Best of 2023: Janine Shepherd – Embracing Her Tragic Paralysis as a Gift

Original air date: June 20, 2023

Janine Shepherd was on track to represent her home nation of Australia in the Olympics as a cross-country skier – but then her dream, quite literally, crashed when she was hit by a utility truck while on a bicycle training exercise with her teammates. She came out the other side of that horrific accident and the 6 months of arduous recovery that followed to discover she was a paraplegic.

But as she explains to Warwick, her identity as “Janine the Machine,” the elite athlete, was not to be her destiny. She had another calling, learning to fly and training others to be pilots, and inspiring multitudes who have suffered tragedies and trials to embrace loss as their lives’ greatest teacher.

An in-demand speaker whose Ted talk was been viewed more than 2 million times, Shepherd calls herself “a mirror to help people see their own defiant spirits."

Her guiding philosophy? “Nothing comes easy, and if it did, it wouldn’t be worth having.”

To learn more about Janine Shepherd, visit www.janineshepherd.com

To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com

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