i;j Friend's I happened to read Lance Armstrong's auto biography “ It's not about the bike-my journey back to life “ . It's a truly inspirational and must read book!!! It's like a motivational Bible. I felt like sharing the summary and what I learned from the book, so that it will be helpful to all.
A story of inspiration that will bring tears to your eyes, tears of compassion, joy and triumph. This is one man's story of incredible challenge of digging down deep for inner resources in managing and conquering cancer. He refused to give in and chose to fight the disease with all that he had.
Lance Armstrong, one of the world's most famous cyclists, shares the story of his life, his battle with cancer, and his amazing victory over it. Lance wanted to be a cyclist racer since he was a kid growing up in the suburbs of Austin, Texas. His road to success was a difficult one, but hard work, perseverance, and lots of training helped him to achieve his dream.
Lance Armstrong was at the peak of his career in early 1996. At that time, he had just won the World Cycling Championships and became the first cyclist to clock the widest winning margin in the U.S. National Road Race Championship’s history. Besides that, he had just signed a 2 year contract to ride with a famous French racing team for $2.5 million.
But his dream of riding for the French crashed on October 2, 1996 when he was diagnosed with advanced stage testicular cancer. The cancerous cells had spread to his lungs and brain and an urgent operation had to be arranged to remove his swollen testicle. Doctors told him he had a 50% chance of survival, even though they later admitted that it was inflated by almost 47%.
Fighting Spirit
Though doctors were not optimistic about his recovery, Lance Armstrong never gave up. After all, he was trained not to give up so easily since young. His mother, a single parent had always inculcated values of strong determination and persistence to him. There was once when he was found by his mother near the end of a triathlon about to quit. Upon her encouragement, he completed the race by walking. Although he came out last, he persisted till the end. I admire his love and admiration for his mother, who continues to be one of his strengths in his life. He was fortunate, as well, to have loving friends support him throughout his entire journey.
Using the same determination, Lance challenged his illness by going through the operation to remove the tumors and the long process of chemotherapy. He lost a lot of weight and was unable to even ride his bike around the neighborhood. 1 year of treatment time was horrible to describe ( the level of emotions, mental strength), he lost few of his main sponsors also. The thing which needs to be appreciated is, even though he was in death bed, he was moved by seeing the fellow patients and started “Lance Armstrong foundation” for cancer research and support. Millions of people are helped by this foundation.
It looked like his cycling career was over for good, and the only thing left to do was to take pain killers and try to enjoy whatever time he's got left, but Lance was determined to fight for his life and for his passion of a cyclist. He overcame fears and despairs and went through the treatments.
After he completed his chemotherapy sessions and was declared cancer free miraculously, he gradually went back to his first love : biking. But in the initial stage , It was very hard for him to regain his previous mental strength and cycling abilities. After few days, his post cancer training proved to be unexpectedly fruitful as he discovered that his 17 pounds of weight loss allowed him to scale stage races much more effortlessly than he used to.
He started training hard (mainly motivated by his wife kik and friends )As he cycled through the training trails of the Blue Rider Mountains, he sensed that something was different. He was finally ready to be a world class cyclist that stood steadfast regardless of the nature of the races, terrains or weather conditions.
He proved that his feeling was right when he earned the prized maillot jaune, the yellow jersey worn by the leading cyclist in the 1999 Tour de France ( most prestigious cycling event) right from the start.
When he breezed across with the finishing line with a strong lead, he was welcomed by his wife, who was pregnant via vitro fertilization after Lance’s cancer caused him to be sterile.
For the next 6 consecutive years, Lance proceeded to win the Tour de France and later wrote that he would choose overcoming cancer to winning the race because of what it has done for him as a human being, a man, a husband, a son and a father.
What Did I Learn From This Book?
That whether you like it or not, life’s full of challenges. If you can choose to tackle them with resolve and determination, there’s always something to gain in any challenge, even though it may not seem so evident initially. Challenges Are Life’s Vitamins, life without challenges is a bore.
In a way, challenges are vitamins, enriching our lives with ups and downs. For Lance, taking part in the Tour de France after beating cancer helped him to find out courage and firm belief in himself, something he might not have seen himself equipped with before. And one thing for sure, no matter how much some people dislike challenges, they’ll definitely and surely be there!
So, instead of regarding challenges as hindrance, why don’t you treat them as a chance to showcase your power? And I can guarantee you that after winning over them, life is no longer the same. It’ll be much more fulfilling and wonderful!
Don't ever be down in your life..generally we expect sympathy or soothing words from our friends, when we are down, but I liked the way Lance was during his treatment, he used to say to his mother and friends , “Don't worry I am going to make it, I will kill the cancer.”
Never Take What You Already Have for Granted
Lance’s illness gave me a strong signal that we should never take little things in life for granted. What seemed natural for some people like having good health mattered very much for Lance.
If you’re someone who’ve wished you were richer, better looking or more influential, have you ever taken some time to reevaluate what you already possessed and be grateful for it.
Do the things which u were passionate enough when ever you are down. Even though Lance was undergoing treatment, he used to go for six hour drive at high pain threshold. What he says is at least for a while you have a kind of hall pass and don't have to brood on your problems.
I totally agree with Armstrong statement that “We have unrealized capacities that sometime emerge only in crisis”
So friend's don't worry about anything in life...accept everything which comes and
Fight like a hell!!!
First time I have written summary of a book(after doing some Google search)....need ur suggestions if any improvements should be made
