Always Follow Your Path
Throwback Thursday Memory!
I used to get teased by some jocks in high school for singing in high school choirs. Some years later I was invited to sing the National Anthem at Double Day Field at MLB All-Star Game. Ken Griffey Jr. came up afterward and said, “great job,” and took a photo with me.
Always follow your path. Other people’s opinion of you is none of your business. -JR
#dream #jump #hurdleadversity
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Olympic Model
Best Efforts
Can we be satisfied knowing we have given our best efforts? Everyone is going to try and win. But is there something we have learned to earn the top spot the next time around?
In my business and personal philosophy, I often come around to the Olympic model of, Citius, Altius, Fortius: swifter, higher, stronger because these words are written in the superlative of the word. They are written with an e.r. stimming which means we can be the swiftest today and swifter tomorrow. We can jump the highest today and jump higher tomorrow. We can lift the heaviest weight today and lift the heavier weight tomorrow.
That is the growth!
So we have the reckoning moment, the transformation moment, and now the new normal mindset.
The New Normal Mindset is not a destination. We do not arrive at the new normal. The new normal is a plateau by which we grow, and we gather ourselves for the next growth that we have. We do not camp out. If I was to camp out on the silver medal, I won in 2000, how would I grow? I finished second best in the world after three and a half years of training and relearning how to run again, and then eventually jump. If that were all there was, there would be nothing more to achieve.
There is always a growth mindset in the Olympic model. There is only one gold that is awarded, there is only one silver medal that is awarded, and there is only one bronze medal that is awarded for the event, so we earn what we earn.
Can we be satisfied knowing we have given our best efforts?
“When our truth outweighs our fear we will commit to a courageous life”. JR
#CourageousLife #NewNormalMindset #Keynote #GrowthMindset
Photographer: Danielle Trina Photography
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Thought Leaders
Many of you are committed to elevating your own existence. You are consistently or trying to consistently create a rhythm that leads to a rise to committing to a courageous life, to carving out a space and life for a New Normal Mindset. This is not a journey for the weak or one you can go alone.
When you think about your circumstances or moments of trials, or your reckoning moments and see the tribe around you who are the people that are willing and ready to lift you up when you are not able to? How do you open your limits to see where you think you cannot go and make a path to this destination? “When our truth outweighs our fear we will commit to a courageous life.”
New Normal Mindset
I had the honor of being one of the weekend #keynotespeakers at the 2022 Sports Business Journal – Thought Leaders Conference at The Broadmoor Hotel & Resort in the City of Colorado Springs. Thought Leaders is a “by-invitation-only” retreat that brings together the sports industry’s most senior executives for a time of information sharing, dynamic speakers, outdoor activities, and peer-level relationship building. This time with industry executives inspired me to see the willingness of so many to grow their capacity and to commit to a New Normal Mindset. This group truly has a passion for sports, business, and mindset growth.
My question to you is, where are you on the path, and who is surrounding you to help elevate your vision for the future? Are they setting limitations based on what they feel they cannot do if they were in your situation or are they giving you oxygen to thrive in your new environment?
I believe attention is the currency of performance so when we have the wind in our sails we must keep moving forward and surround ourselves with those who give us oxygen.
“Go forth and inspire your world!” -JR
#newnormalminset #transformation #reckoning #keynotespeaker
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Courageous Acts
Only you can make the jumps in your life.
You have made courageous acts throughout your life. You may not have noticed some of these courageous acts as they have been in the micro space. You cannot argue against the practical application of lived experience because it is yours. I encourage you to keep doing the work and recognize the wins along the way.
It comes to the point when our truth outweighs our fear and we commit to a courageous life… and we will commit to courageous acts. When we do not do this… I feel there are two main reasons. Maybe we have friends or societal groups that believe for us what we can and cannot do which is based on what they believe they can or cannot do if they were in our situation. Because we value these people in our circles and we want to belong we sometimes stay in that group or mindset even if we feel we should go in a different direction. We also have our society and what it has advocated to us and how we must show up. If we go against society – we may feel we will be ostracized.
This is where our greatest life work will take place. To stand in our truth. Only you can make the jumps in your life.
“Go forth and inspire your world!” -JR
#mindset #experience #newnormalmindset #inspire
Photographer: Danielle Trina Photography
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Echo Moments: Forging a New Normal
Many of us are seeing who we are without the noise.
