POSITIVE QUOTE :  "A person's life is what their thoughts make it." -  Marcus Aurelius

DAILY MOTIVATION :  Lessons in Adversity

Roger Crawford was born with a disability. His arms end not with hands but with two thick digits on the left and one unusually shaped thumb on the right. He has only three toes on one foot, and, because his other leg ends at the knee, he wears a prosthesis for mobility. 

Although doctors predicted that Crawford would never walk, he has proven all the naysayers wrong.  

He not only walked, but actually ran carrying the 1984 Olympic torch on its way to Los Angeles through San Francisco's Chinatown. He also has achieved tremendous success as a high school, college and professional tennis player.  

Now a sought-after motivational speaker, his eloquence on the subject of facing adversity has gained him the respect and admiration of audiences everywhere. In this PSP exclusive interview, Crawford  demonstrates how anyone can achieve success in the face of even the most adverse challenges.*

Universal Handicaps

When Crawford stands before a crowd to deliver a speech, he knows that the first thing the audience will see is a person with disabilities.  He tries to use that to his advantage by addressing the issue: "I tell the audience, `You can plainly see my disabilities, but I cannot see yours.

We all have them.' A handicap is just something that keeps you from realizing your dreams. I was born with my disabilities, but most people impose handicaps on themselves. It has been my experience that I can help people with these handicaps."

Crawford stresses the universality of handicaps. He feels people will identify with his experience to focus on the similar challenges they face in their lives. "I never tell an audience that I have overcome my handicaps because that is an unreasonable goal. I believe I have learned to adjust and adapt and I feel I am a better person for the experience."

Crawford knows that people are inspired by his story, but that is not enough for him. "I do not want just to inspire people. I want them to take the inspiration they get from my experience, and turn it into the motivation to achieve in their lives." It is an action-oriented way to develop your potential from within.

Individual Talents

Many of Crawford's ideas about success stem directly from his tennis career. As a child, Crawford, frustrated with his inability to compete with other children at sports, seized upon tennis as the focus for his considerable energy. "Tennis  became my passion -- my sense of purpose.

As a young boy, I desperately wanted to be able to point to something and say, `I do that well.' For me that was tennis. Everything I did was focused on becoming the best tennis player I possibly could. I developed a special method of holding the racket and serving. With dedication, I worked at my skills and built on my progress, day by day."

Crawford's success at tennis, which included playing in Division I competition at Loyola Marymount University and USPTA certification as a professional, reinforced his belief that every person has specific talents unlike anyone else's.

 "Of course no one can do everything, but all of us can do something well.  We have to focus on what we can control in our lives. Having only three fingers, early on I ruled out the possibility of becoming a great pianist. That was not being negative, it was narrowing my focus, zeroing in on my abilities and talents."

Goal-Setting

"Finding that talent is the first step, but it is not enough. Next we have to develop a specific system for success based on goal-setting and achievement," Crawford says. He differentiates between two types of goals: outcome goals and performance goals.

Believing it is important to understand goals before analyzing performance, he says, "Outcome goals are based on the end result -- win or loss, success or setback. Performance goals are based more on specific aspects of performance with no regard to the result.

For example, if I was playing against a much better opponent, my performance goal might have been to get 65 percent of my first serves in.  For a salesperson, a performance goal might be just getting his foot in the door with a potential  customer.

Regardless of whether I won the match or the salesperson closes the sale that day, we both can have achieved our goals for the day. Performance goals let you get something positive out of a setback."

Optimism

Crawford also gives his positive approach to life credit for helping him face life's daily challenges.

"Optimism is not a Pollyanna, happy-go-lucky approach to life. It means taking responsibility for where you are today and getting to where you want to be tomorrow. As I always tell audiences, a positive attitude may not work every time, but a negative attitude does work every single time.

In my life, optimism has helped me embrace failure as an essential part of the process toward achievement. It took me 16 years to learn how to tie my shoes before someone invented Velcro, so I know plenty about failure. No matter what happens, I would rather have one leg and a positive attitude than two legs and a negative attitude."

Leadership
As an athlete with disabilities and, in fact, the first severely disabled athlete to play Division I college athletics, Crawford has always felt that he could lead by example. "Other players on the team looked to me as a player who not only had faced the challenges of playing with disabilities, but who was also willing to sacrifice personal glory for the good of the team.

The best example of this occurred during a league tournament in my sophomore year when I had to decide whether to play singles, which would have brought me the most personal gain, or doubles, which would have helped the team the most. It was a difficult decision, but when I chose to play doubles, the other guys knew I cared more about the team's success  than my own, and I think they all respected me for it."

In Crawford's analysis, not over coaching is the one quality which distinguishes the good coaches from the average. "Too often," Crawford says, "people in leadership roles want so badly for their players or employees to be successful that they try to do everything for their people, without letting them make the mistakes which are so important in the growth  process.

The best teachers give their students the framework to be successful, but in the end let the students go out and learn on their own. Good leaders understand the difference between leadership and management.  You can manage a system, but you cannot manage people.  I feel lucky to have had coaches who knew this difference."

Humour

Despite Crawford's success on the tennis court and as a speaker, he remains humble about who he is and what he has accomplished.  He explains that, ironically, it is his disability that keeps him firmly planted on the ground. "A day never goes by without a reminder that I am different, whether it is stares from strangers, or people who yell directions at me because they think my disabilities have affected my hearing."

Crawford's most successful way of dealing with inquisitive strangers is humour. "Once, when I was waiting for a flight at the airport, I sat down in a seat with a newspaper on it. I was tired, so I did not bother to remove the paper. I soon noticed a man across the aisle who was trying to look at my hands without being obvious about it.

It is become pretty easy for me to recognize people doing this, but they do not know that. After a few minutes, he stood up and approached me. I thought he was going to ask about my hands, but instead inquired whether I was done with the newspaper. Seeing the possibility for a great  comedic moment, I said, `No, I am not quite finished yet,' stood up, turned the page and sat back down again. After a moment's hesitation, I broke out into laughter and we shared a good chuckle."

While Crawford feels that humor plays an important role in getting people to look beyond his handicap, he also considers humor an extremely important facet of his optimistic outlook on life. "As with the man in the airport, humor lets people know that I can laugh at the absurdities of life.

The ability to laugh at oneself is a universal necessity for us all. If we take our lives too seriously, there is a tendency to forget the things that are really important to us. It is no coincidence that most optimistic people also have a great sense of humor."

Regrets
In 31 years of life, Crawford lists only one regret. He firmly believes that taking risks is a necessary step toward success, so it is not surprising that his one regret stems from a time when he took the path of least resistance rather than challenge himself.

"It may seem silly, but I really regret not having taken typing class in high school. It was a requirement for everyone, but I used my hands as an excuse to get out of it. I was glad then, but now I have to learn how to type for real. But that is the price I pay for taking the easy way out."

"Of all the things I have done," he says, "that is the only one I would change. I have no bitterness about my hands and feet. I have a lot of thankfulness -- for my friends, parents, coaches and my wife. It is true that I have not had it easy, but I celebrate the adversity in my life.

It is made me who I am and enabled me to do so many things. How could I possibly want to change it?"

By Malcolm Fleschner
 

Irby F. Stewart