We were lucky to catch up with Jo Giese recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jo, so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?
Recently a freak accident and a botched surgery, left me–a hiker to waterfalls all over the world–non-ambulatory. A Physical Therapist said to me, “You have to accept that you’ll be compromised for the rest of your life.”
After 8 surgeries, my left achilles died, and I still wasn’t walking after 144 days. Since I didn’t know anyone who had recovered with no achilles, I could’ve succumbed to depression. Instead I refused to give up, and remained optimistic.
Undoubtedly, I inherited this quality from my father, who was an inventor, and my mother, who was a very social housewife who always had our house full of friends and family.
My optimism combined with determination and grit and working 2 1/2 years with a restorative exercise therapist who usually works with spinal cord injury patients, has enabled me to walk–and hike!–again.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I should not be able to walk, let alone jump from helicopters and hike to some of the most beautiful and remote waterfalls in the world. Because of my determination and grit I was recently honored as a Local Hero 2024 by Oboz, the hiking shoe company.
Refusing to give up, I defied the odds and experienced what is being called a medical miracle.
I’ve just finished writing a non-fiction book about this experience–Keep Chasing Waterfalls: A Story of Adventure, Tragedy, and Defying the Odds.
This surprising story is told in alternating voices–the joyous green waterfall world, and the medical voice. The green stories focus on visiting my first waterfall as a young child, Snoqualmie Falls near Seattle, and as an adult hiking to wonderfully different waterfalls all over the world, including Patagonia, Iceland, and Bhutan.
What’s especially fun is that these stories also explore the powerful scientific benefits of being in nature near waterfalls–the super oxygenation of the air and the increased negative ions.
I learned the difference between people who succumb ot a serious injury and those who overcome it. My story will give hope to other who have been given a grim diagnosis of any kind, whether or not it involves an achilles.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I am persistent, determined, and optimistic. I do NOT give up.
After 144 days of using a knee scooter and being non-ambulatory, when I started walking again, I commented to my restorative therapist that I was walking at half the speed of others. Everybody else was whizzing by me. He said, “To compare is to despair.”
I would say to others who are early in their journey, whatever that journey might be, “To compare is to despair.”
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
I’m an author of several best selling books, and yet the publishing world has changed dramatically in the last 5 years. Publishers have consolidated, there are fewer of them, and books are sold differently–online instead of just in book stores.
The challenge my agent and I are currently facing is finding a publishing home for my book–Keep Chasing Waterfalls: A Story of Adventure, Tragedy, and Defying the Odds. This is my best book. The developmental editor I worked with described my book as spectacular, and yet my agent has not found a publisher for it. Yet.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jogiese.com
- Instagram: #giese jo
- Linkedin: Jo Giese
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
