From Adversity To Heroism

Growing up in the 1970's-1980's, one of the most recognized and popular films to hit the screens was the Superman series, which consisted of three sequels, with a fourth that was later released in 2006, with a different cast. The first four movies of the series were simply titled Superman (1978), Superman 2 (1980), Superman 3 (1983), and Superman 4- The Quest For Peace (1987), and in each of these films, Superman himself was played by no other than American actor, the late Christopher Reeve. Superman, of course, is a fictional superhero who first shot to fame via Action Comics #1, in which writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster teamed up to create a character that so many children, and even many adults, so wanted to be. With super powers such as superhuman strength, x-ray vision, heat vision, cold breath, super speed, enhanced hearing, the ability to fly, and much more, Superman became a child idol. Christopher Reeve played the part to perfection in the films, and basically became the face of Superman. At the age of 24, Reeve was tall, but slender, and in order to fit the role of a character that was pictured as being strong and muscular, he had to undertake a demanding 2 month training regimen, consisting of running, weightlifting, and trampolining, which saw him add on 14kgs to his muscle weight. Like any other human being on the planet, the Superman that we saw in the films was not exempt to adversity and challenge in real life, as being Christopher Reeve himself. As a teenager he suffered from loss of hair in patches, courtesy of a disease called alopecia areata, he was an asthmatic, he had several severe reactions to various drugs and antibiotics, including one in which made his heart stop, he received treatment for an infected pressure ulcer, and he would have several serious infections that originated from his bone marrow, many in which were life threatening. Reeve's biggest adversity of his life came in 1995 though. When out participating in a horse riding event, as horse riding and equestrian was one of his biggest passions in life, the horse he was riding came to a sudden halt prior to jumping a fence, propelling Reeve forward. He became tangled in the reins, before landing head first over the fence, which resulted in his first and second vertebrae becoming shattered. The injury paralyzed him from the neck down, as his breathing was also halted until paramedics arrived. The man recognized as Superman, had sadly become someone who lost the ability to ever walk again.

Following surgery, months of rehabilitation, and many moments of complete devastation and unhappiness, Reeve was left to contemplate how different his life would be moving forward. From a popular, talented, successful, and recognized actor, to becoming someone with a disability who would be confined to a wheelchair for the remainder of his days, it's not surprising that Reeve would have felt so emotionally overwhelmed, grieved, and disheartened. Even despite such a tragic life changing accident, and the mental demons he had to fight off about what had become of his life, Reeve demonstrated amazing resolve and courage thereafter. I want to share something that Reeve quoted a couple of years after his accident, as it really is something that everybody needs to hear, whether able-bodied, disabled, restricted, impacted, hurt, or however physically and mentally placed we are in life, or will be in the future. He stated "Who knows why an accident happens? The key is what you do afterwards. There is a period of shock and then grieving with confusion and loss. After that, you have two choices. One is to stare out the window and gradually disintegrate, and the other is to mobilize and use all your resources, whatever they may be, to do something positive. That is the road I have taken. It comes naturally to me. I am a competitive person and right now I am competing against decay. I don't want osteoporosis, or muscle atrophy, or depression, to beat me." In reading these word, I only have one response; wow. To anyone who has ever gone through a spinal injury that has left them disabled and wheelchair bound for the remainder of their life, that is such an amazing and inspirational thing to say, as that would be one of the most difficult things to accept in life. To have such an attitude, even despite having been the victim of such a tragic and life changing event, Reeve can pretty much go down in history as an epitome of resolve and courage.

