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The Impossible Life

Writer's picture: CoachMattCoachMatt

Hey everyone, my name is Matt, and I’m your Impossible Health Coach. My mission is to help you Be Impossible and begin the journey towards your life goals. Every other Friday, you can join me on this forum to find high-level content related to optimal health and wellness and doing the impossible. For this first post, I want to share some of my story with you, so you can better understand my journey and how I got to where I am today. Thank you all for tuning in, I hope you enjoy this content, and please comment below or reach out to me directly here if you have any questions regarding your impossible goals!




I am impossible. But I haven’t always been this way. I have been fortunate, through a certain set of circumstances, to have experienced pain and suffering, joy and elation. I have seen the highest highs and the lowest lows. This is what made me who I am. In conjunction with the honor of knowing and working with some of the absolute best people on the face of this wonderful planet, I have become impossible. It is now my dream to help you achieve the same.


I was born and raised in a small town in southeast Ohio, right on the river. It’s a beautiful area in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, it’s home. Through most of my life as a child, I grew up as the “fat kid.” I was always overweight, and I never had a good relationship with food. This was ultimately my own fault, I fell into the societal mindset that exists today that food is nothing more than a source of pleasure; that the only factor to consider when deciding what to have for supper is what will taste the best. I was largely unmotivated, infact, primarily driven only by the fear of what others might think of me.


Most would have called me intelligent, I got good grades, but that was mainly due to my fear of what might happen if I didn’t. Nothing, in fact, would have happened, but that was not the narrative I had spun for myself. I was blessed to have, who I would argue, are the single two best humans on this planet as parents. My father is incredibly hard working and impossibly driven with a fantastic sense of humor. My mother is absolutely the most caring and kind woman I have ever known. I was truly blessed beyond measure, yet I had no real drive or purpose for my own life. I was 18 years old; I had made college plans but, again, that was largely a result of the “that’s what you do” mindset, and less so of a discernment of my true passions for life.


I was halfway through my senior year of high school when a doctor told me I had cancer.


The entire appointment took fewer than 15 minutes. He spoke a lot in that short amount of time, but I didn’t hear most of it, save for a few words that caught my ear: amputation, chemotherapy, not going to college.


My parents were with me, that helped. Though, looking back, I tremble at the fear those words would instill in a parent. The words “you have cancer” are powerful words. They have been heard by millions of people all over the face of the Earth, yet their bite remains just as sharp each time. Even reading them from a past memory can bring back an airy silence.

My experience when those words landed upon me was not of pain. There was no anguish, no sorrow, no suffering; in a way, that would have been better. Instead, there was numbness, nothing.


I now believe that I was in shock. I had obviously known that cancer was a disease that severely altered people’s lives, and even had the power to end them, but I had never once considered that it would, or even could happen to me. It caused a complete and total collapse of my own worldview.


And it was the best thing that has ever happened to me.


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Shortly into starting chemotherapy, my perspective started to shift. I was blessed to have come to the realization that I was in fact in a very special place in life. I began to notice how everyone was watching me. My family, my school, my community, everyone had their eyes on me whether they realized it or not. It was almost as if they were waiting to see what I would do next. How would this kid, who seemingly had his whole life ripped from him, react?


This taught me the power of action, and how it could be used properly for the greatest good of all around you. I found that for every smile I showed, for every pain or sorrow I endured, it would positively influence those around me ten-fold.


I remember lying in bed, having come to this realization, and I felt the responsibility, the duty, to do everything in my power to maximize the good that came from this otherwise horrifying situation. I needed an idea, a belief to get behind, a central focus to guide myself and everyone around me through this storm.


This is how “Be Impossible” was born.


This was an impossible feat in front of me, one that I had no option but to face. And if I was to do the impossible, I was going to have to become Impossible.


That year was the most important experience I’ve ever had. I saw first hand, the absolute best and the absolute worst facets of life, I got to feel them and to live them, and they are what shaped me into the person that I am today. A man filled with passion, drive, and a mission to help others discover their Impossible selves.


I completed 8 months of chemotherapy, received an amputation of my right leg, and developed a systemic infection that led to septic shock, and very nearly, death. However, through the support, love, and kindness given to me by thousands of people, all over the world, many of whom I didn’t even know, I pulled through. I lived.


I fought back against death, against all of the sorrow and pain, and am now ready to help you do the same. It doesn’t take a life-altering or near death experience to become impossible; all it takes is a vision, an understanding of where you truly want to be, and the bravery to pursue it.


Since that year, I have continued to live the “Be Impossible” mindset. I have earned a Doctorate in Pharmacy, I have completed two half marathons, running on one leg, and I have deadlifted over 500 lbs. Now, for the next phase of my life, I am ready to give my energy and focus to you; to help you “Be Impossible,” and use this mindset to bring positive change into your own life.


I have been truly blessed with an incredible journey thus far, and I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to help others on this path.


Please share this post with those in your life to help me spread the “Be Impossible” mindset, I appreciate you taking the time to read this, and as always…


BE IMPOSSIBLE!


-Matt

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