Tony Hawk, at 48, makes the impossible, possible!

Have you ever wanted to do something that seemed impossible? I grew up idolizing professional skateboarder, Tony Hawk, so when I learned about his recent accomplishment, I was amazed and inspired! When I watch extreme sports athletes, one question often comes to mind: how did they do that? They make a mind blowing trick look easy. I have so much respect for these athletes because I can appreciate how much time, effort, belief and training they put into their passion.

So how did professional skateboarder, Danny Way, jump over the Great Wall  of China on his skateboard? He is the only person in history to jump the wall in a non-motorized vehicle. Professional BMX’er, Matt Hoffman, broke his high air record in 2015 at the age of 43 (over 26.5 feet). Professional snowboarder, Billy Morgan, landed the first ever Backside 1800° Quadruple Cork on his snowboard. That’s four off-axis flips and five full rotations at the same time! Professional motocross rider, Josh Sheehan, made history with the first triple backflip on a motorcycle. Extreme skier, Julian Carr, set the world record with a front flip off a 210-foot cliff. Now, that seems impossible!  American professional big wave surfer, Garrett McNamarathe, set the world record for largest wave ever surfed (100 feet). And Tony Hawk, professional skateboarder and legend, landed the first ever 900 in the 1999 X-Games. Then on June 27, 2016, at the age of 48, he did it again! If you think you’re too old to achieve your goal, watch Tony Hawk show us that age is just a number.

How have these guys accomplished their challenging goals?

Someone once told me that if you want to succeed in something extraordinary, you need to put in 10 years or 10,000 hours of learning and training to accomplish your goal. I think it’s safe to say these professionals have put in 10,000 hours or more of training to become some of the greatest athletes of their sport.

My goal and dream for my children’s books, the X-tails, goes way bigger than what I’ve accomplished thus far. Watching these professional athletes inspires me to keep on reaching for my dreams. To date, I would say I have invested 5,000 hours into the X-tails. Imagine what I can accomplish with 5,000 more!