Dream Act Plan Believe

Everyone in life deals with adversity.  It’s simply a fact of life.  However, thankfully, very few of us will experience the kind of  adversity that Dan Caro went through.

Dan Caro is someone I’ve been wanting to introduce you to for almost a year.  My husband, son and I met Dan in April 2009 and we all found his story to be a very inspirational one.  It’s a story I’ve been wanting to share with you since the day we first heard Dan speak.

You see…

At the young age of two Dan went into his garage to retrieve a toy.  A spark from the water heater ignited some gasoline and Dan was caught in the fireball explosion.  Dan was severely burned with third degree burns over most of his tiny body.  Doctors gave him basically no chance of survival.

The pain was excruciating, so excruciating in fact, that his parents prayed that God take him back home so he would no longer suffer.  But it seemed that God had other plans for Dan and Dan survived.

As you can imagine, surviving wasn’t easy.  Dan’s fingers were so badly burned that they fell off when the medical staff changed his bandages.  He was badly disfigured.  Most of his skin was burned away, as was much of his face.  Dan went through years and years of painful surgeries and spent a considerable amount of time  in burn units.  But once much of the physical trauma healed the emotional trauma continued.  Dan was rejected by members of his community.  He was called a monster by both children and adults.

Dan had developed a resilient and healthy attitude.  He wasn’t going to let the actions of others keep him down.  He determined at a very young age to set high standards and goals for himself.

One of his first goals was to learn how to tie his shoes.  As you can imagine tying your shoes would be a very difficult task to do without fingers.  But Dan isn’t a quitter.  He spent years learning to tie his shoe laces.  In fact, Dan said that is one of his biggest accomplishments in life and the one he is most proud of.  The day I met Dan I felt a great amount of gratitude that tying laces was something I could easily do.

Once Dan learned to tie his shoes he decided he needed a new challenge.  He wanted to play a musical instrument.  The violin naturally seemed out, but the drums inspired him. Using an elastic band to hold the drum sticks to his arms Dan learned to not only play the drums, but he learned to play them well.  He is now recognized as one of New Orleans premier drummers.

Dan is now a public speaker whose inspirational messages is in high demand.  When he speaks he encourages others to not just work to overcome their adversity but to use it as a force to reach for more.

No doubt you’ll find Dan’s story inspiring.  And you can read about it in his book called The Gift of Fire: How I Made Adversity Work for Me.

I’ll leave you with a video clip of Dan playing the drums and a few questions to ponder…

• How has adversity helped you become a better person?
• How can you use the adversity you have experienced to help make the world a better place?
• How can you inspire others to reach for the best within themselves, despite the challenges?

Image Compliments of by George Goodman

Beautifual Bora Bora, part of  French Polynesia, is in the Pacific Ocean. The island is located about 140 miles  northwest of Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia.

Bora Bora is surrounded by beautiful lagoons and a barrier reef.   It relies heavily on tourism as the products the inhabitants can produce are limited to what can be gathered from the ocean and from the local coconut trees.

With a population of less than 10,000 people Bora Bora is the perfect get-a-way.  Diving, hiking, horseback riding, and bike riding are wonderful ways to experience the beauty that this island offers it’s visitors.

French and Polynesian are the languages spoken here, but those that deal with tourists will generally speak some English. » » »Click Here To Read The Rest of This Entry »

Months, and months ago I decided to start a series called “Envision This.”   The Envision This series is designed to showcase some of the things I dream of doing, fascinating places to visit, exotic and delicious foods to try, things to experience, and some things you may just find interesting.

It is designed to provide you with ideas – ideas of things that you can do to bring more joy in your life.

Basically, it’s a tool for you to use in creating new dreams and making dreams come true. Maybe you’ll find some interesting things for that vision board of yours. (You do have one don’t you?)

Well some exciting things happened in my life.  And well, frankly, those things got in the way of regular blogging.  But because I am passionate about helping connect people to EnRICHing ideas, EnRICHing things, EnRICHing people, and enRICHing ideas I’m going to make more time for blogging.

So here it is…

Finally…

The first installment in the Envision This Series…

Envision Bora Bora.

Image Courtesy of H. Koppdelaney

Since the beginning of time people have searched for the key to happiness. In fact, there are close to 4 million searches done each month on Google alone by people looking for the keys to happiness.

Luckily many people have found happiness.  Their secret – the knowledge that happiness doesn’t just come to you.  Happiness is created.

Robin McGraw’s writes in her book Inside My Heart: Choosing to Live with Passion and Purpose “There’s a huge difference between expecting happiness to come to you because you deserve it, and going out and getting the happiness you believe you deserve.” It got me thinking about what I do to create happiness for myself.

Perhaps you are at a time in your life where creating your own happiness seems overwhelming. I know because I’ve been there!

Perhaps you are on “survival mode” like I was. There was a time when I just kept telling myself over and over again “you can make it through the next half hour.” And then again, “you can make it through the next half hour.” That’s how » » »Click Here To Read The Rest of This Entry »

Image Courtesy of Tanakawho

Today’s Success tip comes from Zig Ziglar’s book See You at the Top. In it Zig relays the story of a man named Howard Hill.

“He was probably the greatest archer who ever drew a bowstring. He was so accurate he killed a bull elephant, a Bengal tiger, a Cape buffalo with a bow and arrow. In newsreels I have seen Howard Hill repeatedly hit the target dead center. After sending the first arrow to the center of the bull’s eye, he would literally split that arrow with his next shot.”

I don’t know a lot about archery. I know that it is much easier to take down a Cape buffalo now with the advanced bows. But to do it with a bowstring is much more difficult. I plan on taking up archery shooting someday, so I researched Howard Hill. This is what I found out about Howard hill from Howard Hill Archery. ((http://www.howardhillarchery.com)) » » »Click Here To Read The Rest of This Entry »