Push Through with Nathaniel Carroll
Push Through with Nathaniel Carroll
When tragedy strikes what do you do? Do you sink down into misery and struggle, or do you push through it and find the positives in the situation. Nate Carroll is a guy who’s on a mission to do one and a half million pushups this year. That breaks down to over 4,000 pushups a day. But it isn’t just for him or a world record. He’s doing to shine light on the heroes in our communities.
This started with his kids doing a thank you law enforcement challenge. He wanted to find a way to make the challenge more exciting and catch more attention. Since he had always been interested in pushups, he decided to push himself and do something ordinary in an extraordinary way. So he committed to doing one million pushups in that year to bring awareness and support for law enforcement.
The law enforcement challenge is where you try to get in contact with at least one police officer from each county across the nation, just to thank them for what they do. One way Nate’s family has gone about doing this is by looking up websites for each county's police department and sending handwritten thank you letters to the address of the station. When they travel, they also try to coordinate a trip to the station with the officers to thank them. He started this challenge because he wanted his kids to recognize the importance of the service that people do for their country and the people who live in it. Last year Nate did his final pushup out of one million, on December 31st in front of a police station in Wisconsin. Pushups are one of Nates talents and he uses them to spread his message around the world. He encourages all of us to think about some things that you can do with your talents to spread your message, whatever that may be.
This year Nate decided that he wanted to break the world record for pushups which is 1.5 million. In February however, Nate gained some pain in his shoulders and needed to stop doing his pushups for a while. Then COVID19 hit and we were all quarantined to our houses and yards. This didn’t stop him though. Nate was inspired to run 50 miles around his house to raise money for charities to help with relief efforts. It was pretty challenging at times and it took him 17 and ½ hours in the cold March rain but he got it done. When he was struggling, he put himself into the mind of a nurse with all of the uncertainty of treating someone with COVID19. This helped him realize that 50 miles around the house wasn’t really that big of a deal in comparison to other things.
Once Nate recuperated from his shoulder injury, he was trying to decide whether or not to continue with breaking the world record. He decided to reach out to the Tunnel 2 Towers foundation who helps families of police and military members who pass away from their service. The Tunnel 2 Towers foundation decided to support Nate, who is now trying to raise one dollar per pushup that he does which he will donate to the foundation. His goal is 1.5 million dollars for the foundation and that’s what keeps him going. The easiest way to donate is on tunnel2towers.org scroll down a little bit and you’ll see it under push through. At the time this interview took place (October 10, 2020) he had done 330,000 pushups and has raised $28,000.
Another reason that Nate is doing this challenge is to inspire his children. He knows that whatever his children decide that they want to do when they get older, there will be challenges involved. It is his hope that when those challenges arise his kids will look back at what he did and realize they can find the strength to push through their challenges as well. Some advice that he would give to people who have big goals is don’t be afraid of failing. At first, he was afraid that people would judge him for what he was doing, and that he wouldn’t be able to accomplish his goal. Once he started focusing on what he can control, such as his effort and his schedule he was able to keep going and be less afraid. Control the controllables and don’t worry about the other stuff.
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Remember, you don’t have to be a superhero to make a difference. Find something you are good at and use it to help others!
If you want to find out more about Nate Carroll you can find him on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at @Nathaniel.Louis.Carroll and if you want to help donate to his cause go to tunnel2towers.org. I would love to hear what you think about Pushing Through and the interview with Nate! Please send me a message on social media at @Jonesinfor or email me at spencer@spencermjones.com. Thanks!
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