You Can Achieve The Extraordinary!
Author: Dr David Shaw, a skin and cosmetic GP at Kingscliff Health medical and allied health centre in Kingscliff, NSW.
I recently psyched myself up enough to get past my fear of heights and watch the Disney+ documovie ‘Free Solo‘. This is the story of rock climber Alex Honnold who specialises in climbing extreme rock faces on his own and without ropes or other equipment. Essentially, he walks up to a rock face with nothing but a sack of chalk and climbs to the top. This movie documents his planning and free solo ascent of the 1km high rock face of El Capitan in Yosemite California, which (spoiler alert!) he climbed in under 4 hours. It is so mind-blowing that even the world’s next best rock climbers cannot get their heads around it. It’s the equivalent of performing in any other sport at (or even beyond) Olympic Gold Medal level in any other sport but with sudden death as the inevitable consequence for the slightest mistake.
When asked the obvious question of “Why?”, Mr Honnold states that living a happy and contented life is something that anyone can do. He wants to do something extraordinary. Well, he certainly achieved that!
However, I would contend with his inference that you must do something extreme or be the first to achieve a particular feat to achieve the extraordinary. For some people, just getting up in the morning is extraordinary. It really is high achievement. For anyone who lives with chronic pain, doing life with a smile is extraordinary. And contrary to Mr Honnold, I believe that living a happy and contented life also comes under the extraordinary category. How many people do you know who are happy and content?
So what could extraordinary look like for you? I regularly see clients who face their extreme fears of doctors and needles to undergo necessary procedures. The amount of distress they must suffer to do this is extreme. Gold medal for them! Others undertake to change detrimental habits of a lifetime. That might involve quitting addictive substances or behaviours. Or it might be identifying and changing (usually with help) dysfunctional thinking patterns that have contributed to unhappiness and produced adverse mental health consequences. That’s worth a gold medal too. Maybe you could reach out to someone with love in your heart. Romantic or compassionate. Either way, it’s like climbing a cliff with potential consequences of rejection or hurt. It is behaviour that is well out of the ordinary. And I cannot finish without mentioning single parents. Need I say more? Extraordinary!
I believe extraordinary is striving with the physical and emotional talent you have and the life circumstances you find yourself in to achieve outcomes that often don’t seem possible. This can absolutely be you!
Dr David Shaw is a highly experienced skin and cosmetic GP with areas of interest in dermatology, skin cancer checks, skin cancer surgery, and cosmetic injectables. Book an appointment online with Dr David Shaw or call us on 02 6670 1400.
* The information provided in this article is for educational purposes only and not intended to be a substitute for professional advice. You must consult your doctor before acting on the information in this article, especially if you have concerns regarding health related issues for yourself and your family.