We have shifted. We have etched new paths for our success through creating space for grace, mindset shifts, and allowing our reckoning moments to lead our transformation to a new normal. We have embraced the process of what we are going through. My hope is our old mindsets have changed so much that we realize our lives are worth much more than our previous state. But are we slowing down enough to see the shifts we have made to recognize and celebrate the leaps we have taken?
Maybe today you are in a place of stagnancy. Please hear me that you are valuable. Things will settle and it might look different, but I encourage you to be patient and give yourself grace.
From my point of injury to the point of winning the Paralympic silver medal was 7 years. We must embrace the new normal process and the process that we are moving forward. There is light at the end of the tunnel. This is the hope we have.
I just returned from the National Speakers Association 2022 Influence Conference hosted by the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, TN, and I was flooded with the synergy of how powerful our echo moments can be that return to us during, within, and after we make major shifts to the new normal.
Echo Moments
If my life story can help another individual overcome what they are going through in life I would call them ripples. But much more now I measure the echoes that come back. Echo moments. These moments we have in our lives we might not pay attention to. We send something out and it continues to spread, and it will come back if we are listening, and we are then able to gauge if we are on the right path or need to course correct. As we see the shifts, we can also see the echo moments.
Forge a new normal. Stay the course. Make the jump yours!
“Go forth and inspire your world!” — JR
#mindset #newnormal #silvermedal #inspireyourworld
Photographer (top): Danielle Thurman-Trina
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We Earn What We Earn
There is a famous 30-second Nike commercial featuring the great WNBA player, Lisa Leslie, titled, “You don’t win silver, you lose the gold”.
When I first saw this commercial I was like, “Yeah!”
But, then after I won the silver medal in Sydney, Australia in the Long Jump at the Paralympic Games, I was a bit more reserved in my enthusiasm about the commercial. I realized that I put a lot of effort into winning that medal.
Truthfully, I understand where this philosophical thinking comes from and why people would consider the NIKE message a powerful one. Everyone wants to win first place. It does not matter if it is in athletic competition, academic rivalry for valedictorian, or business opposition to win a contract; we all desire the top spot.
I am no different. I want to win.
After further review of my own sentiments I came to the conclusion that I no longer agreed with my previous position. I now believe that this statement underscores a deeper problem in sport and our society, which is an “entitlement” mentality.
I believe in sports, as in life, we earn what we earn, and we win what we win. To take the stance that I lost the gold medal at those games means firstly, I discounted the efforts and achievement of the winner, in this case, Lukas Christen from Switzerland. When he won the gold, he was the two-time reigning champion. He won because he outworked, out-prepared, and out-executed me, by 4.5 inches to win his third consecutive Paralympic long jump title.
Secondly, a statement like that discredits the work that I put in to winning the silver medal. And let me tell you, I did a lot of work to earn that silver medal! 20 years’ worth of work.
Let me break down for you why I earned this silver medal. It all has to do with a shifting of focus, the effort in preparation, and the exceptional execution of the goal.
I competed in two Olympic trials in three different sports and was the eighth fastest 400-meter hurdler in the country at the time before the disabling injury the resulted in the amputation of my left leg.
It took me 2 ½ years to get my nerve back to step foot on a track again, let alone relearn how to run with an artificial leg. It was not until my third year, post-amputation, that I retaught myself how to run again. It was not an easy process.
I knew how to train, but I had to figure out my energy system. The energy expended for an above-the-knee amputee is three times that of a person with full limb mobility.
Second, I was ignorant. I did not know what I did not know when it came to the mechanics of artificial knees. For 6 months I was unable to figure out why my artificial leg was hyper extending when I ran. I needed an extension stopper, a piece of metal that stops the leg from going into hyper-extension. I went through three or four hydraulic knees, and 12 weeks of missed training, before a prosthetist from the manufacture told me what was happening.
Third, I was ignorant to the various density of hydraulic fluid in the knee that directly correlates to how fast the knee will return in a running motion. Five days before my long jump at the Paralympic Games, another prosthetist who was watching my practice session told me that I was overpowering the knee unit. In other words, I was running too fast for the knee unit I was using. He called the manufacturer, who overnighted another hydraulic knee with more viscosity allowing me to run faster.
Every athlete that competes in the Olympic and Paralympic games has a dream of winning the gold. For the majority of athletes who are fortunate enough to make it to the Olympic or Paralympic games, that will be the highlight of their career. For a select few, the honored medalists, they will cherish something very few people ever get to experience: having their country’s flag raised in recognition of their efforts and their national anthem played.
