It’s been said that you only fail when you stop trying. This mindset can also be described as Josh Sundquist’s motto of ‘One more thing, one more time,’ or 1MT1MT, as he did not let the amputation of his left leg prevent him from becoming a premier athlete. If you want to learn more about his story and how to develop a resilient attitude, don’t miss the closing general session at ELEVATE on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023.
“I hope that people walk away from my speech at ELEVATE with an idea of what their one more thing, one more time is,” Sundquist says. “What’s the thing that they want to do when they get home from the conference on a daily basis to get closer to their goals. I hope they walk away with a new perspective on dealing with challenges.”
Sundquist is a Paralympic ski racer and bestselling author who has been featured in The New York Times, CNN and Forbes and has spoken across the world. At age nine, he was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and given a fifty percent chance to live. Sundquist spent a year on chemotherapy treatments and his left leg was amputated. Doctors declared Sundquist cured of the disease at age thirteen and he took up ski racing three years later.
Sundquist says he learned how to ski through a program at his rehab hospital. He got excited about skiing and then became aware of racing as a competition he could pursue. The Paralympics became an inspiring goal for him to try to do something at a world-class level.
He says people tend to tell themselves they can’t do X under these certain circumstances, whatever they might be. He points out that there’s never a point where there are no difficulties or setbacks impacting your or your business.
“The question is how do we learn to accept that we will always be under some sort of circumstances and thus learn to thrive within those,” Sundquist says.
Sundquist developed his motto while he was training for the Paralympics and he wrote 1MT1MT on his skis to remind himself to do one more thing that would get him closer to his goal. In the years since ski racing, he realized that motto is applicable to any sort of goal a person might pursue in life.
For instance, he has found with his first child, who is 10 weeks old, that caring for a newborn can be a difficult and frustrating process. Yet parents automatically have that one more thing, one more time mentality.
“When you’re trying to solve a problem as it pertains to your baby, your baby is sick in some way or is behaving in some fashion that you perceive to be a problem, you’re not going to just try one idea and then be like, ‘Well, I guess, my baby’s just always going have this problem,’” Sundquist says. “You’re always looking at the next option, how else you can help, what other experts can you consult, what else can you learn about this.”
He says it’s basically a mentality for incremental improvement – when you feel like quitting, just try one more thing.
“The best way to equip ourselves for responding to adversity is to be around people who themselves are resilient and tenacious and in that sense equipped for facing adversity themselves,” Sundquist says.
His presentation will be meaningful, entertaining and fun as he has shared his story with audiences worldwide, ranging from schools to the White House to Fortune 50 companies like Facebook, Walmart, Apple, Spotify, Google, CVS and General Motors.
“A large number of people from all walks of life have enjoyed and benefited from hearing my story, and I hope that people at ELEVATE will walk away with the same experience and I think they will,” he says
Want to learn how to have a 1MT1MT mindset? Register for ELEVATE, and we’ll see you in Dallas, Texas!
