Mark Black is a Heart and Double-Lung Transplant Recipient – turned – 4- Time Marathon Runner. A resilience expert, coach, and author, Mark helps people “Break Through” their limitations and his coaching programs provide clients the tools to transform your adversity into your competitive advantage.
Mark doesn’t just teach resilience, he embodies it. Born with a life-threatening heart defect, Mark underwent two open-heart surgeries before the age of one. He battled his condition and its limitations for twenty-two years until he was forced to deal with the biggest obstacle of his young life. His doctor informed him that his heart was failing, and without a rare and dangerous heart and double-lung transplant, he would not see his 25th birthday.
In 2002, Mark was fortunate that a suitable donor was found. He not only survived the surgery, but less than 3 years later, Mark became the only man in history to run a marathon with someone else’s heart and lungs. Then he did it, three more times.
WORKSHOP
“Do the Hard Thing”
We often tell students to do “the right thing” and so they should, but Mark has discovered the path to achieving anything of meaning is also to “do the hard thing.” We live in a world where convenience and ease are valued more highly than determination and grit. When students believe that better means easier they risk missing out on some of the best parts of life.
In this thought-provoking and inspiring program; Mark shares how the best things in his life came out of what initially seemed like terrible situations. Students learn practical strategies for reframing their challenges and embracing their flaws to become the best version of themselves.
Key Take-Aways:
Your results are created by your decisions. If you don’t like your results; change your decisions.
The more we avoid our challenges, the bigger and scarier they become. The best way to deal with your problems is to face them head-on.
Action creates results: it is great to dream and to have a positive attitude, but unless you DO something, nothing will change.
The most successful people are also the most determined: If you never quit, you won’t always win, but you will never truly lose.