Last week I flew to Beijing, China to attempt a new Guinness World Record – “most targets hit in one minute with a flying disc (frisbee)“. Guinness set a minimum requirement of 20 targets hit and although I was close on my 2nd attempt with 16 targets, I was not successful in establishing a new Guinness World Record.

That happened on Saturday night and to say I was upset is expressing it lightly. I was crushed. I felt like my friends, my family and my fans were going to disappointed since I hadn’t set the record. I felt that everything I had done up to that point didn’t mean much since I wasn’t able to perform when it counted most.

But, as the seconds turned into minutes turned into hours turned into a few days, I’ve been able to look back and see the good in all of this.

First of all, I got a free trip to China (and was paid for my appearance) and my dad also had his trip paid for. How sweet is that? I also:

Got to spend the most time I’ve had with my dad in years

Got to spend a few hours on the Great Wall of China

Met Anthony Kelly, who holds many Guinness World Records and travels all over the world (such as Most Tennis Balls Caught in 1 Hour, and he has also caught an arrow while blindfolded!)

Met Peter Rosendahl, who also holds many Guinness World Records and has been to more than 55 countries (such as Fastest 100m on a Unicycle – 11 seconds, and Most Skips in 1 minute with a unicycle)

Met 2 guys from Storm Freerun team,  Tim “Livewire” Shieff and Jan ”Jashman” Barcikowski (they freerun with Damien Walters!!)

Met Liz and Rob, the 2 Guinness officials from the UK, who were awesome and super supportive

Met Cathy from CCTV, who set the whole thing up for me and flew my dad and I over

Went to the Hongqiao Pearl Market and bought some “good fakes” (a watch, headphones and a flash drive)

Got to see a new culture and experience history that is many times older than Canada

So, if you look at my trip to Beijing with the sole intention to set a Guinness World Record, then yes, I failed. However, to do so would be shortsighted because the opportunities and knowledge I gained from failing are worth more than had I achieved the record.

The setup of the world record was actually not done properly so I will be filming an attempt in the next few weeks – if successful, I will be submitting to the Guinness officials who will award me a World Record. I also didn’ t know there would be a minimum requirement so that was a surprise. I’m glad Guinness is giving me the opportunity to give it another attempt and I will not disappoint this time!

I am going to be working with Anthony and Peter and hope to do more Guinness shows in countries like Italy, India and possibly China again.

I had a very difficult time Saturday night trying to digest everything that comes with not being successful at achieving something. But I’ve realized that I will have many more attempts at World Records and not every attempt can be successful. All I can do is make sure that I’m as prepared as possible and that everything I can control is done properly (like the setup of the World Record, which I will make sure of next time).

I want to thank all of my friends, family and fans for your support these past few weeks and I look forward to sharing with you my Guinness World Record when I am successful. I will keep you posted on the progress of my attempt and will share videos and pictures with you from that event.

I look forward to going for coffee with my friends and telling you all about my trip. I have many more planned so I know this is just the beginning. It’s opened my eyes to what is truly possible when you do what you are passionate about.

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One of my favourite quotes is from George Bernard Shaw:

“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’”

This is a huge theme of my life – dreaming. My favourite movie is Rudy, a true story about a kid who dreamed about playing football at Notre Dame, and achieved his dream when he got to play 1 play in the final game of his final year.

Now, in life there are people who dream (like Rudy) and there are people who do (like many people who work 8-5, Monday to Friday). Everyone can dream but too many people don’t because they’re too afraid of not being able to reach their dreams. So what do they do? They try to fit their dreams into their current life instead of working to make their current life match their dreams.

Well I like to live with both a dreamer’s and a doer’s mentality. I’ll admit I often look at things that are and ask “Why” but I’m also quick to ask “Why not”. I don’t care if something has been tried before – there’s usually a reason it didn’t work the first time. Once that reason is known, why not try again?

And the nature of my passion (disc sports – ultimate, disc golf, distance, self caught flight, dog disc, etc) allows me to often dream of something and ask “Why not?” And the beauty of it is that I can actually do something that hasn’t been done (or hasn’t been done for more than 25 years).

Sometimes it’s a solitary pursuit and many people don’t get my passion but looking back over the past 11 years, I realize that I am who I am today because of frisbee and I know that when I look back on my life 11 years from now, I’ll be glad I made the decision to make frisbee such a big part of my life. I know that the more I do, the more I will inspire and amaze people and that is what keeps me going. To know that there is a chance others can share in my love for frisbee even a little bit is an incredible feeling.

So I ask you – are you a dreamer, a doer, or both?

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