Kyle A Bryant

A few years ago (2008) I sat down and wrote out my vision for the next 5 years with the help of my friend Lindsey. Lindsey took me through a couple exercises that helped me put down what I wanted from my career in the next 5 years. It mostly centered around speaking but I tried to get it all in there. We set a 5 year time frame…which as you can see is coming up!

My Progress So Far:

• The board mainly centers around speaking and right after creating this board I joined Toastmasters and was giving speeches about twice a month for three years. At one point as I was preparing for the 2010 International Speech Contest so I sought out all the Toastmasters clubs within 2 miles of my work in Sacramento and I gave my speech 6 times in two weeks, at lunch time, to a different audience each time. I made it to the semi-finals in the International Contest and since then I have given speeches to FARA fundraisers and meetings, large and small corporate audiences, schools, and conferences.
• Near the bottom right of the board it says FARA? At that time I had the notion that I wanted to spend all of my extra effort trying to put FARA out of business by helping fund research for a cure. I had been working closely with the FARA Team so I put that on there but I did not know where it would lead. In 2009 I became an employee of FARA and now I spend almost all of my effort trying to put FARA out of business.
• In the bottom left of the board is an image of a globe that says “traveling”. I have been traveling like mad for the last 2 years. Mainly in the US (one trip to Canada, does that count?) but I am beginning to plan a trip to Beijing to visit a friend at the end of the year so that will satisfy the international piece.
• I have mentioned everything except the image of the book at the bottom…I have been thinking about it for more than five years, and now the deadline is approaching. I have an ok start but now it is time to take action. Normally when I set goals I try not to talk about them a whole lot (I know what you’re thinking, “yeah right, you post everything online!” but it’s true, I keep some things to myself) perhaps because I don’t want to be accountable to anyone but myself. However it’s go time so please hold me accountable to have a book complete by the end of the year. This gives me 7.5 months. I have found a way to put it off for over 5 years so I am going to be very satisfied when I finish before 2013.

I had a refreshing weekend. I drove 3 hours to Long Island, NY to visit my friend Tess and we caught up while doing activities like sitting in the Sauna, and getting painfully satisfying massages. Tess is a Yoga instructor so I took her class this morning. Many of the Yoga postures require balance so I flopped around and struggled through the class feeling exhausted and satisfied afterward. I am going to be sore tomorrow. I am always a bit self conscious but a few people came up to me after class and told me they enjoyed having me in class. It was a simple gesture, but I really appreciated it. Namaste.

I took Yoga pretty regularly a few years ago and I could make it through all the postures with little modification. Today was a different story. I noticed it in particular with the Warrior posture. I used to be able to do this one without holding on to the wall and today I had to lean against the wall to stay on my feet.

That’s what I looked like today:)

The toughest thing about FA is the relentless degeneration of physical abilities. As of today there is no stopping it. It continues to wear down my body even now as I write this. It is very hard to cope with constant loss. It is hard to keep up with. I played a lot of different sports when I was younger. Each season I would have to decide if participation was worth the struggle. Was it worth it to sit on the bench for another season if it meant being part of the team? Was it worth it to stumble through the ski lodge carrying my skis and bumping into people if it meant laughing with friends on the lift or experiencing the total silence when surrounded by snowy trees? Each season was a gut wrenching decision. With many of my favorite sports, I eventually gave in.

I did not lose basketball, baseball, volleyball, football, golf, and skiing all at once. I lost them one at a time as I decided whether I could muster the heart to struggle through another season with a smile and enthusiasm.

I have not lost Yoga yet but today was a reminder that FA often goes by the “use it or lose it” principle. Today renewed my drive to stay as healthy and active as possible.

Today I had the fortunate opportunity to shoot a few FARA awareness videos with three great American Tennis players; James Blake, Thomas Blake, and John Isner. We talked about why FARA is so confident that we will find a treatment and a cure – because we know, in detail, the underlying cause of the disease.  And we talked about the mitochondrial connection and how insights into FA lead to strong insights into many other mitochondrial diseases.

These three Tennis All Stars gave their time generously because they are part of the team that will Cure FA.

Special thanks to Tom and Amy Leobold for coming out to shoot and produce on such short notice.  You guys make us look good!

Thomas and James Blake:

John Isner: