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Are you someone who dreams of exploring the great outdoors, taking on hiking trails, and immersing yourself in nature?
This story is for you.
Cyndi, a mom of four, discovered her love for hiking and the outdoors during a road trip to drop off her daughter at college. Their trip included a stop Rocky Mountain National Park, where Cyndi fell in love with hiking through stunning scenery.
Cyndi felt the pull of the mountains and the call of the trails, and she knew that she had to make a change in her life to pursue this passion.
This is a picture from that exact spot.
Right there, Cyndi made a decision to change her lifestyle.
She started exercising, eating healthier, and walking more. She began hiking on local trails, building up her stamina and endurance until she was able to hike longer distances. Her hard work and determination paid off, and she eventually reached her weight loss goal 295 days later.
Cyndi learned that small steps lead to big goals. She found that every small step helped her build confidence, belief, and momentum towards her ultimate goal. And once she achieved her goal, she found that it gave her even more confidence in herself and her abilities.
And it gave her to idea to dream for something bigger.
Inspired by her success, she started to think about what other challenges she could take on.
One day she was in the LIVE A GREAT STORY Ambassador Facebook Group (applications now open for Season 3, apply now!) and she read another Ambassador's story of hiking Rim to Rim in the Grand Canyon.
"I saw her post and it set off a fire in me. It was just a crazy idea. Never did I think when I started working on a goal that it would lead me to such a crazy goal. I was kind of afraid to tell anybody! At the time I was 56 and just didn't see that in my future. But I was excited and I knew in my gut like, this is something I have to do."
Cyndi started learning all about the hike which goes down into the canyon thousands of feet in elevation and then back up the other side, for 24 miles of grueling altitude change.
Cyndi recruited her 21 year old son to join her and in 2021 the duo set out for the hike.
"It's the hardest thing I've ever done. Hardest thing ever. The last three miles are truly, truly hard, but I knew that it was going to be hard. I didn't know how hard but I never had a doubt in my mind that I wouldn't finish. It never even entered into my mind because I think you just have to have that mindset that when you're going to do something, you can't think about the doubts, you can't think about how nervous you might be or how scary it might be like today. Don't even think about that. You just have to know you're going to do it."
I'm like, 'Yeah, they're temporaries!'
