Diana Nyad – Ultra swimmer – choose happiness

Diana Nyad is an inspiration. Her life lessons are (1) Never Ever Give Up, (2) You’re Never Too Old to Chase Your Dreams, (3) It Looks Like a Solitary Sport, But It’s a Team.

All of these lessons resonate loudly with me. I love each one. In my current obsession with podcasts, I heard clips of her TED talks on the TED Radio Hour Podcast. I looked up her full TED Talks and they are amazing. She’s truly an inspiring lady. I heard She lives and trains here in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center.

Here’s Diana’s 2013 TED Talk. 100+ mile swim from Cuba to Florida.

TED Bio: “In the pitch-black night, stung by jellyfish, choking on salt water, singing to herself, hallucinating … Diana Nyad just kept on swimming. And that’s how she finally achieved her lifetime goal as an athlete: an extreme 100-mile swim from Cuba to Florida — at age 64. Hear her story.”

Socrates, “To be is To Do”

Henry David Thoreau: “When you achieve your dreams, it’s not what you get but who you have become.”

Mary Oliver question: “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

She actually has an earlier TED Talk in 2011 after her 4th attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida, which ended at 40+ hrs due to Box Jellyfish. You can sense the disappointment. But, you can also sense the resolve, and that she would try again.