Pundits will have us believe the only spot that really matters is the top spot. There is some truth to that. No one wants to be second in a business deal, or be first person out of the job interview, or the runner up in a pageant. But there is a quiet resolve that lies in not winning that pushes one to be better the next time. This resolve is valuable and should never be discounted.
In American society I have seen the entitlement mentality play out in other professions.
One example is youth sports where the attitude is everyone is entitled to a medal. It is almost comical to see this played out in a game of tee-ball or 3 v 3 youth soccer. No one is supposed to keep score. The focus is supposed to be on skill development, friendship, and fair sport. Yet, when the game is over and the kids have run through the parent tunnel. Or, when the oranges or other snacks have been consumed and the mini-vans are reloaded, the very first questions I often hear young athletes and parents are: “How many goals did I score.” Or “how many runs did we get?” “Who really won that game.”
Let’s not kid ourselves, we all keep score.
As an athlete, my thought process was no different. I wanted to win the gold medal. It was not my goal or desire to travel 9756 miles from Northern Virginia to Sydney, Australia and come back with anything less. I do not know of any athlete who goes to a competition looking to win second place.
That is why I believe that “losing the gold” drives an entitlement mentality. The premise negates the work that goes into performance and being satisfied with the outcome of the results.
My ignorance about my new equipment coupled with having to learn how to run again were not easy. Yet, three years after taking my first running steps on my prosthesis, I was the second-best long jumper in the world. I was being honored to represent the United States of America in the Olympic stadium having earned the silver medal! You had better believe that I am proud of that.
My stance is this: We earn gold, silver, and bronze. We also earn fourth, fifth, sixth, or whatever position the result concludes. To say that you did not earn those positions, or that you should have done better, is to say you were entitled to something that you did not deserve or earn.
We earn what we earn.
Life’s False Starts Prove Great for New Beginnings!
I ran the lead off leg for the Arkansas Razorbacks 4x400m relay. I can say from experience that the race is one of the most grueling in track and field. The last 100m is the most painful of the race no matter what shape an athlete is in. Because I knew the pain was coming I used to literally cry before starting for the Hogs!
For those who don’t know how painful this race can be, I suggest going to your local track and, after a proper warm-up, attempting to run one lap, without stopping, at a full sprint. You may want to get a doctor’s note if you’re a
ctually considering sprinting the race — especially if you are out of shape. Believe me, you will cry too! But, please try not to pass out on me — I need you to read my next blog.
The best runners in the 400m dedicate themselves to a rigorous training regime so they are able to run several rounds of races before the finals in large competitions and one of the most crucial points of the race is the start. In general terms the shorter the distance the more important the start becomes. It is critical for the athlete to have the best start possible in order to be competitive. The longer the race the start is not as crucial because the runner can make up more time during the race.
In the 400m, the start is a critical part of the race, although it is less important than in the 100m because it is a longer race and the athlete can make up more time during the race due to the greater distance.
Now on to my story. Christine Ohuruogu, a 400m sprinter from Great Britain, false started in the 400m. This is almost never heard of. She instantly was removed from her lane as per the rules and was unable to contest for the medal in the 400m dash at the world championship race in 2011.
American 1-lap Queen Sanya Richards-Ross stated, “It’s so rare that you hear the second gun in the 400m – I thought it was a malfunction,” she told the BBC. “In the call room we were like, aw man. I’m disappointed for her.”
Consider that Ohuruogu had worked all year to get into form and into the world championships. All of the grueling workouts, all of the months of training, all of the injuries overcome, that led up to this one race were rendered useless because of one false start, in one race.
- She was devastated.
- Her teammates were devastated.
- Her coaches were devastated.
- Her competitors were even sympathetic to her plight, and became more aware of the consequences of a false start.
- The media – “cheeky”
It is so easy to be critical and put ourselves in the shoes of others and say “I would never do that.” But really, how many of us have made a mistake, a straight up boneheaded mistake in life? I know I have. The difference is our mistakes aren’t broadcast to the world for others to judge, as Christine Ohuruogu’s was.
Wouldn’t it be great if we all took the mindset to pick people up when they make mistakes? Recognize the error – yes, but don’t let someone live in that one mistake, forever. Think about it?
- How many of these moments can you change in a day?
- How many people can you help back up?
- What would you do seeing someone at a low point? Would you help them up, like Christine’s coaches and teammates, or would you kick them while they are down like the media at the 2011 Track and Field World Championship?
