“This is the story of how a skinny little kid from Kenilworth in Cape Town managed to travel halfway around the world without sponsorship, and then outwit, outsmart and outperform the world’s best-paid professional athletes on a day that changed his life, and the sport of big-wave surfing, forever…” – Stoked! An inspiring story about courage, determination and the power of dreams, Chris Bertish

“This evening I’d like to share with you an incredible idea…the first and most important thing to do would be to define a couple of keywords that will give perspective…the first word is something that has kept most of us small, most of humanity small for the last hundred years or so. It’s a word that sort of stopped everyone from living their full potential, and shining, and bringing their most greatest and most wonderful talents and gifts to the world. It’s a word that has kept us small, try to make us fit in, be like everyone else – normal.”

“If you look in the dictionary and see how it is described, it describes us being average, typical or common. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know anyone in their right might who would ever want to be described as common or average.”

“…from an early age, from society, from education, parents – telling us to “don’t stand out, just fit it, just be normal…Well, normal never changed the world.”

“I believe that every single one of us is put on this earth for a particular reason. We all are given a particular gift, a talent that we’re meant to unlock and share and give to the world…”

What inspires me most about the last line is, we are all given a particular gift or talent in life, but it must be unlocked. You can be Albert frikkin Einstein, but if you Netflix and chill all day, well…the universe isn’t going to figure itself out. 

You need to get out there. That’s how you will discover what your hidden gift is. By doing things and living life – and most importantly, you are then supposed to use that gift to share and give to the world.

A quote that goes well with this is, “Your passion is for you. Your purpose is for others.” – Jay Shetty

Take what you love doing. Take your gift – and give it to the world. That will become your purpose. It will become the fire in you. It will be the reason you get out of bed in the morning.

Don’t be normal or average. Be you. Be unique. Find inspiration in the world around you and keep moving forward. 

Inspired by Chris Bertish