Find a way

Diana Nyad can sing John Lennon’s “Imagine” straight through 1,000 times in row. And she knows that it takes precisely 9 hours and 45 minutes.

Odd talent, you say. Well, it’s not her talent, it’s one of her ways. One of her methods of finding a way to achieve a goal. Specifically, “Find a Way” was the theme she and her team used to accomplish her unbelievable feat of becoming the first person to swim the 110 miles from Cuba to Florida, without a shark cage. She found a way to accomplish this exploit in a grueling 53-hour swim on her fifth attempt at the age 64. The “Imagine” exercise helped her keep measure of her progress.

Nyad is an ultra-long distance swimmer who made her mark in the sport in the 1970s. Her early exploits included swimming the 28 miles around the island of Manhattan in under 8 hours, and swimming the 102 miles from the Bahamas to Florida in 27 and a half hours. She made her first attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida in 1978 when she was 28. A second attempt at age 29 never took off as she was denied a VISA.

For those of you who can recall the “Thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” days of the “Wide World of Sports,” you may remember Nyad as a broadcaster. After the planned second swim to Cuba didn’t work out, she took a position on the TV show, and also on NPR, and became a regular contributor to those programs, telling the amazing stories of other athletes.

At age 60, Nyad renewed training to achieve her Cuba to Florida dream. She made three more attempts in her sixties that failed due to jellyfish stings, an asthma attack and other elements before accomplishing the ultimate swim in 2013 on her fifth try.

News reports at the time quote Nyad as saying, after emerging from the surf at Key West sunburned, dehydrated and exhausted, “I have three messages. One is we should never, ever give up. Two is you never are too old to chase your dreams. Three is it looks like a solitary sport, but it’s a team.”

Nyad’s example and words offer immense encouragement to us all. We can all “find a way” to improve our health and fitness and to achieve our other goals. Although we might not be facing such a daunting task as her extreme swimming experiences, we all have trials, obstacles and goals we want to achieve that have a formidable element to them.

You can never give up. Develop courage and focus. Find a way.

You are not too old. Age is not a limiting factor, and in most instances, it’s a strength. Find a way.

You, too, have a team. Rely on and seek help from friends, family and professionals to be in your corner and to provide support. Find a way.

You can also find encouragement and humor by listening to Nyad share her experiences in her TED Talks and her other motivational speeches on YouTube or by reading her book, “Find a Way.”

Daniel Island Publishing

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