American Ninja Warrior Alex Weber offers life tips at UPJ
Sep. 21—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Motivational speaker and "American Ninja Warrior" Alex Weber posed what he called "the most fortunate blessing of a question we can ever ask ourselves" to an audience of University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown students on Wednesday night.
The words appeared behind him on the Pasquerilla Performing Arts Center's video screen: "What do you really want for your moments of life?"
He said the question needs to be asked "before any goal can be real or even given a chance to appear" because, if it is not, then in this "noisy, hectic world ... the truth is that something else or somebody else is going to decide it for you."
Weber presented the thought during his presentation titled "Alcohol, Substance Abuse & High Achievers." He discussed how being a high achiever can involve being successful in a wide variety of areas, including classwork, sports, community involvement and personal relationships.
"We have a large population of high achievers here, and we thought this would be a great program," said Abigail Barry, president of the Pitt-Johnstown Program Board, which organized the event.
Weber pointed out, though, how "substances" can interfere with a person living a best life.
"I think 'substance' is whatever your thing is, and we've all got our thing," Weber said during an interview before the presentation. "That might be alcohol. That might be a drug. That might be a negative voice in your head. That might be overproduction, like being addicted to being productive. That might be overindulging in other things.
"I think it's just our own awareness that we've all got our thing, and when do we turn to it? Do we turn to it when we're upset or when we need to escape our lives? And that, I would say, is the backbone of what my thesis is for everyone — your life is too great to escape. And if you're escaping more than you're engaging in your life, maybe we just need to make some life changes so you live a life you don't want to escape."
Weber said he often thought that as long as he was achieving, then it did not matter what he did during other times. His resume includes being a NCAA Division I athlete, an author, one of the youngest people to be named a U.S. Lacrosse Coach of the Year, a record-holder for the longest uninterrupted video chat, and the only person to both host and compete on "American Ninja Warrior."
He has given presentations to Apple, Amazon, ABC, LinkedIn and the Los Angeles Lakers.
