Clarke Speaks shares his takeaways from the conversation with ECU baseball player Parker Byrd, who made history on the diamond after suffering a catastrophic injury.
Welcome to the catastrophic comeback podcast with American Injury Lawyer Clark speaks, helping you find hope, purpose and joy after a catastrophic injury.
Hi, and welcome back to catastrophic come back, I want to talk to you for a few minutes about my three takeaways from my conversation with Parker bird. What an incredible story what an incredible young man. There was, there was a lot of things that really struck me about my conversation with him, but, but I'll try to limit it to three. The first thing that strikes me about my conversation with Parker bird is, you know, even though he is a young man, 1819 years old, very goal focused, very goal oriented. And the reason I think that's significant is because if you'll remember, when he described his baseball career, he played baseball ever since he can remember. And he was good at it. And he worked at it. And he got better and better and better. And his goal was to play in Major League Baseball, his goal was to, you know, play for a division one program, do well and eventually play Major League Baseball. And he was really focused on that goal, so much so that even by the time he was a freshman in high school, he had an offer to play D one baseball at East Carolina, which is a perennial, top 20, top 15, top 10 school and very much in the hunt for a national championship this year in another previous years. So for him to be that good at baseball, at that early age at it as a ninth grader, to enough to be able to get an offer like that is pretty remarkable. And that says something about his his, his drive, his motivation, his mindset, his focus, and his desire to to set and accomplish a particular goal. And I think that's interesting. The thing that I think that's also interesting is this tragedy took place not that long ago, it was not, you're not talking about years and years and years ago, this was a relatively recent thing. And on a dime, he switches he changes in that goal, instead of B being playing major league baseball, he realizes in in a very short period of time that that's probably not realistic. But instead, now after talking to his mom and dad, he decides there's never been a D, one player with an artificial leg. So my goal now is to be the first player in Division One history to play with an artificial leg. And just like that, he changes his goal from Major League Baseball to being the first one player, and he starts focuses and attention on that, and his rehab on that. And that gives him the direction and the focus that he needs, partially because that's who he is. He's a goal oriented person. But I think all of us could learn from that, when we're working through some kind of a difficult situation and tragic situation, what I think we need to do is to set a goal for us a reasonable goal under the circumstances, you know, and goals are generally going to be, you know, specific and measurable and time bound, and those kinds of things, reasonable, achievable. And he said something that met all those criteria, and then he worked very hard to try to achieve that goal. And I thought that that was interesting, and that that seemed to help him through his recovery process. The second thing that I thought was really interesting about what Parker said was his his philosophy on improving or, or, or getting better overcoming this, this adversity, this obstacle that it was in his life, he talked about getting 1% better every day. And, and you don't have to get all the way better in the course of a day. But you just got to get a little bit better every day. And I thought that was a really interesting perspective for him to have. Now imagine that's probably the way that he's approached his athletic career, even up until now. So these same lessons that have served him well, to get him to the point where he got this opportunity, this scholarship to play baseball at a at a at a really, really good program. Also, he just took that those same principles and apply them to this sort of tragedy and in order to overcome the obstacles that were in front of him and to achieve the goal that he had. You know, I thought that was really interesting. The third thing that I thought was really interesting about his my conversation with him is he describes a series of events right? That led to this tragedy. He describes you know, a happening and B happening and see happening in D happening. For example, He says it's a it's a it's late in the in the summer before baseball is supposed to start for the year. He says they have a late recruit that comes in to join them. And then they the guy keeps inviting them to go do this activity on the lake. or the river and ski and tube and all this and he's in, it sounds great, but they just couldn't fit it in. And then the last weekend, they're able to fit it in, he goes out Friday has a great time supposed to go back Saturday to help somebody move, they cancel. So he has another day, they had such a good time, they're gonna go back and do it again. This time, the driver says, Hey, we're gonna go a little quicker and try to throw you guys off sooner. They do throw, throw him off sooner the guys are trying to get back into the boat. Somebody is put accidentally puts the boat in reverse or gets knocked in reverse or something. And then the guy one of the guys on the boat had had a similar experience previously, and so he knew sort of what to do. jumps in the boat immediately gets Parker out of the water immediately uses his shirt as a as a to help stop the blood flow and stop as a tourniquet. They try to wave to the first mode, they try to wave down, they do wave them down. And the people say hey, we'd love to help. But we can't because we have kids on the boat. And this is a frightening, scary scene and we think the kids will be traumatized. Here's a first aid kit. And then the second boat that comes along, the only reason they come back in the first place and are in that area in the first place is because there's a there is a argument between one of the couples, one of the couples that one of the people that's on that second boat happens to be a nurse, they she's able to use the equipment on the boat to to help Parker and, and with tourniquets, and those kinds of things. They get him immediately back to the marina, there's an ambulance waiting, ambulance goes to the local hospital helicopters there takes him back to the Regional Medical Hospital, East Carolina, and in what an incredible story. But but here's the thing that I think was interesting about that, when he described that series of events, he connected