If you're going through a tough time, or there's just one obstacle you want to overcome, this video of Sam Cawthorn will motivate and inspire you to do so. A true story that delivers 3 ways to increase happiness to leverage happiness even on your lowest days.
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00:00 I was actually pronounced dead at the scene.
00:04 It was my fault, it was my fault.
00:06 I fell asleep at the wheel.
00:09 I veered over the other side of the road
00:11 and had a 206 kilometer head-on collision
00:14 with a semi-trailer truck.
00:15 My arm was amputated there at the scene
00:19 and also completely wrecked my leg.
00:22 Six broken ribs lacerated and a punctured kidney.
00:24 Both of my lungs had collapsed at the same time.
00:27 Obviously they resuscitated me.
00:30 Then I was put on life support for an entire week,
00:33 in hospital for five months,
00:36 and then in a wheelchair for an entire year.
00:39 Doctors told me initially, they said,
00:40 "Sam, you'll never be able to walk ever again.
00:42 You'll be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life."
00:46 This was just a few years ago.
00:48 Now, before my accident, I was very motivated,
00:50 very passionate, and I was doing a lot of things.
00:54 I've been classically trained as a singer,
00:56 I've been playing the guitar ever since I was seven years old,
00:58 had a great job with the federal government
01:01 as a youth futurist.
01:02 But in a way, I lacked why?
01:05 Destiny, purpose.
01:08 I was asleep in my own life.
01:11 Three areas that really, really helped me,
01:13 in a way, these are three ways how I leveraged myself,
01:18 coming out of an adversity,
01:20 coming out of a massive death experience.
01:23 So the first one of these is this.
01:25 I needed to learn how to leverage crisis.
01:29 You know, there's a massive big corporate buzzword out there
01:31 which is actually called adversarial growth,
01:33 which means through our most toughest of adversities,
01:36 can ignite some of the greatest of growth periods
01:39 in our life.
01:40 When it's a crisis, there's something in our biology
01:43 that leaps so much pain to it
01:45 that says we must get ourselves out of it.
01:48 Crisis equals opportunity.
01:50 Obviously, since my accident,
01:52 since then, we've actually now started an amazing charity
01:55 where we're working with the true poorest of the poor,
01:57 which are the kids that live with a disability
01:58 in developing worlds.
01:59 We're doing some phenomenal things.
02:02 And that's actually, obviously, how I have bounced forward
02:04 and how I'm now awake at the wheel
02:07 because I've learned to leverage an adversity,
02:10 a problem or an issue.
02:11 I've actually turned that into a crisis
02:13 and then leveraged from it.
02:15 Second area of leverage, leverage your proximity.
02:18 That you are the average of our five closest friends.
02:20 This study also shows that it's exactly the same
02:22 with our weight, with our bank account balance,
02:25 with our energy levels, with our happiness results,
02:27 that we are the average of our five closest friends.
02:30 You know, it's quite interesting.
02:31 Back in high school, I was hanging out
02:32 with these real negative, toxic proximity.
02:36 And they influenced me to do things
02:39 that I knew I should not have been doing.
02:41 But they influenced me in a very toxic way
02:44 and I found myself getting kicked out of school.
02:46 So what did I have to do?
02:47 I had to dissociate myself from a lot of my mates,
02:51 from a lot of my friends to start now hanging out
02:54 with people that inspire me in a positive way
02:56 rather than a negative way.
02:58 And the third area that has really, really helped me
03:01 is leverage happiness.
03:03 Depression rates today are 10 times greater
03:05 than what they were in the 1930s Great Depression.
03:08 The main onset age of depression 35 years ago
03:11 was 29 years old.
03:12 Today it is 14 years old.
03:14 Optimistic workers outperformed
03:16 their pessimistic colleagues by 56%.
03:19 Happy children show three times more creativity
03:21 than their unhappy counterparts.
03:23 There must be a way how we can bring happiness
03:25 and positivity back into our proximity purposefully.
03:30 I choose to focus on the good things in life.
03:34 I get disability parking spots.
03:37 How cool is that?
03:38 (audience laughing)
03:40 The doctors also said to me initially,
03:41 they said, "Sam, you'll never be able
03:44 to play the guitar ever again.
03:45 You've lost your most dominant arm."
03:48 You know when someone says that to you?
03:51 You know when someone sort of says,
03:53 "You'll never be able to do it.
03:54 There's no chance or you might as well give up.
03:57 You won't be able to."
03:58 There's something deep down within
04:00 that says, "Stuff you, I'm gonna prove you wrong."
04:03 Come on, who's felt that before?
04:04 Who's felt that before?
04:06 We've all felt that before.
04:08 Every single one of us.
04:09 Did you know I'm one of the only people
04:12 on the entire planet that plays the guitar with one hand?
04:15 How cool is that?
04:17 I brought along my guitar with me.
04:19 Can I play something for you guys?
04:20 (audience cheering)
04:23 ♪ I am awesome ♪
04:26 ♪ I am awesome ♪
04:30 ♪ Every day of my life I am awesome ♪
04:35 ♪ When I focus on being grateful ♪
04:41 ♪ And ensure that I am thankful ♪
04:44 ♪ I am awesome ♪
04:47 ♪ Oh, I am awesome ♪
04:50 Thank you very much, guys.
04:53 Thank you very much.
04:55 (gentle music)
04:58 (gentle music)
05:01 (gentle music)
05:03 (gentle music)
05:06 (gentle music)
05:08 (upbeat music)