Your Mindset Determines Your Tomorrow | Heinrich Popow | TEDxESADE

I would like to start with a quote from Dalai Lama and he said there are only two days in the year where nothing can be done the one is called yesterday and the other one is called tomorrow today is a great day to start to love to believe do and mostly live this is where my story starts my name is Heinrich Popov and it's a pleasure for me to be here it's a pleasure for me to tell my story my story begins in a room sitting with a doctor I was nine years old my parents sitting next to me and the doctor he was smoking a pipe he was sitting there looking on on his computer and then he looked at my parents he looked at the computer again and the only thing he said was oh okay and then he looked at my parents again and then he said the result of the biopsy is your son has cancer and I'm like whoa okay that's hard but then he was keep on going he looked at my parents again looked at me again and I said you know what this kind of cancer is a really rare one we have three kids in our Hospital and the statistic says deaths out of these three kids only one will survive and then he made a break looked at my parents and said the biopsy of your son is the baddest one I give him six months what do you think about that how what do you think about that is it is that okay to to to say like this when people hear this for the first time they like what an idiot you know what he did he was honest he saved my life because the other two kids they were waiting for their chemotherapy they were waiting in the room my parents left my childhood I was being able to run around to play around I was sick but I didn't know the difference between having a broken arm or having cancer if you can't change in situation don't try to understand it that's the biggest problem of people getting mature or adults you know I was nine years old when this happens to me and I'm thankful for that because I'm now working in the area with amputee people and you know what the biggest problem is adults too much information in your brain you expecting something you know something you heard about something you looked on YouTube how prosthetic looked like but you forget about yourself this is the biggest problem I went through the whole process of fighting against the cancer and then we met with the doctor again in the same room again same situation but this time I was feeling good I was able to walk around no pain anymore he looked again on the computer and he looked on my parents and he said okay this is something I've never expected he was right one out of three or survived and it was me and then I said okay lucky my life can go on I survived everything is good chemotherapy is done and he looked again on my parents and he said this kind of cancer so rare when it comes the second time it will come in the lungs and the brain and this time he definitely won't have a chance to survive I would recommend you to amputee he's like fighting struggling still being a child but this time I didn't know what to do the doctor sent me some psychological people doctors you know what the biggest problem with the psychological doctors was they tried to make me thinking the same way they are thinking and accepting something has something to do with understanding if you need to accept the situation you have to understand it and I was working with one psychologic the second one and the third one at the end the doctor just sent me a guy who was already amputated he came into the room and he was talking to me straight away he looked in my face and he just answered me the questions I had and then my last question for him was how does a prosthetic look like and he stand up and put his pants down I didn't know that he was an amputee and in that situation I said mom that that's okay it's not so bad because this guy he taught me everything what goes on in life with an amputation he said to me listen it's in your hand he can be positive or you can be negative with an amputation the Society will help you to be negative you know how often I have to explain that I'm a happy and thankful person to people when I wearing when I wear shorts in the summer people looked at me and then they feel sorry like I I feel sorry I just want to be treated like a normal human being and from this situation with this sentence I told my parents that this is okay to MGP myself to impeaching my leg to be fine because I knew that it's in my hands my parents made the decision to to amputee and after my amputation I lost my leg yes but I've never lost the passion for live my life and after my amputation I thought I have all the bad stuff behind me but you know what teenagers kids they are honest they are heart and they used my weakness to make themselves stronger this was a situation I'm really struggled a lot I struggled more being a child and being a teenager than having cancer and losing my leg then I used sport for a rebel rehabilitation I knew that sport has nothing to do with having two legs or one leg sport has something to do with being the best player of being a worse player and you know the situation in school when two person have to pick a team which person they pick at the end I was the guy who were looking at the teams and okay there's one missing went to the team and asked if I can carry the water bottles in the beginning that was tough because I had the passion for being an athlete and then second situation in school again yes who's missing in a soccer game always a goalkeeper no one wants to be a goalkeeper ok the disabled person is being the goalkeeper years some I came from the water caring boy to being the goalkeeper I start to feel successful I start to turn my disability to an ability and then one day there was a person missing on a field and they asked me to play and you know what happened I used my disability in an unfair way but that's ok running into a guy who has a Terminator leg and he has his soccer ball on the side of a Terminator leg you see all the metal and