Prince Harry was a soldier fighting on the front lines in Afghanistan. When the media got word of this and shared it, he was forced to come home and leave his fellow soldiers behind. It would have made it more dangerous for everyone if he stayed. But it devastated him to go.
On the flight home, he saw a soldier's coffin being loaded onto the plane.
Harry said, "Once in the air, I stuck my head through the curtain to see three British soldiers, really young lads, much younger than me at the time, laid out on stretchers in induced comas. All three wrapped in plastic, missing limbs, with tubes coming out of them everywhere. It struck me that this was just one flight of many carrying home men and women whose lives would be changed forever. And some who had made the ultimate sacrifice."
It got him thinking. How could he do something to help these heroes live the new life they would be living? Help them feel valued and validated?
And the Invictus Games were born. This is an opportunity for wounded soldiers to find a new meaning in life after being injured. To pour their energy into competing against others just like them. To fuel their soul.
The second annual Invictus Games starts shortly in Orlando and the third Invictus Games will be in Toronto in 2017.
William Ernest Henley said in his poem Invictus, "It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul."
Being the captain of your soul is the ultimate goal in life. To have a purpose and to put one foot in front of the other with that purpose in mind.
Harry's creative solution has changed lives and given our heroes their power back. What can we do to make a difference in our own lives and in the lives of those around us? How can we be the master of our own fate?