Recently my husband and I attended an Innovative Farmers of Ontario conference in London. There was a lot of good information obtained from speakers with ample years of experience relating to cover crops and no-till farming operations but, what mostly stuck out was the motivational speaker - Chris Koch.
Chris was born and raised between the US and Canada but his family has a farm in Southern Alberta where he helps when he can. Although most of his life sounds fairly common; growing up helping on the farm, playing sports, being told he needed better grades by his parents, and travelling parts of the world, his life is actually fairly unique.
Chris was born with no arms or legs. He stated there is no known cause for this but his family took it in stride and made the most of it. They immediately found the humour in it and the precedent was set to ensure he lived as normal a life as anyone else. The key player in this, his grandmother when she stated, "Bruce (his father) never did finish anything he started".
Listening to him speak did not make me feel sorry for him, it gave me sincere gratitude for his willingness to share his experiences.
His motivation to be successful and independent isn't unlike the rest of us who have all of our limbs, but the challenges he faces wouldn't even occur to us if not pointed out. This, I believe, to be true for a lot of hurdles people experience.
While in University I had a friend who was a little person - not pushing more than 4 feet tall. She would have people asking her what it's like to be little and her response would always be, "I don't know, what's it like being tall?" Her size and perspective is all she's ever known, how did people expect her to respond when asking that?
Likewise, while Chris and I spoke after his presentation, he said being born with his physical differences made him one of 'the lucky ones'. He jokingly carried on about swimming with sharks and that he had minimal fear going into the water since they couldn't remove any limbs anyways, but he more seriously stated that he couldn't imagine how to people cope making the shift from having all limbs to suddenly losing them. His situation has always been his normal, whether it brought more challenges or created more patience to complete tasks, having a traumatic experience that changes who you are well after you've formed your identity would be a challenge.
At this point in our conversation I divulged the struggles I've experienced and even if my physical appearance wasn't changed, there was a huge part of myself that I didn't seem to know anymore, namely with my diagnosis and again as a new mom.
Chris was completely engaged and sincere during our conversation and agreed that my story is worth sharing offering his help if needed. This coming from a guy who has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Network and Dr. Oz meant a lot!
His campaign "If I can..." is highly motivational. He goes through various parts of the world as independently as possible to share a relatively simple message but with big impact. If he can do all of these things; swim with sharks, bungee jump, travel around France alone, work on the farm, etc... then there is no reason we should be saying "I can't" without first, giving it a shot.
I completely agree with his outlook on life and it has certainly helped to solidify why I'm doing this blog and website.
Failure is acceptable when opportunity is seized.
Experiences should not be limited by fear of failure.
The worst thing we can do is live with regret.
Life is too short (no pun intended) and there are so many opportunities we don't want to say we missed at the end of the day.
No one gets out of this life alive, so why not live it to the fullest while we are healthy and capable?