all those, you could very easily connect those dots and be like, Man, this, I could have just been somewhere else I could have been moving that furniture I could, you know, there's and he could have said this never would have happened. I'm so unlucky that and I'm so disfavored that this never would have happened. If only you know, I didn't, this kid didn't come to the team late. Or if only we weren't able to go that weekend. Or if only we had to move that furniture, or if only one of the other kids was on the boat was on that tube at that moment in time. Or if only the boat hadn't been knocked into reverse. Or if he could have very easily connected the dots to be like, if this had never happened, there's one tiny little link in this chain had been different, this never would have happened to me. That's not how he looked at it at all. Instead, what he did was he connected different facts in a different way to construct a very positive beneficial outcome for himself. And so what he says is he says, the first boat couldn't help. But the second boat stopped. I mean, you know, it could help in on the second boat, it just happened that they had had been in an argument. And on the second boat, it just happened that she was in a she was a nurse. And it just happened that the guy on the boat with him, his friend had been in a series had been in a similar situation previously and knew what to do. And it just happened that that you know that they were able to get back to the Marina had just happened that they were able to get to the ambulance into the, into the helicopter into. So he connected all those dots in such a way as to is to be able to look back at this and go look at all the places where I was fortunate look at all the places where I was blessed. Look at all the places where I benefit from these, this unusual set of circumstances, that is mindset that is a person who has approached the situation. And instead of looking at a difficult situation through a lens of you know, why me which I think it'd be fair for anybody to do under those circumstances why me? You know, that's not how he looks at it. You know? He is He doesn't seem to be maybe maybe previously he had those thoughts. I think everybody would. But but this is not a rare very long time ago and he you seem to have a very positive energy and a very grateful mindset to how fortunate one As I How blessed was I, and that's one of the things that we see in people who really thrive after something like this. If we look back at
Colin, one of the people that is on this show, and, and lots of the different people that are on this program, who have really thrived after a tragedy and after a terrible situation, one thing that we see in common is that mindset that they have, where they are looking at things, from a positive perspective, looking at those things, from opportunities to perspective, looking at him from just a perspective of gratitude. You know, yes, this thing happened. But look how much worse it could have been. And look how these things lined up in such a way as to give me the best possible outcome under the circumstances. So I think that, that grace, gratitude mindset is critical to having a successful outcome after something like this. It may be easier in certain circumstances, but it's something that I think we all have to do is to try to find the things to be grateful for under adverse circumstances. Thank you for joining us. I appreciate it.
Welcome to the catastrophic comeback podcast with American Injury Lawyer Clark speaks, helping you find hope, purpose and joy after a catastrophic injury.
Hi, and welcome back to catastrophic come back, I want to talk to you for a few minutes about my three takeaways from my conversation with Parker bird. What an incredible story what an incredible young man. There was, there was a lot of things that really struck me about my conversation with him, but, but I'll try to limit it to three. The first thing that strikes me about my conversation with Parker bird is, you know, even though he is a young man, 1819 years old, very goal focused, very goal oriented. And the reason I think that's significant is because if you'll remember, when he described his baseball career, he played baseball ever since he can remember. And he was good at it. And he worked at it. And he got better and better and better. And his goal was to play in Major League Baseball, his goal was to, you know, play for a division one program, do well and eventually play Major League Baseball. And he was really focused on that goal, so much so that even by the time he was a freshman in high school, he had an offer to play D one baseball at East Carolina, which is a perennial, top 20, top 15, top 10 school and very much in the hunt for a national championship this year in another previous years. So for him to be that good at baseball, at that early age at it as a ninth grader, to enough to be able to get an offer like that is pretty remarkable. And that says something about his his, his drive, his motivation, his mindset, his focus, and his desire to to set and accomplish a particular goal. And I think that's interesting. The thing that I think that's also interesting is this tragedy took place not that long ago, it was not, you're not talking about years and years and years ago, this was a relatively recent thing. And on a dime, he switches he changes in that goal, instead of B being playing major league baseball, he realizes in in a very short period of time that that's probably not realistic. But instead, now after talking to his mom and dad, he decides there's never been a D, one player with an artificial leg. So my goal now is to be the first player in Division One history to play with an artificial leg. And just like that, he changes his goal from Major League Baseball to being the first one player, and he starts focuses and attention on that, and his rehab on that. And that gives him the direction and the focus that he needs, partially because that's who he is. He's a goal oriented person. But I think all of us could learn from that, when we're working through some kind of a difficult situation and tragic situation, what I think we need to do is to set a goal for us a reasonable goal under the circumstances, you know, and goals are generally going to be, you know, specific and measurable and time bound, and those kinds of things, reasonable, achievable. And he said something that met all those criteria, and then he worked very hard to try to achieve that goal. And I thought that that was interesting, and that that seemed to help him through his recovery process. The second thing that I thought was really interesting about what Parker said was his his philosophy on improving