Jim Willett ran a ½ marathon while undergoing cancer treatment. Some call him crazy, some call him stubborn, but Willett simply calls himself an optimistic runner. Willett is the founder of The Optimism Revolution, a social media movement geared towards improving the mindset of anyone he can reach. Diagnosed with cancer at the age of 36, Willett made the decision early in his treatment that if he was going to go through chemo and radiation he was going to do it on his own terms and no one else’s, “There’s a fine line between persistent and stubborn, sometimes you need that stubbornness to get you through certain things,” Willett explained.
When Willett got his cancer diagnosis in 2010 he went through a very emotional time. He experienced shock, and pity for himself, but when he became angry his perspective suddenly shifted. “When I had the anger phase, I was mad. I was mad at cancer, I was mad at myself […] What I needed to do was focus [my anger] on the right things.” That’s exactly what he did. A few months after his cancer treatment ended Willett completed the Gobi March, a 155-mile ultra marathon across the Gobi desert. “Anything, given the right perspective, can be an opportunity.” Willett took the anger he felt from his disease and used it as an opportunity to drive his running to the next level.
Willett feels strongly that his focus and optimistic point of view is what got him through his treatment and over the Gobi desert. And he didn’t stop there. At the end of 2011 Willett took the same mindset that got him across 155 miles of open terrain and honed it in on a social media movement. The movement is called The Optimism Revolution and with over 140,000 Facebook likes he’s touching a lot of people with his positivity. The motto of The Optimism Revolution is “attitude is everything,” so a positive attitude can influence anything positively. The Optimism Revolution’s Facebook page is a mosaic of uplifting messages and inspirational pictures designed to raise your spirits and positively influence others. Willet’s blog, runjimmirun, chronicles his journey through the depths of cancer treatment and how he’s been living positively since its remission.
Willett: “People everyday need something to turn to that’s going to give them inspiration,” Willett explains, “The Optimism Revolution is a mindset. It’s looking for the good, not looking for the bad. [It’s] to help other people realize their own potential and tap into it.” Currently Willett is gearing up for his next ultra marathon in South Africa where he hopes he can raise enough funds to buy school supplies to donate to impoverished children while he’s there. Eventually Willett would like to turn The Optimism Revolution into a foundation, but for now he’s happy helping people realize their own potential, one inspirational post at a time.
Visit Jim’s blog, and twitter feed.
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