This week’s Motivational Monday video came from an unexpected source… It’s actually a CLIF Bar commercial but it features Chris McCormack’s fantastic story of overcoming the odds to win the 2007 Ironman World Championships in Kona Hawaii.

The 2007 event was Chris’ sixth try at the World Championships race. The year before, Chris finished in second place and was only 2 minutes behind the winner so his victory in 2007 was extremely sweet!

Chris’ victory celebration was very inspirational! How has this week’s video inspired you?

Share your answer in the comments section below…

P.S. For more motivation, click here to see Motivational Monday #39.

In this week’s Motivational Monday video, Mark Bezos shares his first experience fighting a fire as the Assistant Captain of a volunteer firefighter company in New York City. During his first excursion as a volunteer firefighter, Mark made it to the scene of the fire & found the Fire Department’s Captain on Duty shortly after one of his fellow volunteer firefighters.

After finding the captain so he could get his assignment, he overheard the Captain give the other volunteer firefighter his assignment…

Mark’s fellow volunteer firefighter was asked to go inside the burning house to save the homeowner’s dog.
At the time, Mark felt that his assignment of running past the fire to find a pair of shoes for the homeowner paled in comparison to saving the homeowner’s dog.

A few weeks later the firefighters received a letter from the homeowner thanking them for their courageous efforts. Mark was pleasantly surprised to see that the homeowner noted that ‘someone had even gotten her a pair of shoes.’

What I love about this video is how it teaches us to be a hero all the time, instead of waiting on major opportunities to become a big hero…

How has Mark’s story inspired you to become a hero? Share your answer in the comments section below!

P.S. If you missed Motivational Monday #38, click here to watch it now.

This week’s video left me speechless and amazed… The story of Patrick Henry Hughes and his father is absolutely incredible!

Watch their story and let me know what you enjoyed most about this week’s Motivational Monday in the comments section below!

For extra motivation, check out last week’s Motivational Monday here.

This week’s Motivational Monday video is an unforgettable reminder of The Power of Words. An amazing speaker shared this fable in a keynote speech during a conference I attended three years ago:

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: ‘I am blind, please help.’ There were only a few coins in the hat.

A man walked by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, ‘Were you the one who changed my sign this morning ? What did you write?’

The man said, ‘I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way..’

What he had written was: ‘Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it.’

Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?

I’ve been searching for a video of this fable to share as a Motivational Monday since I heard the story during that conference three years ago. Luckily, this video found me…

Last week I received this video as a recommendation for Motivational Monday twice so I knew I had to share it today. (Thank you for this amazing video recommendation David & James!)

What have you gained from this story & The Power of Words? I’d love to hear your answer so be sure to share it below in the comments section.

P.S. If you missed Motivational Monday #36, click here to watch it!

In this week’s Motivational Monday video, Heather Dorniden of the University of Minnesota races the 600m at the Big 10 Indoor Track Championships. This video demonstrates what a race really is about. What life is about, really. We will fall. We can rise.

This video is a fantastic example of what can be achieved when we choose to rise after taking a fall. If you’ve created major success even after taking a fall (or many falls), please share your story in the comments section below!

P.S. Special thanks to Kelsey P. for recommending this week’s Motivational Monday video!

P.P.S. If you missed last week’s Motivational Monday, click here to watch it.

This week’s Motivational Monday video, The Wayseer Manifesto, was recommended by a member of our Unemployed Millionaire Blog Community named Ry. Ry recommended this week’s video as an alternative to the video from Motivational Monday #33.

There are a TON of inspiring & motivating words sprinkled throughout the lyrics The Wayseer Manifesto. One of my favorites is: “DISTURBING THE COMFORTABLE. COMFORTING THE DISTURBED.”

Ry, aka Bloominginlove, and everyone else who commented on last week’s Motivational Monday THANK YOU for taking the time to share your thoughts and inspirations with The Unemployed Millionaire Blog!

Do you have a favorite line from this week’s Motivational Monday video? Share it in the comments section below!

As a former U.S. Marine, I totally get off on videos like this! Every line in this speech struck a chord within me so it was challenging for me to pick a favorite line from this week’s Motivational Monday video.

Do you have a favorite line from this speech? If so, let me know what it was in the comments section below!

When Life Gives You Plywood…

My absolute favorite part about the journey to achieving a goal is the unexpected obstacles that pop up along the way.  The unexpected obstacles are opportunities in disguise because we get to find out what kind of a fight we’re willing to put up in order to achieve our goals.

Watching the star of this week’s Motivational Monday video fight through excruciating pain to just to break the wood over his head is seriously entertaining. What makes the video even more entertaining  is the fact  he used plywood in the fight for his goal.

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Sean Stephenson on the Gift of Fractures

Sean Stephenson was expected to die at birth. Even before his life began, he faced an army of reasons to give up and countless opportunities to embrace pity.

In addition to suffering more than 200 bone fractures by the age of 18, Sean was permanently confined to a wheelchair and he’d only reached a height of 3 feet tall. Amazingly, Sean made the decision to use his life experiences to teach and inspire others.

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Motivational Monday #27

This video is tremendously motivating to me; as is this poem by Marianne Williamson:

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