Kyle Maynard's story WILL change your life!

I had the privilege of meeting a young man, last week, by the name of Kyle Maynard. Some of you may know Kyle, but most of you likely will not.

Kyle is an Atlanta native who earlier this year climbed to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. The purpose of his climb was to inspire disabled veterans, since tragically an average of 18 veterans with war related injuries choose to end their lives each and every day.

Kyle's achievements in drawing attention to this cause and in reaching the 19,340 ft peak of Africa's tallest mountain (about 12 times the height of Stone Mountain) is admirable enough for any young man.........but for a man born without arms or legs there are simply no words to describe Kyle's achievements.

Kyle is a congenital quadruple amputee, meaning he was born without arms or legs, but to Kyle that is simply no excuse for not climbing mountains. Kyle has metaphorically been climbing mountains since he was a toddler. He played football in High School, at college he became an award-winning wrestler (finishing 12th in the nation in his weight class) and after college a winning amateur mixed martial arts fighter. Kyle has been climbing mountains all his life and earlier this year, on January 15th, he did it again.

I had the huge privilege of meeting Kyle last week and hearing him speak and one amazing thing about Kyle is, when he begins speaking, you don’t see his disability as a handicap and instead see it as his strength, but then after a while you don’t see his disability at all. You simply see your own. During his speech Kyle asked the audience whether a disability is having no arms and no legs, or whether self doubt is the disability. Kyle clearly believes self doubt, rather than lack of limbs, is what disables people and who can argue with him.

I have only just begun reading Kyle’s book “No Excuses: The True Story of a Congenital Amputee Who Became a Champion in Wrestling and in Life” but even after the first few chapters I see how much I can learn from this young man. Even when playing video games as a child, Kyle wouldn’t use the fact he had no fingers or thumbs to push all the buttons as an excuse for not beating his friends, he simply developed a new tactic to beat them that didn’t involve using all the buttons. For Kyle there are simply no excuses, whether that be video games, football, wrestling, mountain climbing or life.

I make excuses for not getting to work on time, or for why I've not achieved my career goals. I provide myself with convenient excuses for why I’m not my ideal weight or the ideal husband.....but to Kyle there are simply no excuses. He proves that being born without arms or legs is no excuse for not climbing a mountain, so go to www.kyle-maynard.com to learn more about this inspirational man. He will change your life, I promise you. No excuses.