Several
years ago I was lucky enough to see Lance Armstrong speak at a convention. I knew Lance to be a great cyclist but never
paid much attention to the sport or his career. As Lance spoke about the grueling training
schedule required to accomplish his goal of winning the Tour de France, I could
hear and see the passion come through physically in his gestures and
voice.
While
training in 1996, Lance had begun to feel weak and sick. After many doctor visits, tests and scans, he
was diagnosed with testicular cancer, which had spread to his lungs, abdomen
and brain. This next part of his story
is both shocking and intriguing. Lance
spoke about seeing the cancer spots scattered throughout his lungs in his chest
x-ray. As the team of specialists
informed him of the severity of his cancer, spoke about the aggressive
treatment and the amount of months left on his life, Lance was staring at the cancer
spots. He was thinking to himself, “If I
can just get rid of all of that, then I would be a lot stronger and can still win
the Tour de France. We know that Lance
went onto to beat the cancer and win the Tour de France in 1999.
In life, we
need to have something that we are passionate about! Something that drives us, keeps us locked in
and focused. Lance has demonstrated that having just one goal
can be a strong enough reason to barrel through and overcome any obstacle. Personally, my goal is freedom. The freedom to give my family anything they
may want in life and the freedom to offer opportunity when it’s desired.
What are
you most passionate about? What are your
obstacles?
Keep Lance Armstrong in mind
when your thinking about the level of passion you may have toward something you
want, and how you can overcome any obstacle in your way toward being victorious.
