136: Unstoppable Tracy: Unstoppable Tracy is amazing in every way. Physical limitations have never slowed her down to do inspiring things and inspire millions.
Unstoppable Tracy
Unstoppable Tracy may have been born missing both legs above the knee, missing her left arm above the elbow and missing her right hand. But when it came to achieving her dreams, nothing would stand in her way. “I believe I’m unstoppable and that you are unstoppable for reasons much bigger than being a four-way amputee. There is like this big secret. I was born ‘limb,’ l-i-m-b, ‘limitless. And the bonus is I was born limitless. But the bigger secret is you were born limitless. We were all born limitless.”
On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Unstoppable Tracy, Public Speaking, TV Show Host of ‘Unstoppable You,’ Business Transformation Consultant, and Best-Selling Author. Unstoppable Tracy let’s it be known where she gets the fierceness from to never back down or give up. “I had a mom that was born in Liverpool and a German dad and there was a lot of tough love in my house. At five-years-old I had to make my bed.”
What You Will Learn:
Unstoppable Tracy talks about figuring things out that she didn’t know how to accomplish right in the moment without entertaining any limitations. “That’s kind of what happened when I skiied, and when I sailed, and when I climbed the Himalayas, and when I bused and Ubered into Canada, and when I helped the airlines with pilot strikes and bankruptcies, growing from young to old, through sports and through business or humanitarian in 20 countries.”
How did it all work for Unstoppable Tracy in school to write without physically having hands? “Maybe we are talking about kindergarten where I am learning about how to read and write. But what are some of the new skills your learning, which is like being back in grade one where you are learning new skills? And to listen that way and just to say, I was born this way. I just expected like they’re eating with a fork so I got to figure out how to eat with a fork. They have a cookie so I just want to eat a cookie. So in some ways, I was blessed just to be born this way because I just looked at it as, well, of course I can do it.”
Unstoppable Tracy talks about how she acquired tools to pick things up. “Doctors, they glued steel circles on a fork on a pencil, on a knife, on a toothbrush, on a hair brush and it was kind of like, why don’t we just make one device with the circle and I wear that all the time? And so all I needed was an opposition device for that one longer arm with a bit of a digit there so I can hold my pen, my pencil, my tooth brush, and my glass of water.”
How did she get to the point of putting herself out there on the worldwide stage with her ambitious accomplishments? “I cannot begin to judge some of the horrible, painful things, and illnesses and community circumstances and what is going on in your worlds. I don’t mean to judge what it means to have something where you say it is not realistic right now to spend that money. It is not realistic right now to take on that health regime. It is not realistic for me. But, I know that because I live a life of no excuses, even if I’m allowed. Even if there is every reason in the world that no one would judge me. If I live a life of no excuses, then I get to live a life of no limits. No excuses…no limits.”
Unstoppable Tracy shares the upward progressions she made, how acquiring certain skills would lead to opportunities to acquire others. “Because I could swim I could fall out of a boat and because I could fall out of a boat I could spend a whole summer figuring out how to get back in that boat. It wasn’t the first try. Because I could sail I could teach sailing as a teenager and because I could teach sailing I could get my teaching degree. I could demonstrate teaching competency so I got into teacher’s college. Because I got into teacher’s college, I graduated with a degree from Queens, a well-recognized university in Canada, and I ended up teaching in Nepal, in Uganda, in Mexico in Jamaica. I tought all around the world as this humanitarian.”
From Unstoppable Tracy to Unstoppable You
What was the transition that expanded Tracy’s outlook on her work? “I realised, this isn’t about me. It is not about ‘I can do it.’ It’s about ‘We can do it,’ you know? It’s about if I can do it you can do it, no excuses. We can all do it. No, limits, right? But it took me to like, 40 to figure that out that it isn’t about unstoppable me. It was like an extended teenaged headspace I think somehow.”
Canadian Hall of Fame
During this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, Unstoppable Tracy also discusses how her work caught the attention of major celebrities such as highlights of Oprah Winfrey, Jane Fonda, Dr. Phil, Michael Douglas, JohnTravolta, Mark Waulberg, and Mel Gibson. “Canada just industed me into the Hall of Fame two weeks ago. The Canadian Hall of Fame, it’s a specialty around the difference I made in the world of people with disabilities. Wayne Gretsky is on that wall.”
Links to Additional Resources:
- UnstoppableTracy.com: unstoppabletracy.com
- Unstoppable Tracy: Linkedin
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