We all know when we have made a mistake and people aren’t telling us anything new when they talk about our mistakes. They are only restating the obvious without offering any constructive advice. I think a lesson on how to deal with a negative situation and turn it in to a positive is in order.
In his book, One Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard has a section entitled “The One Minute Reprimand.” The reprimand begins with something good the employee, or in this case the athlete has done, before allowing the employee or athlete to articulate their feelings about what went wrong. It is then followed by several things a person can do to correct their mistake and a statement about how they are valued as person despite their mistake. This method of mistake correction is a great tool to have in your arsenal and will help the person reprimanded perform better in the future.
So, back to Ms. Ohuruogu. Even though she was disqualified from the open 400, 1 year later she learned from the error (maybe used it as inspiration) and blasted to a silver medal in the London Olympic Games!
The London papers were ecstatic, less cheeky, Ms. Ohuruogu performed brilliantly through the rounds and then won the silver medal! Despite the 2011 setback she hurdled her adversity and demonstrated the true spirit of an adversity overcomer.
When faced with adversity, you can decide whether to settle into your setbacks, or to roar forward and make the best of bad situation.
I believe low points in life allow for the highest potential and from mistakes we can surge back to triumph over adversity and then we can share our lessons with others to inspire them to greatness!
Go forth and inspire your world!
John
Veterans, From PTSD to Post-Traumatic Growth
Many soldiers returning home experience PTSD — post-traumatic stress disorder. It may take months or even years to overcome the damage that trauma causes to the psyche, yet time and again, surprisingly, we see service members push through
rough hardship and move on to a more productive life than before they experienced trauma. Despite having what society might call a “disability,” these people have soldiered through life and have moved into Post Traumatic Growth (PTG) — loosely defined as a set of positive changes which result from surviving a traumatic experience.
As a founder of the United States Olympic Committee Paralympic Military Sport Program, I repeatedly experienced veterans using sports to overcome PTSD and transition into their “new normal.” I routinely heard exclamations of “I am doing more with one leg than I ever did with two!” or “I sense more without eyesight than I ever did sighted!”
The time I spent with service members in this program taught me 5 key ideas that help a person transition into their PTG.
- Discovery: Discovery of new opportunities, such as sports.
- Connection: Connecting with others who have experienced similar trauma and creating a strong bond with them.
- Resilience: Understanding that there is no “rebound,” but instead taking a proactive step toward achieving your goals, even if that means trusting someone else to help with the process.
- Appreciation: Appreciating that life is still yours to live, and being thankful for your life.
- Commitment: Commit to a process, a system, a belief that tomorrow is better than today.
This Veterans Day, we remember the great men and women who have served and still serve in our armed forces. We also recognize those who struggle with PTSD and want to ensure that programs are in place to facilitate their transition into Post Traumatic Growth.
For a free download of my infographic on PTG click HERE.
John Register
Profile of John Register, Fulbright College of the University of Arkansas
[alert type=”info”]This article was originally posted from University of Arkansas.[/alert]John Register (BA ’88)
[image-shortcode url=”https://johnregister.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/john-register-profile.jpg”]John Register was an All-American Track star while earning a BA in communications. After a crippling injury resulted in the amputation of his left leg, he became a long jump silver medalist in the Paralympic Games. He was appointed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as one of an eight-member council to advise the secretary on foreign policy issues regarding disability. He founded Inspired Communications and travels the country as a speaker and motivator.
No Hurdle Has Been Too Great For John Register
[alert type=”info”]This article was originally posted from NewsOK.com.[/alert]John Register lost his leg while serving in the Army.
It didn’t happen the way you probably think.
This wasn’t a combat wound. This wasn’t a wartime horror. Register, 49, an Olympic hurdle hopeful once upon a time, lost his leg when he was injured during practice. He dislocated his kneecap and ended up having his leg amputated.
[image-shortcode url=”https://johnregister.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/john-running-02.jpg” size=”33″]A longtime track and field historian researched back to the early 1900s to see if there were any other injuries like it but found none.
But in the two decades since his injury, Register believes he has gained way more than he lost.
“Now, I do more with one leg than I would’ve ever thought to do with two,” he said while taking a break Tuesday from the Veterans with Disabilities Entrepreneurship Program.