carbon fiber you won't hit him hot huh because it's painful for you it's not painful for me enough and ice this was the time when I find out ok every situation has a good side and a bad side again a positive side and a negative side yeah and then through sports I was playing soccer but you know what happened in that situation when I was playing soccer I tried to be normal because everyone was expecting for me to be normal but what is normal today does anyone has a definition of being a normal person everyone expecting from you to be normal not to be disabled but no one can can explain what's what's normal and losing myself was another tough time because I was not happy with me and then I turned 17 by that time one of the best German teams were looking for a new young star to get in the team because the old guy was running slower slower and they need some fresh at leats and I was playing a soccer game and the manager of the team he was watching the soccer game and then he asked me to come to the team and I went to the team and I was asking what do disabled people run 400 meter and again situation a manager who's working with disabled people it's not believing in me he said listen just do the competition for the first time try to reach the finish line and then we will talk about time I'm not late I'm not doing this my first competition was tough but around the 10 best time in the world and that's that's that was the decision to make athletics and then manager the week after the manager told me to go to my coach he gave me the name of the coach I went to the coach and his coach asked him to be a para athlete I want to I want to do disabled sport and he's like no I'm not coaching disabled people again like the doctor water idiot I went to the manager again and asked him what's going on why why is he telling me he's not coaching disabled athletes said yes no no no no something is wrong he's the coach I went again to him and asked him again and then he looked at me and he asked me a question what do you want to do like I want to run fast and I want to do long jump ok then he looked at me and said that's ok I'm your coach he was the one who not making any difference he told me you have the same blocks you have the same sandpit but you have a different situation in training and you know what he did he put me into a group with girls how bad is this losing against girls my disability was not bad at that point but it was worth it to lose against girls my friends were asking me to go to competitions I'm like nah I'm not running I'm feel not good but then I ran a lose against girls there was a hot motivation for me he did the right thing he just put me into he was believing in me he just put me into the right spot and he was coaching me he said to me listen we have exercises for sprinting and long jumping behind every exercise there is a goal if we can't do the exercise we're not throwing away the goal we have to find a way to reach the goal and then we will build up your career you know what happens these two things who wants to touch it it's just just like you know these are the two medals 2012 and 2016 from Rio and if you touch it you will be you will think about me like that I'm an idiot because I have lots of scars inside broken metal but you know this one Rio 2016 I was doing a partying I was on a party and a guy asked me to look at the medal I gave it to him and he dropped it and then this happens but this party was one of the best evenings I've ever had and every time I look at the medal and I see this I remember the evening that's okay you can't have scarves like I have one leg but I remember the good things about that not remember just the bad things I give it to you if you want to touch it just like keep on going to touch it do whatever you want to do see this one this one yeah if we will have a good party tonight then you can drop it if we if you're not if we won't have a good party then please do not drop it you can you can you can shake it you know what it is try to try to understand it what is it yes yeah Brazilians are really smart it's for the first time they do this yeah some of the blind people can't read but they can't hear and gold has a different sound and silver and bronze and yeah yeah this is this is my life and this is the mindset I've put into creating my own tomorrow you know what the situation doesn't look like the way people think about it situation look like you think about it and if there will be a doctor today who wants to give me my leg back and I have to give the life of half what do you think I would decide yes I don't want to have my leg no no I don't want to have my leg back again because tough stuff this this tough situation my life made the person I am today and you have to believe in yourself really believe in yourself and I started with the quotes and I would like to to finish with a quote Bruce Lee said you know Bruce Lee be shapeless be formless like water does anyone know that yes this is my quote he said a cup becomes a cup if you put water into it a glass becomes a glass if you put what a water into it to a teapot becomes a tea pot if you put tea into it water can crash water can flow be water my friend that's what he said and this is what every one of you guys have to be to do be unique don't try to be normal if you are a unique person then you can trust yourself be honest be creative we open for new output opportunities if people think something is negative you can make that positive we need people like the like you guys for tomorrow and this will be the trends of tomorrow it's all about the mindset it's not about how a person look like it's about the mindset thank you very much [Applause] [Music]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 47,468

Rating: 4.8434548 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Life, Championship, Change, Future, Health, Life Development, Mindfulness, Sports

Id: jKICDynQR9g

Length: 18min 24sec (1104 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 05 2018