No arms, no legs, no problem: 5 lessons from the life of Nick Vujicic

As you navigate through life, you might encounter challenges that would push you to your limits. You might encounter moments that immobilize you and you might encounter situations that bring you to your knees. I’d like you to visualize one of those moments and to let the feelings of those moments sink into you present consciousness.

After going through that exercise, imagine that you are a baby born with no arms and no legs. Imagine how would you live every day of your life without your hands and your legs. Are you able to contrast your life-experience with the experience of this child? How small are our challenges compared to the challenges of this child?

This is the story of Nick Vujicic- a child born without any hands or legs. What would be possible story of a such a kid? Would he be able survive in this competitive world? What if I told you that he goes on to become one of the rock-stars of Christian evangelism? Nick was able to transform his life and was able to become a shining example of unparalleled conquest over extreme adversity.

Nick doesn’t consider himself to be disabled. He feels that he can do anything that he wants to. That makes him very grateful for his life. He is happily married with a lovely wife and three kids.

What are the five lessons that we can learn from the incredible life of Nick Vujicic?

1.      It doesn’t matter where you come from, what matters is where you are going: Nick was born with an extremely unfortunate condition, but he did not let that those adversities determine his future. He believed in himself and his vision to live an independent and successful life. As he navigated through his childhood, learning every little activity, he had multiple painful failures. But he smiled through the pains of those moments and persisted on his slow and steady path of progress, always keeping his eyes on his ultimate vision. As we live our lives, it is not always going to be easy. If you have big dreams, you will encounter big challenges. The only way to persist and keep on moving forward is to believe in yourself and your ability to eventually achieve your vision.

2.      Take small steps every day to move towards your goal: This is related to point 1. Once you have a vision for your ultimate goal, you have to commit to a plan of small daily steps to achieve mastery. I can imagine Nick practicing brushing his teeth for months using his tiny appendage of a leg, that he calls his “chicken drumstick”. Once he mastered that, he would have spent months trying to write and use the computer with his “chicken drumstick”. How could you use this strategy in your life? If you want to lose some weight and get healthy, what would you do? You would develop daily habits of exercise and controlled diet and monitor your daily progress and over time you will succeed in achieving your target weight.

3.      Never forget to have fun on this journey: We all know that life can be tough and hard work is critical for any kind of success, but the whole process doesn’t have to be serious and grim. Nick is famous for his smiles, jokes and pranks. In one of his iconic pranks on a flight, he went before everyone and hid inside the overhead bid and scared the passengers when they opened the overhead bin to put in their luggage.

4.      Nurture your relationships and create an A-team around you: The kid who was born with no hands and legs is now a very successful speaker, author, business owner and an icon of our times. He can do that because of the support of an incredible team that helps him to be effective in the areas of his strengths and complements him in his areas of weaknesses. As the saying goes, working alone you go faster, but working as a team you go farther. Who do want to have on your A-team as you plan the achievement of your lofty goals?

5.      Each one, teach one: Our success in the journey of life depends upon the lives we touch, the smiles we share and the impact we create in the world around us. As Einstein once said, “Don’t try to be a man of success, but try to be a man of value”. Nick uses the lack of his hands and legs to inspire and motivate others. Nick says that we all have some limitations. His limitations are visible, but our limitations are not. Our strengths, our weaknesses and our unique journeys can inspire others. As you share your lessons with others, you create a legacy that lives much longer than you. What lessons from your life can inspire others? What lessons that you have learnt can help others? Share your gifts freely and experience an impactful life.

Nick Vujicic is a shining example of the fact that life doesn’t happen to us but for us. What challenges have you allowed to limit your life? If Nick can transform his challenges to be an inspiration for all of us, there is no challenge that can stop you. Don’t let any obstacle define your life! As Swami Vivekananda said, “The history of the world is the history of few people who had faith in themselves. Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached”.