What is your ‘North Pole’ Challenge?

Many young men returning from war are showing us how miracles show up in today’s world. When a miracle is defined as a shift in perception, there is the miracle of modern medicine and rehabilitation programmes. Many of the men have lost limbs and yet with the progress in medicine and the dedication of the caring professions they are being shown a whole other way of looking at their new lives. Not only are they learning to live with prosthetics and disabilities but they are reaching levels of achievement that are truly awe inspiring.

Secondly, they are showing us the miracle of the healing process. How the human spirit can transform. These young men – yes they have lost their limbs, yes their lives as they knew them have shattered and yet they are using the very event that changed their life to push themselves to greater levels of achievement. They are showing the world what a True Hero is. How many times do we use the excuse of events from our past that shattered us to prevent us from really shining, from achieving our purpose? These young men are showing us what is truly heroic: a vulnerable and challenged individual using those very qualities to achieve great success and inspiring and motivating others to do the same time.

These young men have acknowledged their pain, they cannot deny the events - they happened. Often their health, well-being and many of their dreams for the future have been shattered by them too. However, with support, guidance, healing and determination many have set their sights on a greater goal than self-pity. The papers are full of reports of the new goals these young men set themselves.

"In the Walking with the Wounded polar challenge, four disabled soldiers are changing one extreme environment and form of ordeal for another in pursuit of a world record." reports Tom Coghlan in an article in The Times, 19th Feb '11. "They are part of a team who will become the first group including amputees to reach the North pole unaided. Despite their broken bodies they will each be hauling about 130 kilograms behind them."

So what is your North Pole challenge, your greatest goal? And what event do you need to acknowledge and address, heal and rehabilitate from in order to achieve it? Everything that happens in life is part of our training for our purpose; the events that take place give us the tools and skills we need to achieve our goal. Sometimes we just need help, support, guidance and a healing process to see it that way. That shift in perception, that willingness to change how we respond to past events, becomes our own personal miracle.

My miracle came in reading that article. Those Heroes, those brave young men have helped me to recognize my fears and have inspired me to take another brave step in my life. I recognize I have been holding myself back, immobilized by old fears and beliefs. I am ready to embrace the Hero in me and take the next step and the next and the next…. Are you ready to take yours?