Last week I spoke to a very dedicated and strong community member.
She may not have all the advantages many other people have, but she definitely loves life, sees the problems she can help solving and wants to change the world for herself and others.
Estevan's Alynne Fichter fascinated me with her courage. She spends a lot of time in a wheelchair, and by no means is it an easy way to get around. Even a power chair requires quite a few conditions to be met to get her anywhere, and apparently, accessibility still remains a big issue even in places marked as "accessible."
Alynne came across various "inconveniences" where sometimes she wouldn't be able to get into the building as doors were too narrow or the ramp would be too steep too many times. She looked at it as a global lack of understanding of how to make spaces accessible for all people.
She saw the problem and decided she wanted to change it worldwide. Just like that. She formulated the problem, came up with a motto and started spreading the word in ways that were available to her. She wants to change not only Estevan, Saskatchewan and Canada, she wants the entire world to start putting a bit more thought into designing accessible spaces to make them actually accessible.
It felt a bit like in Forrest Gump when difficult things all of a sudden were viewed as something simple and completely manageable. And I totally believe Alynne will get it going.
When I was talking to Alynne I thought that people like her do change the world. I know she already started. She opened my eyes, raising my awareness about the issue and now I will spread the word further letting people around me know what it takes to make a space really accessible.
Her bravery and purposefulness reminded me of the opposite situations when before even trying something I would find many reasons why it wouldn't work, would hide behind the fear to fail and would give up on many great ideas, which didn't look manageable at the first sight.
As Olympic champion Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee said, "The only person that can stop you from reaching your goals is you."
Psychologists say we actually have a big system, which "helps" us not achieve our goals. We make goals too vague and don't know where to start. Once we start, we don't know how to evaluate the progress, so we don't realize if we are progressing at all. We formulate our goals in a way so our brain instantly labels them as "impossible" and blocks us from even trying. We tend to set larger goals, which are more difficult to get to, and thus easier to drop. We often think of the negatives that may come out of it, but rarely stimulate ourselves with all the positives that it would bring. We also downplay our wins, and instead of banking on achieving anything, we just let it go and again focus on further problems and potential failures.
Besides, there are always those who would obligingly tell us that it's not going to work. And when we are afraid, we do listen to those voices. That and some potential mess-ups discourage us along the way, making it easier to give up. On top of that, we often just feel lazy when we face all the work we have to do to get where we want to be. It kills our motivation and we stop.
All these reasons make us too afraid of our goals, and we often don't even start. Or if we do, we quit when we hit the first bump. I won't speak for all people, but all my good friends (even very successful ones) admitted that at least once they've been in such situations. But then, if the goal was dear to their hearts, if that was their real personal goal, none of that mattered.
Alynne's goal also may get stuck in between all these issues. That's why it's such a huge inspiration for me to see how some people ignore all this pile of hindrances and excuses, and commit to achieving their goals, no matter how big, scary or impossible they may seem at first sight.聽
聽I truly believe Alynne will succeed. After all, she already did succeed with me and probably many more people around her. But if you are a business owner, a builder, someone who decides on the accessibility of buildings or know people who can do so, share Alynne's story with them and keep her movement going. And let's help her change this world.