I want to focus on those words of his, because his response came off the back of a tragic life changing event, yet here are many of us who face adversities, challenges, failures, setbacks, and rejections, of our own, and we fail to show any sign of courage and resolve whatsoever, which really does put us to shame. Firstly, let me focus on the last sentence, where he mentions that he doesn't want to become a victim of body decaying illnesses and depression. The last one resonates with me in particular, as I have suffered depression now for over 10 years, and as close as I have been to ending my life on several occasions, I have continually found the courage and resolve to hang in there, to keep on going, to believe in myself and my abilities, and to trust that life will improve for me, as long as I continued to remain resilient. Having faced the hardest and most challenging period of my life mentally, over these past few months, I was again on the brink of ending it all. I saw no positives to my circumstances, I saw no positives to my future, and I saw no happiness on the horizon. I was devastated to the point where I would just curl up in a ball sobbing uncontrollably, hoping that I would just die in my sleep. Despite all the adversities and challenges I am continuing to face, off the back of what transpired in my life, I am starting to completely change my outlook on life once again, four months on from the original event. I have accepted certain circumstances are beyond my control, and instead I have redirected my focus on what I can control. That, plus I am continuing to make a concerted effort into working towards my goals, and building a future that I desire. All of a sudden, the wheel is starting to turn for me, and things are starting to fall into place. I'm starting to rediscover happiness once again, even in the midst of all the challenges that continue to envelope me. I'm not saying that it's easy by any means, because with each step forward, another challenge is thrown upon me, but I am determined to not allow depression to beat me. For anyone who also suffers from depression, or even anyone who faces the prospect of debilitating illnesses, this is the time where it becomes all about attitude. Are you really going to allow yourself to be defeated by such things, or are you going to prove to yourself that you do have the courage, you do have the willpower, you do have the resilience, and you do have the resolve, to overcome anything that will only end up destroying you? What happened to Reeve should serve as an inspiration to us, that if he can overcome such tragedy, and the constant hounding of his mental demons, then we certainly can overcome any adversity and illness also. It's damn hard to overcome depression, but continue to pick yourself up and take action, do whatever you need to do to rediscover happiness in your life also.

There are seven words in what Reeve also states that need to ring inside the ears of everyone. "The key is what you do afterwards". Now keep in mind that Reeve is saying this off the back of a tragic life changing event that placed him in a wheelchair for the remainder of his days. Imagine having to be all positive minded and motivated after such an event? We face many times of adversity during our life, that's just what life loves to continually do to us. Like in Reeve's instance, some adversities are severe and life changing, whilst most of the time, our adversities are more so inconvenient and frustrating, and just enough to get us off our butt and have to take action to resolve the issue. How do most of us react though? We whinge, we complain, we hide away, we try to avoid it, we get angry about it, we take it out on others, and so on. Basically, we react in a very negative manner. It may be a job promotion that we had applied for, and desperate to obtain, yet we were rejected and the position was handed to someone else. It's in these type situations we have a choice. We can drop our head, feel disconsolate, seek to undermine and defame the successful applicant, resign, whinge, complain, and drop our standard of work thereafter, or we can accept the decision, use it to drive us to work harder, seek feedback to better ourselves, and learn from the successful applicant, so we can better position ourselves for the next promotion. It's how we react that will ultimately define us, define our character, and determine our mindset. This sort of setback and moment of adversity isn't the end of the world, nor is it even in the same league as what Reeve had to face. Within each period of adversity lies an opportunity. We perhaps need to do something different, or work harder, or change our actions, or change our behavior. Behind that adversity can often lie something that's even better, and perhaps it's our purpose in life, we just can't see it at the time, but it highlights the need to accept the adversity, overcome it, and seek the opportunity.

