“Occy”

I’m reading “Occy, the rise and fall and rise of Mark Occhilupo” by Mark Occhilupo and Tim Baker. For those who are unfamiliar, he was the world champion of surfing in 1999, an astounding comeback sixteen years after his career began.

It’s a great read. I find it really fascinating to hear about successful people’s lives, and the journeys they have been on. I’m almost at the end of this one. Last night when I was reading, one paragraph really made me smile, so I thought I’d share it with you.

“After Fiji I was number one in the world, and it felt like I was officially going for the world title. I was just loving it. There’s nothing better than looking at the ratings and seeing yourself up the top. It’s such a good feeling. You carry that piece of paper with you all the time and just pull it out and have a look when you want to make yourself feel good. You’re travelling around and you’ve got the ratings in your backpack; you’re in transit for a few hours and you go, think I might pull the ratings out and see where everyone’s sitting. Oh look! I’m number one.”

I always make sure I’m reading a book like this before an Ironman race. I like to feed my brain inspiring stories and I find books like this are perfect.

Another great paragraph from “Occy…”

“At one point, only a few years earlier, I was just worried that I wouldn’t ever get fit again, let alone compete, and now I’d just won the world title.

At my lowest points, if you could have found a bookie to give you odds, I would have been a million-to-one to ever win a world title. I might have taken the title of Craziest Surfer on Tour or Fattest Bloke in Palm Beach, but the idea of me ever being world champion back then would have been laughable.

If there’s one thing I’d like people to take from my world title win it’s that anyone can do what they really want to do, if they set their mind to it. I admit, I was lucky. I had a lot of people helping me along the way and accepting my comeback. It’s a beautiful world when people give you another chance.”

Maybe he was lucky that he was such a likable personality and character that people wanted to be around and help- and such an amazing surfer they wanted to see him at his best. I’m a firm believer in us all achieving anything we really honestly strive for.

Buy it or borrow it, but read it!

And set your mind to it!!

Charlotte