Awesome Stories 285

/ September 10, 2016

This week Awesome Stories brings you diving therapy, dog therapy, creating happiness and compassion.

Diving Therapy

Jim Elliott started Diveheart after he saw how much impact learning to skate made with his blind daughter. Diveheart offers scuba diving for people with disabilities. Many of their clients are paralyzed and live with pain. Their mission is to instill confidence and build esteem through diving and adventure related activities. Diving not only gives them a sense of confidence, mobility, and freedom, but can also relieve their pain for days or weeks at a time. Watch the video below to learn more.

 Measuring What’s Important

Chip Conley makes a great case for measuring what’s important in our personal and business lives. When his business went through a hard time, he wanted to figure out what was important to customers and staff. He spent time exploring models like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and decided that a similar model needed to be applied to organizations. By addressing the transformational needs of his employees and measuring the results, he found interesting correlations. When his staff is happier, they stay longer, perform better, treat customers better and ultimately the business thrives too. Much like the King of Bhutan, he wants to create an “environment that fosters happiness” that is more about improving the quality of life than strictly making money. I hope this catches on for more organizations!

Dog TherapyRafael, illustrations, Awesome Stories

This dog sure proved to be man’s best friend. When Rafael Mantesso’s wife left him on his 30th birthday, she took everything from furniture to paintings and cookware. The only thing she left was their dog, Jimmy Choo, a bull terrier. The dog and blank walls inspired his muse to draw and take photos of Jimmy Choo around the apartment. The results are hilarious. Kudo’s to Rafael for making the most of a challenging situation and Jimmy Choo for truly being a best friend.

Courage and Compassioncompassion, Awesome Stories

This young man is awesome! When 17-year-old Malyk Bonnet saw a couple fighting, he was convinced the man might hit the woman and wanted to help. He approached them and asked if he could help. The man asked for bus money and Malyk saw the fear in the woman’s eyes and decided to ride with them telling the man he lived in the same place they were going. Malyk made a plan to engage the man until he could notify the police. Unfortunately, his cell phone didn’t work, so he offered to buy them a meal, stayed with them and then went to find a phone. When he called the police, they responded very quickly because it turns out the man was already wanted by the police for assaulting the woman. The police, community and Mom consider Malyk a hero. He just wants to be a regular person. Beyond his courage and kindness, I’m amazed at his quick thinking.

May we all care enough to engage the problems we see.

Related posts

19 thoughts on “Awesome Stories 285”

  2. What a good Samaritan Malyk Bonnet was to that young woman.. How courageous and fortuitous he was there sensing the woman was in danger.. A real hero.
    The Diving video, how awesome is that, and what great work they do there.
    And the pictures of the dog.. Loved them all Brad..
    Thank you for the share today, I so enjoyed your post and visiting the links today..
    Love your way Sue 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. You are offering such a good plate of awesomeness today, Brad. I loved the diving therapy story, have been working on things presented in the measuring story, shared the dog therapy story, and enjoyed the quick thinking story 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  5. Thank you for these four wonderful examples of how individuals can bring positive changes to our world.. I love the sketch of the dog….I think Rafael could do something very interesting with this on the lines of Simon’s Cat only of course – using his own dog muse, Jimmy Choo:) Thank you and enjoy the weekend..Janet.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. Your last story, and specifically your last sentence, Brad, speaks so clearly to today’s society. Too often, people see a “problem” in the world around us and rationalize that “someone else” will solve it. What a different place this world would be if each of us were that “someone else”. Thanks for sharing such an inspiring story – to engaging with the world around us 😉

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Your turn!