The final part of his statement that I want to highlight is the part about the two choices; "One is to stare out the window and gradually disintegrate, and the other is to mobilize and use all your resources, whatever they may be, to do something positive." Now we can look at what we says here and focus on the fact that he says "mobilize", as a result of his restriction to being in a wheelchair, but mobilize doesn't necessarily relate to being physically injured, or having an incapability of proper movement. Mobilize is making something capable of movement, and what he is referring to, of course, is ourselves. We need to mobilize ourselves, we need to get active. When we face times of adversity, hardship, rejection, challenge, trial, suffering, and the like, we can either allow our circumstances to consume us, leading us to become stale, as we stare blankly out a window feeling sorry for ourselves, or we can take ownership of the situation, go to work at resolving it, and prove ourselves resilient, courageous, and strong. It's going to be a tough road ahead in the interim, but if you focus on what you can control, on what you can achieve, whilst remaining positive minded, you can overcome any adversity. Another aspect to that sentence I picked up is the word "resources". As an entrepreneur, I know what it's like to continually confront failure after failure, with action after action not leading to the success I was seeking. With business, of course, each failure often results in a decline in cash flow, and the more failures one encounters, before long, that money well runs dry. When you have a strong vision and goal for your business, and one in which you are so determined and driven to achieve, you go about doing whatever it takes to keep that vision and goal alive, no matter how dire things become. A bit like any goal really. So when the cash runs out, then the only way to keep the business dream alive is to resource. This may mean selling assets, borrowing from a financial institution, borrowing from friends or family, even advertising for financial assistance. Resourcing is basically about continually finding access to what's needed to keep your dream alive, even if it takes several years. It's the ultimate test on, not only putting our pride aside to ask for help, but to also continually step out of our comfort zone, to sacrifice, and to find solutions that keep us progressing forward to our goal. Resourcing is openly looking around for anything that will keep us moving forward, even when things seem lost.

There's three words in that statement also that sum it all up; "do something positive". When all feels like doom and gloom, your back is against the wall, you feel like giving up, and the adversity, pain, suffering, hardship, and rejection just becomes so overwhelming and mentally exhausting, we need to think of those three words. Perhaps, like Reeve, your circumstances have led you to tragedy, and your life has been turned upside down, you will naturally grieve and feel lost, but if Reeve found it within him to focus on a new purpose in life, and had the desire to do something positive in life, then you can also. We sometimes don't like the cards we are dealt in life, and often, they can be extremely unfair and unjust, but sometimes things do indeed happen for a reason, and it may take such an adversity or tragedy to discover our purpose and reason in life. Again, we need to find the opportunity within the adversity. Such adversities may purely just be a learning curve that life has thrown at us, wanting us to use our inner potential to devise a solution, so we can continue to grow and develop as an individual. When I think of the words "do something positive" though, I immediately think of doing something for others, and helping others, showing generosity, support, and kindness to others. When things are dire, it's easy to first think of ourselves, but a sure way to find happiness and fulfillment within ourselves is to do something for others. Helping a neighbor, helping a friend, volunteering at a local community association, or even just providing a homeless person with food, blankets, or money, think of a way in which you can do something positive, and uplift the spirits of others, because in turn, you will uplift yourself also.

As we know, Reeve sadly passed away in 2004 from a cardiac arrest, what was reported as being caused by an antibiotic given to him to treat an infection, to which he had an adverse reaction. Following his tragic accident of 1995 though, Reeve went on to become a film director, and achieved great success in doing so, such as his achievement of five nominations for an Emmy Award for the film "In The Gloaming". Not only that, he returned to the screen himself, as he would star in, and produce, the remake of the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock film "Rear Window", winning a Screen Actors Guild Award in the process. He also had his autobiography published in 1998, which was called "Still Me". Following his passing, his wife set up the Christopher Reeve Foundation, although she would pass away only a year later herself, leading to the foundation name being changed to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which is dedicated to finding treatments and cures for paralysis, caused by spinal injuries and other neurological disorders. Even despite such a tragic event that would turn his life upside down, Reeve still had the resolve, courage, and strength, to overcome his pain and suffering, to have remained positive, and to have continued finding purpose in his life, which granted him further success. He may have been the fictional character of Superman on screen, but the real truth is, he genuinely became a superhero in real life, off the back of his attitude and response in overcoming such a huge adversity. We all have the ability to go from adversity to heroism ourselves. Although there will always be different levels and severities of adversity in life, each hardship, rejection, failure, trial, pain, suffering, and adverse circumstance we encounter, can end up even becoming the ultimate blessing for us. They may end up becoming a turning point in our life, where the suffering and pain we go through, gives us the opportunity to gain strength, resilience, and courage, that we end up using to our advantage, and creating success, happiness, prosperity, and fulfillment off the back of it. It's your turn to become a superhero in life!

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