Chad Hymas
July 24th, 2007 Posted in SpeakerAdapting To Change
Every now and then we are struck by a truly inspiring story. Feats of determination and perseverance that astounds and amazes us all, redefining our appreciation for the remarkable resiliency of the human spirit. Chad Hymas has one such story.
At the age of 27, Chad Hymas was in the course of leading a full and active life. With a 
wonderful family including a wife and two children, ages 3 and 1, Chad was always an extremely active guy, participating in all the big four sports during high school. He kept up the practice that had become a passion after graduating; coaching and playing in all the activities he could find time for.
Chad was also seeing the benefits of his hard work in his construction business, but all that came crashing down with an errant bail of hay one terrible day. Chad’s neck was broken, leaving him quadriplegic. That event started Chad down a road that would lead him to change other people’s lives by speaking about the change in his.
Chad says in order for him to cope with what had happened, he had to recognize and address change itself. “Nobody really ever expects a change like this to occur,” he says, “but it sure did. It changed my perspective concerning everything. It changed my entire life.”
One of the key points Chad tries to make when he speaks to various groups about his experiences is the idea that people have to be willing to change in changing circumstances. “For those people not willing to change in changing circumstances, life will still change for them, but it will be a more painful and difficult experience as a result of their unwillingness to adjust. That was one of the first things my dad told me in the hospital.”
Chad says that although this mantra has allowed him to continue to live a full and active life, the message didn’t sink in or impact him immediately. “I wasn’t willing to change the way I lived my whole life at first. I was asked to change my traditions, habits and beliefs and it is hard for adults to do that.”
For many of us, changes in tradition, belief and habit can be an avenue to inspire great changes in our lives. Few of us will have to adjust to the extreme extent Chad was facing though. “When I say I had to change my habits, I mean in the most significant ways. I had to be willing to change the way I got dressed, ate my food, courted my spouse, absolutely everything. All those things were about to change for me and it was very, very difficult to accept.”
It was a slow hard road for Chad, but he says once he started to change those three key factors, traditions, habits and beliefs, his life took a turn for the better. In the last five years, Chad has focused on changing those three patterns and, he says, it has turned his life around.
Despite his progress as of today, Chad’s recovery wasn’t immediate. “When I woke up in the hospital and was pronounced a quadriplegic, I didn’t like it. I pushed my wife and dad and family to leave. I didn’t like my change and wanted to be alone.”
That is when Chad’s dad stepped in and really made a difference in the then-troubled young man. “He told me that I needed to be willing to change. He said if I wanted to get ahead, if I wanted to learn how to be more productive without my legs than I ever had with them, I needed to be willing to take a look at something. He said if I wanted to learn how to be a better husband and a better father to my children I had to understand one thing. He said the secret was this; ‘It is not those who fail that get ahead, but those who fail faster.’ He told me there are failures all over the world. I would fail, I just had to be willing to fail faster, pick myself up and try it again.”
Chad’s dad told him to forget how he was taught to shoot a gun. Learn a new way. Forget how to play basketball. Learn a new way. Forget how to court his spouse. Learn a new way. “That small simple tool is what has gotten me to where I am today.”
One thing Chad did have at the time (and still does) is an incredibly strong and supportive network of family and friends. “My dad has always been my best friend. My mom quit her job when I broke my neck and watched over me for two months. Everyone was there for me.”
With his father constantly encouraging him, Chad says it took six or seven months for the support and ideas to really take root and allow him to go on living. “It took six or seven months or longer, but once I embraced these concepts things started to change. See, that’s just it. During those six or seven months I was robbing myself of time. I had too much pride. That is what I see every time I go to speak at conventions. People are robbing themselves of their time and value because they don’t have an open enough mind to listen to what they are being taught. They would rather go home and do things the easy way as they have always done because they are comfortable where they are. If they would just change a couple of small things about themselves, watch what would happen in their lives. World record holders are all people achieving things they never thought they could do.”
