Hi, and welcome back to Second Chance to Live. You are always welcome at my table. Through out my life — as an individual with traumatic brain injury and an invisible disability — I have needed to develop principles and strategies to succeed. You see I did not know how my life had been impacted by or able to accept that I was a traumatic brain injury survivor with an invisible disability until about 5 – 6 years ago. I am currently 51 years of age. You may read about my process in My Journey thus Far. Although I was not expected to live the night of the accident nor succeed beyond high school academically I developed strategies and principles that have helped me succeed and thrive in life.
Today I will share with you one of those principles that have empowered my process. The principle of perseverance.
I used the principle of perseverance in the following illustration. When I first began training at the martial arts school I had limited coordination and agility which limited my ability to perform any kicks, much less a tornado kick. When I watched more advanced students demonstrate tornado kicks I was amazed by their grace and agility. When I attempted to mimic the ability of the advanced students I looked and felt very clumsy. What became apparent was that I did not possess the muscle memory or the agility necessary to execute a tornado kick, much less the leg strength to support the movements of the kick. note: per your information, a tornado kick is likened to a back leg spinning crescent kick.
Rather than becoming discouraged and despondent I made a decision to develop my leg strength and train my muscle memory.
Because of my limitations and deficits I knew I needed to spend additional time and attention to drilling to learn the new skill. Through my decision I decided to spend many hours drilling kicks to improve my agility. In the process of drilling my kicks I became aware that I needed to have more leg strength to support my jump portion of the tornado kick. Consequently, I decided to work on improving my leg strength through doing leg curls and leg presses at the local YMCA. I found that with greater leg strength came increased balance and agility which in turn gave me the ability to execute tornado kicks with increasing speed and accuracy.
The process was not easy or quick, however by incorporating the principle of perseverance I slowly made gains in my ability to execute a tornado kick.
Todays Thought
You may have a desire to improve in your physical rehabilitation or in some other area of your recovery process. You may be at the beginning of your process and feel overwhelmed by what seems to be out of your reach. If I may, let me encourage you my friend. In my experience I have discovered that where I am today is merely a starting point. It is not my ending point. Where you are today is your starting point.
Once we start, the principle of perseverance can carry us as we move toward improving a skill. Although progress may seem slow — at times — we can be encouraged because we are making progress.
What may seem to be improbable today, has a greater chance of becoming obtainable as we choose to practice the principle of perseverance.
Second Chance to Live and the author is not liable for any damages or negative outcomes that may occur from what I share with in my articles and video presentations. Second Chance to Live and the author is not responsible or liable for any financial damages that may arise from reading / watching / listening to my articles.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Have a great day.
Craig
Receive more articles like this one simply by clicking on Subscribe to Second Chance to Live by email.
Subscribe to Second Chance to Live, Bookmark and Share Second Chance to Live with your friends through a Feed Reader
All material presented on Second Chance to Live is copyright and cannot be, copied, reproduced, or distributed in any way without the express, written consent of Craig J. Phillips, MRC, BA Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND
Leave a Reply