shadows to summits

FROM SHADOWS TO SUMMITS

“A story of adversity, transformation and turning
Impossible into I’m Possible.”

Since the age of six, Colin Furphy had lived with epilepsy.

By his mid-twenties, it had taken almost everything.

60

Seizures a week

34

Tablets twice a day

144 kg

At his heaviest

Disabled

How the world classified him

Epilepsy changed Colin's entire life. He lost his:

"But he overcame this"

Just before surgery started

he said to the doctor:

“In 2 years I am going to climb Mt Kilimanjaro”

Then came the moment that changed everything.

In 2009, Colin faced his second brain surgery with no guarantee of what life would look like on the other side.

“He did it”

29 February 2012

5,895 METRES

The summit of Mt Kilimanjaro.

Colin stood on the roof of Africa and turned something that once seemed impossible into reality.

But reaching the summit wasn’t the greatest transformation.

“It was discovering the person he could become on the way there.”

The Philosophy

I’M POSSIBLE

Kilimanjaro taught Colin that extraordinary transformation rarely happens through one extraordinary leap.

It happens through the small decisions, actions and disciplines we repeat when nobody is watching.

One step. One decision.

1% at a time.

The summit was only the beginning.

Built businesses and pursued entrepreneurship

Raised tens of thousands of dollars for charity

Ran for public
office

Received a national award for courage

Colin doesn't share his story to show people what he achieved.

He shares it to challenge people to question the limits they’ve placed on themselves — and to discover what might become possible when they decide to take the next step.

It happens through the small decisions, actions and disciplines we repeat when nobody is watching.

Turn your Impossible into I’m Possible.

From Shadows to Summits

SOME OF COLIN'S STRATEGIES

Practical ways to turn Impossible into I’m Possible.

Colin’s story is ultimately a story of transformation.

Of setbacks, uncertainty, fear and moments when the future looked very different from what he had imagined.

Your circumstances may shape your story.
They don’t have to decide how it ends.

Colin stopped asking:

“Why is this happening to me?”

And started asking:

“What can I create from this?”

01

The I’m Possible Code

Change the Conversation

Challenge the story happening inside your own head.

Before something becomes impossible in our lives, it often becomes impossible in our thinking.

Repeat those thoughts for long enough and they can become boundaries.

The I’m Possible Code challenges you to recognise the story you are telling yourself and decide whether that story deserves to determine what happens next.

I can’t

How can I?

Maybe one day

Why not today?

What if I fail?

What if I grow?

Impossible

I’m Possible

Change what you believe is possible, and you change what you are prepared to attempt.

02

The 1% Philosophy

Focus on the First 1%

Stop trying to change everything.
Change something.

Big transformations can feel overwhelming when you look at the entire journey.

So don’t.

Focus on the first step. The first decision. The first conversation.

You don’t need to transform your entire life tomorrow.

You just need to find your next 1%.

Think 1% differently.

Act 1% more courageously.

Take 1% more responsibility.

Learn 1% more.

Move 1% closer.

Then do it again tomorrow.

And when things don’t go to plan?

Adjust. Get back up. Take the next step.

Extraordinary transformation is often built from very ordinary actions repeated consistently.

Be 1% better today than you were yesterday.
Then do it again tomorrow.

03

Give Your Impossible a Destination

Find Your Summit

Decide what you are actually climbing towards.

For Colin, it was Mt Kilimanjaro.

For you, it could be something completely different.

A business you want to build

A change you need to make

A challenge you need to face

A relationship you want to repair

A healthier version of yourself

A goal you have carried for years

Your summit doesn’t need to make sense to everyone else.

It needs to mean something to you.

Define it.

Own it.

Then start moving towards it.

Your pace.

Your choices.

Your summit.

You don’t always need to change who you are to create a different future.

Sometimes you need to challenge the limits you’ve placed on who you think you can become.

Put It Into Action

THE COLIN WAY

Change the conversation.

Take the first 1%.

Keep moving towards your summit.

You may not control every challenge that appears in front of you.

But you can control what you do next.

One Thought

One Decision

One Action

One Step

That’s how Impossible starts becoming I’m Possible.