Conquering Mountains

By: Michael Lifshitz

Ok so it was not quite a mountain, but still…standing on top of a 360 foot building and rappelling down the side of it to raise money for Easter Seals in the Drop Zone challenge is an impressive feat, particularly for someone who is afraid of heights, and who has a physical disability.   

Allow me to take a moment to introduce myself.  My name is Michael Lifshitz and I am a motivational speaker and comedian.  I was born with a condition called Multiple Congenital Musculoskeletal Abnormalities.  (The challenge is not so much the disability as actually being able to say it!!)  As a result, parts of my skeleton were not properly formed, affecting mainly my right leg and both hips.  I have an artificial leg, walk with a cane and use an electric wheelchair for longer distances.  Despite all that, the biggest obstacle to my success, if I chose to listen, is others beliefs of what I am capable of doing.

In 2004, as my hips and knee began to deteriorate with time, I realized it was time to get the electric wheelchair to help me get around.  The timing of receiving the wheelchair coincided with me moving into my own condo in February 2005 and the end of a long term relationship, in part because of my disability.  The whole experience left me really frustrated and quite depressed, which was remarkably unusual for me, as I usually was a positive and happy person.   While people always seemed to prejudge what I was capable of because I had a disability, all of a sudden it seemed people assumed that since I was in a wheelchair, I was not able to do anything. 

In April 2005, I decided I could either be depressed about people’s attitudes, or I could try to change them.  Not really knowing what it would become, I registered a domain name called sureican.info.  The name came quite easily to me, because after nearly 30 years of people telling me what they thought I could or more specifically, could not do, I would show them just what I could do.  (Can too…can too sounded too juvenile, so I decided to go with sureican.info.)

In the Spring of 2006, Sure I Can became a regular column in a quarterly Canadian magazine called Exceptional Family, a resource magazine for parents of children with disabilities.  The goal of the column was simple – to give hope to parents of children with disabilities that their children can have rich and fulfilling lives, and to educate those who stand in their way as to what people with disabilities could accomplish.  My debut as a columnist coincided with my debut as a comedian.  My goal was to make the audience laugh so hard, they would not be able to walk straight either…and educate and inspire them at the same time.

Over the years, as I started talking to more people about overcoming challenges, I realized an important lesson.  My challenge happens to be my disability, but everyone has some sort of challenge.  As I like to say “We all face challenges in life.  Mine just get me better parking spots!!”.   We often make our challenges into mountains, when they are simply speed bumps along the road of life.  I choose to conquer my mountains, and I am here to help inspire others to conquer theirs.  I invite you to join me by liking our Facebook page and helping to spread my message by sharing the page with your friends.  Together, we will conquer mountains.

For more details about Michael, visit www.michaellifshitz.com.