Book Review: Find a Way

To know me is to know that a) I adore reading and b) I particularly love stories about people that overcome amazing odds to accomplish astonishing goals. Yup, that's part of the reason I'm a health coach...there are indeed similarities there!

This book seriously blew me away. Nonfiction stories like this can sometimes come across as precious or overwhelmingly narcissistic. This one had me from the first page: "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?", to stories about her challenging childhood, to details of her truly unbelievable attempts to swim from Cuba to Florida 5 times.

There are so many amazing messages and inspiration in this book, I hardly know where to begin. Key takeaways for me included:

• You are NEVER too old to chase a dream. Diana Nyad accomplished the feat of swimming 100 miles from Cuba to Florida at at 64. 64. So often we think that our first act has to be everything. Guess what? It doesn't. We can have second, third and maybe even fourth acts that define our lives. I'm personally in my second act now and I suspect it's not the last.
• Do not give up EVER. This woman went through so much to accomplish her goal. There were opportunities for her to quit many, many times but she stayed true to her vision and truly embodies what it means to be committed and persistent.
• YOU define you. Not your family, not your friends, not the naysayers. YOU. I will not spoil the book details, but there were many very challenging circumstances in Diana's life that could have completely formed the blueprint for who she was. She refused to submit to labels and ended up surprising pretty much everyone when she finally accomplished her goal.

Reading this book for me felt like such an uplifting and inspiring way to see out 2015 and look forward with positivity. I highly recommend you pick it up!

I'm also including her TED talk here. Another chill-inducing piece of inspiration.

Have you already read it? Comment below and let me know what you think!