In Stillwater for a week-long business boot camp sponsored free of charge to the veterans by OSU’s Spears School of Business, Register hopes to learn how to better help athletes who he meets as the associate director for community and veterans programs for U.S. Paralympics. He also wants to be better with his own business, Inspired Communications, which works to inspire and motivate teams of all kinds.
The hurdler who lost a leg hasn’t stopped jumping over obstacles.
Register was a member of four national championship track and field teams at Arkansas in the late 1980s. The four-time All-American did the sprints, the long jump and the hurdles, but when he finished college, he started to focus on the hurdles.
He enlisted in the Army and became part of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program. Making the Olympic team became his mission.
Even with tours of duty in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Register continued progressing on the track. He made the Olympic trials in 1988 and 1992, and with his times in the 400-meter hurdles dropping about .3 of a second each year, he was on track to have a time that would get him into the finals at the 1996 Olympic trials.
But then late one May afternoon in 1994, Register was finishing a training session in Hays, Kan. He was making one last pass when his left leg landed awkwardly after he cleared one of the jumps.
“Something went wrong,” Register said, “and it just snapped.”
His bones didn’t snap. His kneecap did.
The patella in his left knee ended up about three inches higher than his femur. His leg bent at a sickening angle as he lay on the track. The worst of it, though, was that the dislocation clamped off an artery just behind the knee cap.
Blood couldn’t get to the lower half of Register’s leg.
It took 90 minutes for an ambulance to arrive — to this day, Register isn’t sure why the delay was so great — and then it took a few more hours before he could be flown to Wichita to see a vascular surgeon. It was past midnight, more than seven hours after the injury, when he was finally on the operating table.
“What did me in was time,” Register said. “Without blood, the leg starts dying.”
By the time his surgeon intervened, he could give Register only two options. Fuse the knee, and have such limited range of motion that a walker or wheelchair would be needed to get around. Or amputate the leg above the knee. That would lead to a prosthetic leg, but Register would still be able to walk.
For Register, the choice was easy.
“I knew it had to be amputation,” he said.
Still, the reality was harsh. He lost most of his leg less than a week after posting the year’s eighth fastest hurdle time by an American.
What else might he lose? His marriage? His relationship with his son? His relationship with his parents? His job in the Army? His identity?
A couple days after the amputation, Register went with his wife and 5-year-old son to a playground near the hospital. Not yet fitted for a prosthetic, Register broke down as he watched them play.
Wife, Alice, noticed the tears.
“You know what?” she told him. “We’re going to get through this together.”
That got Register to thinking — maybe he wasn’t going to lose his marriage. Maybe he was still going to be a husband and a father and a son and a military man. Maybe he could even still be an athlete.
“Maybe it’s not about what I lost,” he thought. “It’s about what we gain.”
During his recovery and rehab, Register took to swimming, which had been one of his sports growing up. Someone mentioned early on that the Paralympics might be something he could consider.
Less than two years after his injury, Register made the 1996 U.S. Paralympic team. He swam in the Paralympics in Atlanta, then four years later, he returned in Sydney. But the second time around, he competed on the track. He won the silver in the long jump and set an American record of 17.8 feet.
His journey has been chronicled numerous times over the years. Who doesn’t love a lemons-to-lemonade story like his? And a few years back, Register was riding an airport tram at Washington Dulles with an amputee buddy when his friend struck up a conversation with a gal who worked for United. Her name was Susan, and she had read a story in the Washington Post about a man who’d lost a leg and become a Paralympian, then had seen him on TV.
Register’s buddy smiled.
“I think you’re talking about him,” he said, pointing to Register.
Susan couldn’t believe it. Neither could Register, who gave her one of his business cards.
Last summer while Register was buying a hot dog in Colorado Springs, where he lives and works, his cell phone rang. It was Susan. She had lost his business card after their meeting, but while cleaning out a drawer two years later, she found it. She figured that his number had probably changed, but she tried it anyway.
She wanted to thank him.
When they’d met, she’d been battling breast cancer. She had decided to attack it several ways, including having a mastectomy. It was a tough choice. It was a painful time. But Susan decided to do everything that she could to fight the cancer — because of Register.
“If this guy can be one of the fastest hurdlers in the country and lose his leg and still come back,” she said, “I can surely go through this.”
Then she told Register, “So, I attribute being alive to our conversation and seeing your story.”
Register still marvels at those circumstances. Yes, he lost part of his leg. Yes, he lost his Olympic dream. But he believes he gained so much more because of the hurdles he overcame after he stopped running the hurdles.