Story of The Week: “The Beauty of Scars”

Xavier Miralpeix’s book

In high-performance swimming, as well as life, we do not know what the future holds until the last second. In most cases, stories about winners, or about those who jumped into the pool, make news. But what about everyone else? Perhaps we do not ask that because every year the sports machine pushes out hundreds of new swimmers, all of them ready to achieve success. However, those stories, apparently unknown, hide a unique beauty.
 
One of them is the experience of Xavier Miralpeix, Technical Manager of Castellón Aquàtic Club and nutritional and sports coach. We had the opportunity to know his vision about what we think failure means and how he handled adversity. It seems to us a true inspirational life lesson.
 
An excellent swimmer and great person.
 
Here are his thoughts.

 

Hi everyone,

From kZoomi’s blog I would like to introduce to you the idea of my book: “The beauty of scars”.

A writer friend of mine, my dear friend Rafa, always tells me that writing from the heart is a safe bet to deeply connect the message with the readers, and that is something I’ve found out while writing my book. It has been an adventure to my inner self that I’ve loved. Not only because I already accomplished the three most important things of life: have a child, plant a tree and write a book, but also because this book has changed me again in someone better and a bit wiser.

This book has been written from the necessity to explain my story. I was an elite sportsman. I was one of the few privileged people who participated in the Olympic Games. When I was only 17 I was a national athlete and managed to qualify for Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984. A straightforward path towards the peak of the mountain we all crave for: success, recognition, money… But you do not take into account that, maybe, destiny has a surprise for you and decides to throw you a roadblock in that marvelous way of golden tiles.

Sometimes, life is not how we plan it. Sometimes, it is even better and oddly enough, an adversity can be the pivotal point for that.

When I discovered the philosophy of Kintsugi Japanese art I said: “wow… That’s me! In fact, we all have the essence of Kintsugi.”

In Japan, when a vase or any other pottery breaks down, they do not throw it away as we do in the West, just the contrary. They fix it filling the cracks with gold. They do this to emphasize the beauty of what once broke down. It is believed that when something has taken damage and has a story behind, it makes it more beautiful. And that’s exactly what happens to humans too. In people, adversities beautify us. Hardships do not make our lives uglier, although it seems so while go through them. It depends on us to paint our fights in gold and turn them into something gorgeous. We can choose to get back up and learn from what happened, because that makes us unique.

When life puts obstacles in our way, we have two options:

Complaining and blaming us for that, without advancing,

or overcoming those obstacles and moving forward.

In my case, a traffic accident block my life while I was preparing for my second Olympic Games. In that accident, I lost my leg and all my dreams with it. Since then, my life took a learning direction, which brought me to who I am today.

In this book, I tell you the adventure that taught me how to beautify my scars.

Each chapter contains key points to face failure, uncertainty and fear, feelings that we learn to overcome when we open our mind to their lessons.

I heard this phrase one time: “the next level of your life will require a new version of yourself”. And sometimes you need to be broken in order to transform yourself into someone new.

In each scar there is a story about pain, but also its end and learning. They are the seams of our memory and the way life heals us through emotional damage. In “The beauty of scars” you will find answers and suggestions to reach those mountains so hard to climb sometimes.

With my book I want to inspire readers to let them know there is an alternative to wear our scars proudly. They should not give us a cause for shame. I encourage you to follow me in this journey, because it will be our singular tour to the fast lanes of life. You may feel my fear and frustration, but also my success.

If you want to step through the door I open, you will discover that everything depends on our perspective, because it is not about what happens to us, but how we live what happens to us.

If you are going through bad times and need to find some answers, I think my book may come in handy. I would like to show you the beauty of scars, not only mine, but any of yours. Do not hide them, because they enclose an important part of our story and life learning.

This work could be about you. If you want to go down your inner self, I assure an unforgettable experience. This trip will lead you to the conclusion that giving up is never an option.

Welcome to my world, the world of emotional scars and the beauty of them.

More information and wisdom in Xavier’s website: www.coachingmiralpeix.com

Share this article