Changed in a Single Conversation

“Before the accident there were 10,000 things I could do with my life. I could do anything,”

“Now, realistically, there are 100 things I can do. But the fact of the matter is most of us only get around to doing about 40 things in our lives. So although I can’t do as many, I can still do just as much. The key for me, as it is for anyone, is to get started today living the life you want to live.”

Jason Regier

Regier was not a typical guest on my television program. Sitting across from me in a wheel chair, it had been seven years since his roll-over accident at age twenty. A senior at Oregon State at the time, he was driving back to Oregon when he did what we’ve all done. He looked down to change stations on the radio. That’s when his Jeep Cherokee drifted into the road construction on the shoulder.

Three days later Regier woke up in Craig Hospital paralyzed from the neck down. A division I soccer player and honor student, he was now faced with having to relearn how to use the bathroom.

As I interviewed Regier I was struck by his insights. Unlike my other older guests, Regier was still in his twenties. He didn’t have a speaking platform, book, or expertise, yet his story and thoughts shook me to the core and caused me to wonder, “Do other quarterlifers—people in their teens, twenties, and early thirties--have just as much to share or was Regier unique because of the accident?

That single question eventually lead to over 400 interviews with quarterlifers from around the United States. After listening to my peers I’ve learned that each of us knows far more than we give ourselves credit for. Often when we read a book or watch a talk show and think, “Wow, that’s brilliant. She is really talking to me.” The only reason the “expert’s” words resonate with us is because he or she has given voice to what we all ready know to be true, but have never had a platform to express it through.

Think about it. We ask each other about our plans for Friday night, but when was the last time somebody asked you a big question like, “How do you discover your purpose?”

Regier inspired me to see that instead of searching for the answer “out there” often the answers exist much closer at hand. We just have to learn to trust what we already know.

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Jason C. Steinle is a chiropractor at Health and Harmony, PC in Evergreen, CO, the host of The Steinle Show talk radio and television programs, and author of Upload Experience: Quarterlife Solutions