The Surprising Reach of Inspiration
When you have an amazing story you can be surprised where it can reach.
2 years ago I was invited to tell my story in Kenya.
I spoke at a range of venues that you would expect – To medical students at the university, to the oncology staff and patients at the hospital and to a variety of cancer support groups.
But on the last day they said
“Liam there is one more place we would like you to tell your story.”
“Sure” I replied. “Where are we going”?
The Maximum Security Prison.
We drove in a convoy to a secure facility about an hour from the city.
It took another half hour to get through all the security checks at the three gates.
When I eventually entered the prison yard it was like a movie scene from Midnight Express. About 150 almost identical men with shaved heads and identical prison uniforms were staring back at me.
As I stood in front of them I thought what am I going to say to these men.
My normal story won’t work here.
I have come from a western country with the best of western medicine and healthcare. I have a job and a car and the freedom to go to work and see my family every day.
All of these men have probably come from poor and deprived backgrounds and in many cases have committed murder at least to be in here.
So my message to them was a very simple one.
Anything is better than being dead.
I told them about the strength I found at the point of my surgery when it looked that I was likely to die. My mind, from nowhere, would not allow me to wallow in self-pity that my life was about to end but only made me see all the amazing things it had contained up until then.
Things I had not seen before.
Not the big things, but the little things.
My two hands.
All of things I never could have done if I didn’t have my two hands. Rather than bemoan the future that it looked as if I was not going to have it only made me appreciate all the more all of the things I was lucky enough to have in it up until then. And that kept me very strong.
Perspective is the antidote to everything.
No matter what our circumstances, life is still a wonderful gift to all of us.
So I just reminded them of this all over again.
I told them they still had many great things in their life they couldn’t see.
They could read a book. They could talk to their friends, They could walk around the yard and see the sun in the sky and the birds in the air. They could laugh. They could love.
They still had their families.
All of these were much better than being dead.
I told them the way forward from here was to keep their heads down. Serve out whatever time they had to for their crime with the strength of knowing there was still many great things in their life.
Then get home to their families and embrace the rest of their lives with the appreciation it deserves.
When I had finished many of them came forward to shake my hand.
I knew then I had done a good job.
I had given them perspective and appreciation.
And they were the only two things that kept me strong when nothing else could.
My story has taken me around the world but I never expected that one day it would take to a prison in Kenya.
No matter what our circumstances, life is still a wonderful gift to all of us.
And when we make ourselves realize that, we are in a much better position to recognize that the positive attributes of simply being alive will always outweigh any of the difficulties that that life in itself will bring.
Want new articles before they get published? Subscribe to our Awesome Newsletter.