At the age of 19, I took a fall while barefoot water skiing and instantly went from hard of hearing...to deaf. 

When I climbed into the boat, I could no longer hear my friend's voices. 

As you can imagine, life took a dark turn. I had spent my life being ashamed of being hard of hearing and now I had to deal with being deaf. 

One morning, I woke up and made a decision that changed the path of my life: I decided to embrace the path instead of fighting it. I wanted peace with this new development in my life. I wanted to thrive.

Alignment. 

The moment you align with what's in your heart and soul, people show up in your life and your path unfolds. 

At the age of 44, I took up the sport again and this decision led me down another path: Passion Coaching. 

In the years since, (I'm now 59), I've helped thousands to align with passion. I teach a "Finding Your Passion" class at a major New York university. The class started out as one class and I'm now up to nine classes. 

I have had t...

Way back when I was a teenager, I loved the sport of barefoot water skiing.

One day, I turned to cross the wake and crashed into the water.

When I climbed into the boat, I had become deaf.

That moment changed the course of my life. I grew up hard of hearing and being ashamed of having hearing loss. It was no fun missing out on group conversations and constantly asking people to repeat themselves. After becoming deaf, I hit a dark time in my life.

I woke up one morning and made a simple decision: I was going to embrace the journey of being deaf. That decision led me through a whole new world; one where people used sign language. I met my husband (who is also deaf) and I ended up passing a gene to my children and they too, became deaf.

Fast forward to midlife

My husband forwarded me a link to a Today Show segment featuring Judy Myers, a 66-year-old woman who learned to barefoot water ski at the age of 53.

I quickly did the math — I was only 44. If this gal could do it in her 50s a...