Today I’m celebrating the 29th anniversary of the accident that left me a quadriplegic and needing a wheelchair for the rest of my life.

For many years afterwards I hated life and hated myself, and at my lowest points didn’t want to be here at all.

Fast forward to the 29th year and I have so much love for life and for myself.

I’m incredibly grateful for the people in my life who believed in me before I believed in myself, and who have enabled me to extract the incredible value in the adversity I’ve experienced and to share it in a way that helps those struggling with change, adversity and uncertainty to embrace and find the opportunities in it.

In the past year it has been a privilege to speak to thousands of leaders across the country in person, and across the world virtually, sharing how I was able to turn the most difficult of adversity into great opportunity and how they can too.

This year also saw me take one of the biggest leaps out of my comfort zone yet when I said Yes to going to a conference in Toronto when I’d never travelled that far before. That yes turned into an 18 day, 7 flight adventure across US and Canada!

It was sitting in a park in Nashville a couple of months ago during that trip where I had the most surreal moment. I was imagining my 12 year old self (who thought her life was over) seeing me on the other side of the world, a keynote speaker taking a massive leap out of my comfort zone to explore how I could make a difference on a global scale.

In that moment that I’d never felt more certain that I was who I was meant to be, where I was meant to be, doing what I was meant to be doing and knowing that it was time to set my sights even higher than I thought possible, to make a difference on a much bigger scale and I feel a deep responsibility to do that now.

Looking ahead into the coming year, I’m excited to be embarking on my first international speaking tour to US and Canada in September, I’m excited for the groups of leaders I’m scheduled to speak with, I’m excited to be creating a new program for leaders to create deep transformation, and I’m excited for the personal and professional growth I’ll experience to help the growth of others.

To do this there are things that I’ve needed to let go of to focus my energy.

2020 was the year that I had been hoping to have been ready for a crack at qualifying for the Paralympics. While I’ve got some unfinished business on the track, I’ve realised now that to be an elite athlete and achieve what I’ve set out to do from a business and impact perspective weren’t going to happen at the same time so the comeback I’d been planning to sport at that level has been shelved to invest all I have into my 2020 theme of Expansion.

This year has confirmed the deep moral responsibility I feel to share my story and what I’ve learned, openly and authentically, in order to improve the lives of those struggling with the seemingly overwhelming pace of change in business and life, and the setbacks and uncertainty that come with it.

My theme for this year was Connection and the deep connection I’ve developed with myself and others has been profound and I’m grateful for those of you I’ve had the good fortune of connecting with. I look forward to nurturing those connections.

As I move forward into the coming year’s theme of Expansion I would love your help to make that Exponential Expansion!

Ps. Save the date 2nd December 2020 – planning a big celebration for the 30th anniversary 🙂

You’re welcome to download a free copy of Stacey’s book How To Be Resilient here