or, or, or getting better overcoming this, this adversity, this obstacle that it was in his life, he talked about getting 1% better every day. And, and you don't have to get all the way better in the course of a day. But you just got to get a little bit better every day. And I thought that was a really interesting perspective for him to have. Now imagine that's probably the way that he's approached his athletic career, even up until now. So these same lessons that have served him well, to get him to the point where he got this opportunity, this scholarship to play baseball at a at a at a really, really good program. Also, he just took that those same principles and apply them to this sort of tragedy and in order to overcome the obstacles that were in front of him and to achieve the goal that he had. You know, I thought that was really interesting. The third thing that I thought was really interesting about his my conversation with him is he describes a series of events right? That led to this tragedy. He describes you know, a happening and B happening and see happening in D happening. For example, He says it's a it's a it's late in the in the summer before baseball is supposed to start for the year. He says they have a late recruit that comes in to join them. And then they the guy keeps inviting them to go do this activity on the lake. or the river and ski and tube and all this and he's in, it sounds great, but they just couldn't fit it in. And then the last weekend, they're able to fit it in, he goes out Friday has a great time supposed to go back Saturday to help somebody move, they cancel. So he has another day, they had such a good time, they're gonna go back and do it again. This time, the driver says, Hey, we're gonna go a little quicker and try to throw you guys off sooner. They do throw, throw him off sooner the guys are trying to get back into the boat. Somebody is put accidentally puts the boat in reverse or gets knocked in reverse or something. And then the guy one of the guys on the boat had had a similar experience previously, and so he knew sort of what to do. jumps in the boat immediately gets Parker out of the water immediately uses his shirt as a as a to help stop the blood flow and stop as a tourniquet. They try to wave to the first mode, they try to wave down, they do wave them down. And the people say hey, we'd love to help. But we can't because we have kids on the boat. And this is a frightening, scary scene and we think the kids will be traumatized. Here's a first aid kit. And then the second boat that comes along, the only reason they come back in the first place and are in that area in the first place is because there's a there is a argument between one of the couples, one of the couples that one of the people that's on that second boat happens to be a nurse, they she's able to use the equipment on the boat to to help Parker and, and with tourniquets, and those kinds of things. They get him immediately back to the marina, there's an ambulance waiting, ambulance goes to the local hospital helicopters there takes him back to the Regional Medical Hospital, East Carolina, and in what an incredible story. But but here's the thing that I think was interesting about that, when he described that series of events, he connected all those, you could very easily connect those dots and be like, Man, this, I could have just been somewhere else I could have been moving that furniture I could, you know, there's and he could have said this never would have happened. I'm so unlucky that and I'm so disfavored that this never would have happened. If only you know, I didn't, this kid didn't come to the team late. Or if only we weren't able to go that weekend. Or if only we had to move that furniture, or if only one of the other kids was on the boat was on that tube at that moment in time. Or if only the boat hadn't been knocked into reverse. Or if he could have very easily connected the dots to be like, if this had never happened, there's one tiny little link in this chain had been different, this never would have happened to me. That's not how he looked at it at all. Instead, what he did was he connected different facts in a different way to construct a very positive beneficial outcome for himself. And so what he says is he says, the first boat couldn't help. But the second boat stopped. I mean, you know, it could help in on the second boat, it just happened that they had had been in an argument. And on the second boat, it just happened that she was in a she was a nurse. And it just happened that the guy on the boat with him, his friend had been in a series had been in a similar situation previously and knew what to do. And it just happened that that you know that they were able to get back to the Marina had just happened that they were able to get to the ambulance into the, into the helicopter into. So he connected all those dots in such a way as to is to be able to look back at this and go look at all the places where I was fortunate look at all the places where I was blessed. Look at all the places where I benefit from these, this unusual set of circumstances, that is mindset that is a person who has approached the situation. And instead of looking at a difficult situation through a lens of you know, why me which I think it'd be fair for anybody to do under those circumstances why me? You know, that's not how he looks at it. You know? He is He doesn't seem to be maybe maybe previously he had those thoughts. I think everybody would. But but this is not a rare very long time ago and he you seem to have a very positive energy and a very grateful mindset to how fortunate one As I How blessed was I, and that's one of the things that we see in people who really thrive after something like this. If we look back at
Colin, one of the people that is on this show, and, and lots of the different people that are on this program, who have really thrived after a tragedy and after a terrible situation, one thing that we see in common is that mindset that they have, where they are looking at things, from a positive perspective, looking at those things, from opportunities to perspective, looking at him from just a perspective of gratitude. You know, yes, this thing happened. But look how much worse it could have been. And look how these things lined up in such a way as to give me the best possible outcome under the circumstances. So I think that, that grace, gratitude mindset is critical to having a successful outcome after something like this. It may be easier in certain circumstances, but it's something that I think we all have to do is to try to find the things to be grateful for under adverse circumstances. Thank you for joining us. I appreciate it.
