Need Inspiration From Incredible People? Read This.

It has been a long time since I have read such a powerful book, and I wanted to share it with you in this week’s blog post. I opened the first pages and was immediately spellbound – I could not put this book down.

First, meet some amazing people:

Sébastian Sasseville, a man who climbed Mount Everest.
Steve Redgrave, who won several Olympic gold medals in rowing.
Chris Angell, an entrepreneur who gets up in the wee hours every day to run his successful business.

Now: Consider that each of these amazing people have type 1 diabetes.

For those of you who are not familiar, type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition where the pancreas stops making insulin. People with type 1 diabetes take insulin several times a day, or use an insulin pump to control their blood sugars. Controlling type 1 diabetes requires ongoing attention, every day, no exceptions. Sugar levels can be a rollercoaster of highs and lows, depending on factors like food intake, activity, stress, illness, and many more. Most people with type 1 diabetes have at some point felt overwhelmed and controlled by this medical condition. Tim encourages people with type 1 diabetes to live with their diabetes and to reach for their goals without letting their diabetes get in their way.

While Tested was written with people with type 1 diabetes in mind, it is a fantastic read for anyone. Tim Hoy uses these incredible stories, as well as his own experiences as a person with type 1 diabetes, to eloquently and powerfully communicate key tips and tools to help all of us achieve our dreams and aspirations. Here are just a few of Tim’s powerful words:

The real key to success… boils down to three things. First, acknowledge the obstacles in front of you. Second, find a way to get around them; anticipate them before they occur. Third, enrol others to buy into your dream and support you on your path.
An individual who seeks perfection will be left never feeling satisfied. Excellence, on the other hand, comes from persevering the best you can through the process, rather than focusing on the outcome.
No matter where you are in your journey, your past dictates your future only if you keep repeating it. If you are not getting the results you want from life, all that is needed is to take new actions.
Surrounding yourself with the right group of people can make a huge difference to the outcomes you experience.
It takes teamwork to make a dream work. Every successful person has a team behind the scenes providing support.
Incremental change is the key to moving towards a larger goal. There is no one magic bullet that creates success; a lot of small things get you where you want to be.

The lessons and thoughts in this book are applicable to all of us. I will be keeping this book on my shelf as a reference to refer to again and again!

Disclaimer: Tim is a friend and previous colleague of mine. He humbly and quietly dropped off a copy of his book at my clinic for my enjoyment, probably hoping I would share these amazing stories with some of my patients. Knowing Tim has nothing to do with my blog post – had this book fallen into my hands from a stranger, I would have been equally amazed and written this blog just the same.

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