TED Talks are an easy place to look for inspiration. Whether people just want to know what the world’s brightest minds are up to, learn what the future has in store for us all, or feel like it’s time for a little life perspective, there’s really no shortage of ways a TED Talk can move you.
The beauty of them is that all the badasses on stage end up there because they’re just that — badass. Whether it’s a tech guru, Nobel Prize Winning biologist, or an athlete as we have here, anybody asked to speak has wisdom to share.
Paralympic snowboarder Amy Purdy is one of those badasses. Watching her 2011 TED video and learning how she battled through the depression of losing both legs is plenty reason to love her more than you probably already do. At one point, her diagnosis of Neisseria meningitis left her with a two percent chance of living… two percent. But instead of wallowing in despair and giving into said diagnosis, seven months after losing her legs she was back to snowboarding. And today she is one of the most recognizable action sports athletes in the world.
Just like her contemporaries that take to the TED stage, there is a lot in her story that we all might learn from. In life, just like on the mountain, borders either stop you in your tracks or push you to get creative.
Amy, for one, got imaginative. And here she is encouraging anyone in similar circumstances to do the same.
