It’s Impossbile Until You Do It by Tim Conners is a book that will provide you with the hope and action you need to succeed in your life.
Including Tim’s journey of cancer and blindness, this book provides the reader with Tim’s proven system for succeeding in the face of adversity, and how you can experience the same success in your life.
What preconceived notions and limiting beliefs are holding you back from dreaming big and living life fully? When was the last time you stepped out of your comfort zone and did something courageous?
In this powerful conversation, my friend Tim Conners, will challenge you to see life from a whole new perspective!
At the young age of 15 Tim’s life was thrown upside-down after receiving a diagnosis of t-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. For about three months Tim would find himself in remission from the cancer, but before he had time to catch his breath it was back. Not only was it back, but this time it was attacking his optic nerves in his eyes. In approximately 48 hours Tim would lose his sight, but the real concern was how to keep him alive.
Tim would go on to receive a bone marrow transplant. What was supposed to save his life almost took him in the process. He experienced heart, lung, and kidney failure. Against all odds including doctors who prepared his family for their last goodbyes, he would make it.
After nearly two years of planning, months of training, and countless hours raising funds for charity, Tim Conners was the tallest man on the African continent when he finally stood atop the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro this past weekend.
Conners, a member of the Class of 2017, lost his sight from cancer as a teenager, and endured further physical tolls as he fought the disease. He set out for Tanzania on May 22, the day after he graduated from Ithaca College. After some time volunteering at a school for the blind, Conners and his small team—led by a professional guide from the Arizona-based K2 Adventures Foundation—started up “Kili.”
This video still shows Tim Conners, center, approaching the summit of Kilimanjaro. The video was posted on the K2 Adventures Facebook page.
The plan was for nine days on the mountain, with several days of rest sprinkled into the itinerary. On June 3, K2 Adventures updated their Facebook page with an announcement that Conners and his team—which included his father and uncle—had reached the summit.
A few hours later they posted video of Conners achieving his goal.
Conners set out on this trek as a fundraiser for several organizations that were influential in his life following his cancer diagnosis. Late last year, he released his first book, “It’s Impossible Until You Do It: Succeeding in the Face of Adversity.” Sales of the part-autobiography, part-personal philosophy also went toward the fundraising effort.
Beginning May 26, and each day they’re on Kilimanjaro, Tim and his team will be doing a live video chat at 5 p.m. Tanzanian time (10 a.m. EST). The conversation can be viewed at the K2 Adventures Facebook page.
Ascending is just something Tim Conners does, in spite of the obstacle before him. So trekking up Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak on the African continent and among the seven tallest mountains in the world, should be just another checkmark on his list of accomplishments.
But it’s important to know how far he’s climbed already to understand the true significance of the feat.
At 15, Conners was diagnosed with a blood cancer known as T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, already in its advanced stages. Aggressive chemotherapy saved his life, but remission was brief and the disease returned to eventually rob him of his eyesight.
But Conners survived, though radiation, chemo and a bone marrow transplant all took a toll and left their effects on his body. He went on to graduate high school, and deep-dived into his time at Ithaca College as an engaged student, active member of numerous clubs, and advocate for accessibility. On May 21, the 22-year-old will walk with his guide dog Lang during IC’s Commencement to accept his degree in communications. The next day he’ll set out for Tanzania and Kilimanjaro.
“Kili” rises over 19,300 feet above sea level. Conners, who has been working toward a career as a motivational speaker, acknowledges there’s a clear symbolism to his journey.
“At first [climbing Kilimanjaro] was really just about that in a lot of ways. To kind of show that I wasn’t just a one-hit wonder; that cancer wasn’t my story,” Conners said.
Gradually, though, his real purpose behind the trek — which he dubbed MounTimPossible — took shape, and it became a fundraising effort for several organizations that played a crucial role in his life since the cancer diagnosis.
“I really like to pay it forward. So many people and organizations have helped me get to where I am today,” he said.
With an amazing team of individuals, I am setting off as a blind cancer survivor the day after I graduate from college on May 22nd to climb the highest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro.
In the process, my team is working on raising $500,000 for charities and organizations that not only saved my life, but gave me the strength and the tools to start living again. I realize that the amount of support I had greatly contributed to my success, and I want to make sure children facing life threatening illnesses, disability, or adversity in their lives have the same resources I had to be successful.
In addition, my team will be working two days at an orphanage in Tanzania with blind and visually impaired youth before we embark on the trek. The impact our team is trying to make globally is one in where people start living life fully, making a difference, and redefining what others see as possible.
I believe that people don’t hear you until they know you, which is why I wanted to include a little background of my story. Although it can’t capture everything I went through, I believe it can shed light on why people have decided to rally behind me in this mission to hopefully change the world.
As a 15-year-old freshman in high school, my life would change drastically with a diagnosis of t-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. From there I would experience a short-lived period of remission where eventually my cancer would not only come back, but in about 48 hours would completely take my sight away.
At that point in my life, the only chance I had for survival was a bone marrow transplant – but after a week of chemo and total body radiation, the cure had become the killer. I experienced heart, lung, and kidney failure – but the worst was a diagnosis of imminent death. Thankfully I made it through what I see as one of the darkest moments of my life, but things would never be easy.
