest and arid places on earth?...because I need the process. The process of the daily small incremental steps of forward motion - the marginal gains that over many months add up to 25-35% improvements from where I started.

But I can't do this alone. I need the help from many people to seek their guidance and support. Anyone will tell you who take on these monumental challenges, it's not all plain sailing, many times you do question yourself why? why do you do this? why not take the easy route instead of the right path!

So what learnings do I have...?

For sure I'm more stoic than monk. I've come to realize that my heart attack and near death experience happened FOR ME not TO ME (big difference on how we think)

So after months of finger pointing, I realized that fate chose this for me, so embrace it, acknowledge the truma, and turn this into a positive. So I started to build a better life for me, and I hope for my family.

In closing, Life is precious, and could be gone in an instant. So be kind to everyone you meet, smile and be grateful of everything you have.

with gratitude, Craig

*https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cardiovascular-diseases-(cvds)