Buzzing around the world lessons from Stephen McDowell

I had the pleasure of having a conversation with a young Kiwi dude currently residing in L.A. His name is Stephen McDowall, or better known on social media as “The Buzzy Kiwi”. Stephen’s plan for his life hit a bump a couple of years back. Just out of uni and working as a self-employed personal trainer an old rugby injury came back to haunt him. Undergoing what he thought was a routine surgery, he woke up to the news that the cartilage in his hip had started dying and he was experiencing arthritic changes. Instead of being back at work in 3 days, he couldn’t walk for 8 weeks, and couldn’t exercise for 8 months. I got to talk with him on the podcast about what happened and then his re-evaluation of what was important to the way he lived his life. Here are a couple of my take away points from the conversation with Stephen.

“My whole life was sports, when that was taken from me I needed a new passion”

Stephen’s life had revolved around multiple sports, but as with many young Kiwi males the main one being rugby. He had chosen to pursue a career in the fitness industry on top of that. Nearly everything he did revolved around sport or exercise. If that isn’t a passion I’m not sure what is. I’ve been injured often enough to know the short term feeling of loss associated with not being able to move. Thankfully all my injuries are ones that I’ve recovered from, they’ve slowed me short term but haven’t stopped me being able to do anything in the long run. To have your movement taken from you, coupled with losing your main drive at the same time is massive. It speaks to the phenomenal resilience Stephen has that he was able to take that on board so quickly.

I believe that part of the reason he was successful in overcoming this sense of loss was that he developed something else he was interested in very quickly. Stephen knew that he was interested in travelling from the small amounts he had done prior to his surgery. Planning and eventually participating in this gave him a sense of purpose to get out of bed in the morning. Something I can attest to that is vitally important as you’re rehabbing from an injury. He could have chosen to sit in that sense of loss, but that likely wouldn’t have led to us having our conversation, or him touching other peoples’ lives.

Stephen’s ability to quickly recognise how important this sense of purpose was in his life is impressive, but his strategic approach to finding a new one is probably even more so. After surgery he identified other things in life outside of sport and exercise that he was interested in, then set about rese