GOOD SPORTS: Driven by a Positive Attitude
About a decade ago, Navin Gulia drove 55 hours nonstop to get to Marsimik La in Northern India. At an altitude of more than 18,000 feet, it’s the world’s highest mountain pass that can be reached by car. The achievement earned him a place in the Limca Book of Records. What made it even more remarkable was that Gulia was paralyzed from the waist down. He had suffered an accident while serving in the Indian Army and had spent two years recovering in a hospital.
“Those two years in hospital made me a much stronger person and when I was out of it, I was not thinking of how this was a major loss,” Gulia writes on TheWeekendLeader.com. “And I was not mulling over something like why me, I was thinking why not me. Millions of people suffer in this world, so why not me!”
It’s that type of attitude that has allowed Gulia, now 38, to become an inspirational figure in India, sharing his positive message through speeches and books. In 2005, he started AADA (Apni Duniya Apna Ashiyana), an organization that helps disabled children.
“Our body and mind has infinite ability,” he writes. “Our ability never restricts us. Our thoughts do. If we think we can, we can. If we think we cannot, we cannot. This has been my mantra and I know this would never fail me. So, I won’t stop till I achieve what I think I can.”
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