By virtue of Diego Rodríguez’s blog, an former IDEO executive and now an Intuit one, I got to know the remarkable Alex Zanardi.
On September 15, 2001, while running Indy Car in Germany, he had an accident worth his 2 legs and 3/4s of his blood.
2 years later, he was back competing in a specially adapted race car.
In 2005 he won his first race after the accident, in Tourism World Championship.
In 2012, he represented his country, Italy, in the London 2012 Paralympics, winning 2 gold medals for road paralympic cycling.
In 2016, he did it again in Rio 2016.
These are 3 minutes of him, with his narration:
Happiness
I won because I wanted to ride my bycicle…
I believe one can find hidden in this phrase the “love the process” motto. Kind of being determined to do things one loves, which will, in turn, make us achieve things we wouldn’t have believed possible.
How much of this happiness he talks about was due to his accomplishments and how much was because he found a reason for getting out of bed every single day?
I bet the latter takes most of the credit.
If happiness comes from accomplishment — the medal — there are little chances to make it last.
If happiness comes from the process, the daily process, from persistent and patient effort, from tiny advances or drawbacks you get to live in a day… then I have 365 opportunities every year to be happy.
The future
Every once in a while, one thinks about the future… makes plans, imagines oneself in a specific situation, sets objectives, or just dreams. We do this just projecting ourselves, as if we could be transported without any change, to that future.
The same physical condition, but even more, the capacity to love, to give, to wish, to imagine, to wake up, to think, to relate to anyone, to support, to push, to bear, to hold.
But then…
I wonder what did Alex feel those days after the accident, when he realized that any plans he would make for the future, would have to involve a different Alex…
His accident clearly raised his physical condition as a new big thing to take into account when thinking about his next day.
By the same token, we can ask ourselves:
Which self will I need to become? How will I need to grow?
Which self do I have the amazing opportunity to be, knocking on my door right now?
What will my best version be some time from now?
Maybe, the before-2001-Alex was a guy who lived his happiness by his accomplishments.
Maybe the present Alex is a guy who lives happiness from life itself, from every day life.
His breaking point seems to have been the accident.
What is going to be my breaking point? — Not the best question.
What version of myself do I have the opportunity to be? — Still not the best question…
Where does my opportunity to come closer to the best version of myself lie today?
We can start from this place.