Day: October 8, 2015
Ambition.
Credit: Be Inspired/YouTube
No Legs, No Limits!
Kanya Sesser might have been born without legs, but this has not stopped her from achieving her dreams and living life to the full. An athlete and model, Kanya refuses to be limited by her disability. Kanya says:
I’m different and that is sexy. I don’t need legs to feel sexy.
Every day she proves just how limitless her spirit is as she reminds herself of this mantra ‘No legs, no limits.’
The 23-year-old model and athlete was born without legs and adopted from Thailand when she was five years old. After moving to America with her adoptive parents, Kanya learned to walk on her hands and now uses a skateboard to get around.
She told The Huffington Post that she got into sports as kid because she loved to be outside.
Growing up, being active and all, I played sports with other kids and was always friendly.
She’s also a successful model, she told New York Daily News that she loves modelling because it shows different types of beauty.
I enjoy making money from it and I love showing people what beauty can look like, these images show my strength.
Kanya Sesser started modelling for sports brands when she was only fifteen years old and was even featured in Billabong in 2014. She now she lives in Los Angeles and boasts a busy schedule filled with modelling shoots, skateboarding, surfing and motivational speaking.
In her free time she loves to play tennis, wheelchair basketball, sled-hockey and swim. She’s also currently training to compete in mono-skiing in the 2018 Winter Paralympics.
Kanya told the New York Daily News
Modelling is something fun and it shows my story.
Sesser told the Huffington Post that she loves modelling, but sports and competing come first.
Modelling isn’t the main priority, its more of a side job.
Kanya is content with who she is and she only wants to things that make her happy.
Not a lot of people have the confidence to realize how strong you really are inside. Most people shut themselves down because society makes them feel awkward with the situation they’re in. You have to make a different path for yourself, ’cause no one is going to do it for you.
Credit: Caters TV/YouTube
The Word That Will Open Up Your World.
A three-letter word has just changed my life and it could change yours too.
It started in a crowded school hall a few weeks ago. I’m squeezed into a too-small plastic chair listening to the head teacher list the events of the school year. ‘Theatre trip’ ‘Harvest festival’, ‘Christmas concert.’ However, I’m not listening because I’m having an epiphany, triggered by the talk we’ve just been given on encouraging a ‘growth mind-set’ in your child.
Don’t worry, I’d never heard of it either. In a nutshell, it’s about believing in yourself and pushing yourself to try new things. It’s about taking on new challenges and not being held back by the fear of the unknown. So instead of saying, ‘I’m no good at technology’, or ‘I’m not brave enough to talk in front of a big group of people’, you open yourself up to learning how to do it and you don’t let yourself be held back by the fear of not succeeding, or not being good enough.
And the miracle word? Drum roll… ‘yet.’ Tiny word, big impact. It works like this. Instead of saying, ‘I can’t do a spreadsheet, I’m really bad at technology stuff,’ you take a different, more open approach. ‘I can’t do a spreadsheet yet. But I’d like to learn how.’ It sounds so obvious but it opens up a whole new world of opportunity. True, the talk was about kids, but it has had a huge impact on me and how I live my life.
The ‘yet’ way of thinking is based on research by Dr Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University. She reckons that nearly half of adults have a ‘fixed mind-set’, which means we think along the lines of; ‘This is what I was born with, this is what I can do and these are my boundaries.’ Take family life. Who hasn’t experienced being labelled in some way by their family? He’s the funny one. She’s the pretty one. She’s the sporty one. He’s the brainy one. He’s outgoing. She’s shy and so on…
It’s not that you can’t be happy or successful if you have a fixed mind-set, but having a growth mind-set seriously increases your chances of both happiness and success. It’s a scientifically proven fact that working hard and sticking to challenging tasks help to grow your brain and increases your intelligence. I’m not saying that we can all be Bill Gates, JK Rowling, David Beckham, Taylor Swift and so on but it will give you a better chance to be the best you can possibly be.
Since the plastic chair evening I’ve seen big changes. It started with cartwheels. Huh? Well, as long as I can remember I wanted to cartwheel, but I gave up trying when I was twelve. I actually convinced myself that it was genetic, that some of us can, some can’t. Then last year, I watched my 6-year-old daughter. She was desperate to cartwheel but couldn’t.
So she spent a year, a whole year, throwing herself onto hard surfaces trying to crack it. She was bruised but not defeated and you know what? Last week she turned a beautiful, graceful cartwheel. She told herself it would come and it did. If only I’d told my 6-year-old self the same. Maybe there’s still time for me yet? If you see a thirty-something woman throwing herself around a London park, give her the thumbs up, it’s probably me!
More recently, I felt I’d hit a brick wall in my attempt to find work after a career break. In spite of all the skills I’d built up over my career, it felt as though a huge barrier stood between me and my dream job. I can’t build a website. I’m not a pro in SEO. I don’t code. Boohoo. Until the light bulb moment. I can’t build a website yet, but I’ve just set up my own blog and registered my own domain name, which is a start. I’m not a pro in SEO yet, but I’ve spent the week researching it and amazingly, it’s not rocket science, most of it is logic and a few tricks. I don’t code yet, but I’ve just enrolled on a three-month course in digital marketing. This simple word really does open up doors. It’s inspiring and liberating.
If we can all apply it, even just once a day. From the small, I can’t poach an egg, I can’t touch my toes – to the big, I can’t get pregnant, I can’t find a job. This little word has the potential to open up your world and help you to lead a truer, more fulfilling life.
Words by Alexandra Borthwick
Zest For Life 