By the time I returned home after months in the hospital, I couldn’t walk without a walker and someone holding me up from behind. I was receiving my nutrients through IV because I was too weak to eat. I had to spend an entire year in isolation because my immune system reset and the slightest illness could kill me. And to top it off I was a blind individual entering into a sighted world.
Despite all of this, I broke through the limitations people placed on me – and many feel I have gone on to do the impossible.
I went on to graduate on time from high school and have now almost entirely made it through college with a rounded GPA of 3.98.
I trekked through the Grand Canyon, white water rafting down the Colorado and hiking the 9.9-mile Bright Angel Trail out. And I have traveled the country sharing my story with individuals to show them the power to achieve whatever we want in life is in our hands, not our circumstances.
I believe we can move mountains if we move them together. See you at the top.
For most of us, riding a bike, paddling a kayak, or hiking a trail is something we take for granted. But for those with physical or cognitive limitations, engaging in sports can be a challenge. One solution is adaptive sports. On The Point, we talk with sight impaired individuals who have accomplished incredible feats in sailing and hiking, and a new adaptive sports program at Nickerson Sate Park in Brewster.
It’s called The McGraw Center, and it’s a collaboration between Spaulding Rehabilitation Network and the Department of Conservation and Recreation, and offers options for kayaking, cycling and hiking. Guests for this portion of the program are Steve Katzenback, Physical Therapist, Spaulding Adaptive Sports Coordinator for Cape Cod who oversees the McGraw Center for Adaptive Sports; and Jane Barber, a volunteer with the Adaptive Sports Program, and teacher of Adaptive Yoga. Later in the hour we talk with Amy Bower, an oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and part of the World Blind Fleet Sailing Championship team in 2015; and David Fisichella, who manages shipboard scientific operations at WHOI and is trained to guide sight impaired cross country skiers and sailors.
In the final segment of the program, we talk with a visually impaired man and his sighted uncle who recently summited Mt. Kilimanjaro. Tim Connors is a recent graduate of Ithaca College and is visually impaired. Dr. Robert McGowen is a Falmouth doctor who made the journey along with Tim. Here’s a link to Community Boating, Inc., whose mission is to enable “Sailing for All.” It offers sailing and other water sports to people of all ages, abilities, and means in the greater Boston area.
https://www.capeandislands.org/post/joys-and-challenges-adaptive-sports
OSWEGO — Tim Conners has a simple message that resonates with anyone: Whatever mountain you face, climb on.
Conners, a Fulton man who beat a cancer that blinded him before eventually climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, gave an impassioned and inspiring speech Wednesday to wrap up the final day of the Oswego Writing Institute at SUNY Oswego.
Recounting his harrowing tale of nearly dying from cancer, but defying doctor’s odds and living before climbing the tallest mountain in Africa while blind, Conners — an author and inspirational speaker — spoke from the heart to about a hundred people at SUNY Oswego’s Marano Campus Center.
“Cancer may have taken a lot from me, including my eyesight, but it did not take away my vision,” Conners told the crowd.
When Conners was 15 years old, he struggled to breathe one night and went to the doctor’s to check it out in the morning. In that single day, Conners found out he had a football-sized tumor in his chest and started chemo that same day.
The treatment eventually required a surgery to remove pressure from his head — which blinded Conners — and a bone marrow transplant. At one point, doctors gave Conners a grim prognosis, but he still fought on.
“Thankfully, the doctors were wrong,” said Conners.
Conners recovered, and graduated from G. Ray Bodley High School and summa cum laude from Ithaca College. After graduating, it was off to Africa in May 2017 at 22 years old for the big trek he’d planned.
It took several draining days of climbing and some rest days for energy recuperation. At one point Conners said he considered “giving it in” and one of his guides noting he didn’t know if they could continue.
“I was breaking down. My body was in such pain. Everything I had done was finally catching up to me,” said Conners.
What is your vision for your life? Beyond the nice cars, six or seven figures in your bank account, and comfortable home – dig deep! What is that you truly want to accomplish with the time that you have on earth? Is fame your goal? Is fulfillment your goal? Is causing the most good your goal?
Are these just nice ideas that you have floating around in your head or are you actively working toward a full vision of success in your life?
The truth is, your goals won’t accomplish themselves! You actually have to put in the work to see the results, go figure!
One of the best ways that I can help you Kaizenites, reach your goals and create a compelling vision for your life is by introducing you to people like Tim Conners.
Tim is known as a sightless visionary, adventurer, speaker, cancer survivor, a fighter, and a giver. Tim was 15 years old when the doctors told him he had T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. This disease would eventually go on to take Tim’s sight. From that moment on, Tim has been on a journey filled with challenges, struggles, and victories.
From trekking through the Grand Canyon to summiting Mount Kilimanjaro, Tim refuses to let anything stand in the way of his vision for success. Discover the powerful insights and lessons that have helped Tim succeed by listening to this episode!
Sometimes, when the message is just right, a little inspiration can go a long way. That was the case when local author, inspirational speaker, and entrepreneur Tim Conners came in to speak to a room of students at the Fulton Junior High School in May, just days before embarking on a quest to climb Mount Kilamanjaro. Inspired by Conners’ message and his determination to make a difference, the students wanted to show their support.