Caroline Casey - Overcoming Adversity Awesomely

Caroline Casey’s story is inspirational and perfectly demonstrates The Happiness Plunge process.
She was born with a condition known as ocular ablinism, which rendered her legally blind. However, it wasn’t until a trip to the eye doctor’s office at age 17 that she found this out. Her parents had shielded her from the truth. You might wonder how this is possible, but you’ll have to see the video to find out.

Despite being legally blind, she was a good student, went to business school, and became a management consultant. But 2.5 years into her career, her eyes worsened and she really couldn’t see. She had had enough.

She saw a doctor and the doctor said to her “I think it’s time to stop fighting and do something different.”

Those words hit her like a ton of bricks and kick started something wonderful. All the pain and anguish that had built up within her vanished when, like a bolt of lightning, she knew exactly what she needed and was meant to do: become Mowgli from The Jungle Book. She would become an elephant handler.

Her moment of revelation in her own words

“And the moment, and I mean the moment, the moment that hit me, I swear to god. It was like woo hoo. Something to believe in. And nobody can tell me no. Yes, you can say I can’t be an archaeologist, but you can’t tell me no, I can’t be Mowgli. Because guess what? Nobody’s ever done it before so I’m going to go do it.”

On taking the plunge into happiness

Because when you make a decision at the right time and the right place, God, that universe makes it happen for you […] The most powerful thing of all is that it’s not that I didn’t achieve before then. Oh my god I did. But you know what? I was believing in the wrong thing because I wasn’t believing in me. Really me. All the bits of me. All the bits of all of us. Do you know how much of us all pretend to be somebody we’re not. And you know what, when you really believe in yourself and everything about you it’s extraordinary what happens.”

Caroline rode her elephant, Kanchi, 1000 kilometers across India and her trip raised enough money for 6000 cataract eye operations. She now has a non-profit organization appropriately named Kanchi that works to change mindsets and behaviors about people with disabilities. I recommend you check out her organization if you’re interested, and for sure watch her Ted Talk below.

If her story inspires you, please leave a comment noting why below!