While Chad regrets the six or seven months he took in getting his head straight, many people may not have had the strength to deal with the situation in six or seven years. “I take solace in that fact, nonetheless I am still learning today. It has been six or seven years now and every day, I am still trying to figure things out. I still fail every day of my
life. I just learn from it and try to figure out a new way to believe or better habits to form.”
One of the passions Chad decided he wanted to reclaim was his ability to be physically active. He says one man was a crucial catalyst in putting him back on the path to athleticism. “I had a mentor named Art Berg (artberg.com). Art had been a quadriplegic in a wheelchair for 17 years. I met him when he came to the hospital to see the patients to show us how to take our clothes on and off without the use of our hands. I was really intrigued by him. The way he could do things was inspirational.”
Chad got Art’s contact information and called him later at home to ask some follow up questions. “I had so many questions for him. From trying to be a dad in my new situation to performing basic tasks like using the rest room. Art answered all of my questions.”
During Chad’s initial contact with Art, he started to notice striking similarities between his new friend and himself. “I found out Art was married to a very pretty girl, just like me. I found out he had two children, like me. I learned he was a speaker and that he set a world record by pushing his chair from Salt Lake City, Utah to St. George.”
Art traveled all over the world speaking for a living and soon Chad followed. He went to Hawaii to see Art who was speaking on February 12, 2002. Five days after they returned home, Chad learned that Art died in his sleep. “I was lost. Here is a guy that I have been following around for a year, asking him a million questions and being truly inspired by him and he died overnight. I was devastated.” This is when Chad picked up on the idea of trying to do something remarkable himself, as his mentor had taught him so well.
He decided to try pushing his chair long distances, to set a world record just like Art and to inspire other people to give life their all. “Have you ever seen Forrest Gump? The way Forrest runs is what I do with my wheelchair. That was my training for my attempted world record.”
For eighteen months Chad trained in order to perform a world record attempt wheelchair trip from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas; 513 miles all told. With unbelievable support, courage, dedication and passion, Chad made the 11 day, 104-hour trip through the desert. One of the most striking aspects of the journey was the drove of people, known and strangers alike, who wanted to help Chad along the way.
“People saw the coverage of the trip on local and national news and just started showing up. It was unreal. There were people flying in to be a part of the trip. At two or three in the morning there were people showing up to ride their bikes with me. It was completely moving.”
A 513 mile trek through the desert in the blazing heat seems to be more than anyone could handle, wheelchair or on foot. Chad readily admits that he wasn’t always sure of the final result. “There was a point where I gave up. Going up Beaver Mountain, there are places uphill where you can go as fast as 30 mph, or as slow as under 1 mph. Those are tough, beyond tough, even gut-wrenching. But here is the key, with every ‘up’, there comes a ‘down.’ Even though we had an uphill that was seven miles long and took me two days to get to the top, the next day we had 35 miles of downhill. I nailed that in under an hour.”
Chad drives the point that every struggle and triumph in his historic journey can be paralleled with the challenges in business and life. This is where his unique talents for the corporate market come in. As a truly unique and amazing motivational speaker, Chad helps your attendees lock-in on the power they have within.
In the last three days of the race, Chad was running out of steam. “In the beginning, I was counting the mile markers to track my progress. By the last three days, they just weren’t coming fast enough any more. I was burned out. Instead of counting mile markers, I started counting the yellow stripes in the middle of the road. The message is, you never get anywhere by one great event or quantum leaps. It is the little everyday things that bring about the greatest result.”
Chad has corporate programs for every event and occasion. With specialized topics centering on leadership, team building, customer service, mastering change and safety, he has energized and educated at events for some of the largest organizations in the world.
Custom programs are no problem, as Chad can also address specific issues for any groups who meet with him. His dedication and passion for spreading his message and inspiring hope are entirely evident in his outstanding results as a speaker. He is also a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) a title fewer than 8% in the professional speaking industry achieve.
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John Raymond
Encore Entertainment Network
(888) 533-0874
ChadHymas.com