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Limitless Living

In spirit of the PanAm and Para-PanAm games that recently took place here in Toronto Canada, I wanted to congratulate all the athletes for their exceptional performance.  It’s amazing what dedication, perseverance and passion can and will allow us to achieve as long as we believe in ourselves.

I recently had the honour of meeting an extraordinary human being, Flavio Pagliero, from whom I believe we can all learn something.

Here is his story…

Flavio is a handsome young man that was in an unfortunate accident in 2001 that left him with a complete spinal cord injury, causing paralysis from the lower chest down.   Feeling defeated and that his whole world has ended, he spiralled into a state of depression, until one day, a recreational therapist named Richard Vanderwal, rolled into the hospital to speak with Flavio about life after spinal cord injury. They became friends and the rest is history. Richard had shown Flavio an album of himself playing wheelchair tennis, hand-cycling, driving his CRV, attending parties (with women), rolling in an all-terrain wheelchair, woodworking, using tools and many more interesting things.  This inspired Flavio to want to do more.  Flavio encountered many others with different types of physical disabilities, and began to compare himself to them.  He was saddened to see other patients facing more challenging struggles than his own and yet some of them were rolling around with smiles on their faces…genuinely happy.  And then it happened…waking up one morning and saying to himself that enough is enough, he decided to do what he can with his second chance at life and live! Live life and learn everything from the beginning once again.  Each day was a challenge…a struggle…a journey that motivated Flavio to try doing his best to be better than yesterday.

Having been an active person prior to his injury, he knew that he would get involved in some wheelchair sport, and since he had played recreational tennis, he was particularly interested in giving it a shot.  Richard mentored him, inspired him and helped him gain the confidence to try wheelchair tennis.  With much persistence, dedication and practice Flavio finally got the hang of it.  Discovering this wheelchair sport had given him and motivated him to excel.

One day after practicing wheelchair tennis, he decided to take a closer look at a hand-cycle, that he had seen a few times and despite his lack of confidence in his “transfers”, he was determined to get onto the bike and try it.  Flavio was fortunate to have a mentor like Richard around exposing him to new adaptive sports in which he might decide to participate.

Flavio continued physiotherapy sessions, practicing wheelchair skills, playing tennis and using a hand-cycle, and just like the rest of us, he had his share of complications and struggles mixed with good and bad days.  But with a positive attitude and consistent practice and determination he was able to grow, succeed and gain confidence.  A belief that holds truth for people of all abilities.

Sports played a crucial role for Flavio both physically and mentally.  It helped boost his confidence and self-esteem.  Throughout his 14 years in a wheelchair he has tried various sports such as wheelchair basketball, sledge hockey, wheelchair racing, sit skiing, off-road or mountain biking and swimming just to mention a few and yet, he believes that he is not anything special.  Simply an active person who likes to inspire and motivate people.  He is not allowing what others see as a limitation to hold him back from living life.  Today, at the age of 43, his primary sports consist of wheelchair tennis, hand-cycling and weight training.  He has been active in wheelchair tennis both as a mentor, a recreational athlete and as the Sports Director of Wheelchair Tennis with the Ontario Wheelchair Sports Association.  Hand-cycling has become an integral part of his current lifestyle as he participates in competitions locally and surrounding areas. Flavio is a firm believer in living an overall healthy lifestyle that focuses on the physical body, the mind and the soul.

In Flavio’s own words; “Despite all the unfortunate circumstances we see daily in the world, life itself is a constant miracle.  We only have to look, be aware, and open our hearts and souls to the universe to see and recognize that paradise also exists in the world.”

Friends, the real challenge of growth, whether it’s mentally…emotionally…physically, comes when we get knocked down.  But it takes great courage to act…to start over again, just as Flavio has done.  FEAR kills dreams and hope…it can AND will hold you back and “paralyze” you if you let it.  Accept where you are and the responsibility that you’re going to take yourself where ever it is you want to go in life.  You must LIVE your life with PASSION, DRIVE and DECIDE that you want to push yourself.  Because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what happened yesterday…what matters is WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO  ABOUT IT!!!

HOW WILL YOU CHOOSE TO LIVE YOUR LIFE???

Tips to Help You Start Living Life

Stay Physically Active: Not only will you feel healthy and able, this will  also help build confidence and change your mindset.

Help others and give something back: Impacting people’s lives is not only gratifying, it helps you succeed in constantly evolving by aligning yourself with something greater than your own desires.

Be Grateful: Gratitude puts situations into perspective. It helps you realize what you have.  It helps strengthen your relationships, improve your health and make you overall happier.

LIMITS LIKE FEARS ARE OFTEN JUST AN ILLUSION

Stay Great my friends!