Cam Taylor

Be inspired. Be focused. Be tenacious.

Five Life Lessons in Response to Saying Goodbye

I said good bye to my surgeon this week. The good bye brought a mix of emotions — sadness, gratitude, relief, and peace. Dr Viskontas has been my surgeon since September, 2011. He operated seven times (7 out of 10) with the last surgery performed three weeks ago to remove hardware from my shoulder. He was […]

Confidence – GIYC part 7

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark. ― Michelangelo Buonarroti Confidence is a necessary quality for digesting the challenges of life. This post is meant to inspire you to develop greater confidence in […]

Resilience – GIYC part 6

Resilience comes from an old Latin word meaning “to spring back” or “rebound.” Resilience is also the “ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyancy.” Birds need resilience in the form of grit in their craw if they hope to digest the food they eat. You need GIYC* (grit in your […]

Flexibility – GIYC part 4

Flexibility is a requirement for survival. ― Roger Von Oech Without flexibility, we can’t digest the tough assignments life sends our way. This quality is one of the eight gritty qualities needed to survive in life (as described by Robert Luckadoo*). The other seven are: diligence, tenacity, optimism, discipline, resilience, confidence, and purpose. The case […]

Optimism – GIYC part 3

The third quality you need to have GIYC (grit in your craw), is optimism. Without it, you give up more easily, are difficult to be around, and miss out on all that life has to offer. This is the third quality of the eight required to digest the tough stuff life throws at us. The […]

How to Maintain Optimism in a Dream Crushing World

An experiment conducted in 1967 resulted in a fascinating discovery. The experiment placed five monkeys in a cage with a bunch of bananas hanging high out of reach. Up against the wall, however, was a ladder could be used to climb up and reach the bananas. It didn’t take long for the monkeys to spot […]

The Mindset You Can’t Live Without

One of the supporting walls needed when rebuilding your life after a major setback, injury, or reversal is a proper mindset. The right mindset makes the journey back promising – the wrong mindset, makes the journey back dreadful. “You are what you are and where you are because of what has gone into your mind. […]

No More Coffins

The future you see dictates the actions you take. The movie, The Best of Men, is the true story of German-Jewish neurologist Ludwig Guttmann and his work as the director of the Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. He immigrated to England in 1944 and brought with him a whole new way of seeing […]

My Linchpin Manifesto

I want to thank Seth Godin for his inspiration and encouragement to write my Linchpin Manifesto. Here is the one he wrote with permission to pass along to others. I encourage you to write your own. NOW is the time to STEP UP. I am an artist. • I take initiative • I am on a […]

Five Keys to Next Step Living

Feeling overwhelmed by the road ahead? Facing a challenge that is paralyzing your hopefulness and causing you to freeze into inactivity? You’re not alone – and there is hope! It’s called focusing on the next step of getting where you want to go. If you want to achieve your goal, don’t focus on how far […]