Hopes and Dreams after Experiencing a Brain Injury

Below are several quotes that helped me to stick with the process of learning to create hopes and dreams after my brain injury.

Give the quotes a read and let me know if they help you too, by leaving a comment. Thank you.

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I have created a video presentation of this article for individuals who learn better through watching and listening. To watch and listen to this article, you may click on this link: Hopes and Dreams after Experiencing a Brain Injury Video Presentation

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Reality We Face after Our Brain Injuries

Following a brain injury, many things seem to change in our lives. What was once familiar, now becomes foreign to us. What we were once able to do before our brain injuries, no longer seems possible. As a result, we may begin to question our once held hopes and dreams. In the process, we may find ourselves isolating and giving up the possibilities of hope and dreams.

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My Experience

For many years I lived in denial to the impact of my traumatic brain injury that occurred in 1967 when I was 10 years old. Once my external wounds healed and I looked “normal” the impact of my traumatic brain injury was also denied by family and friends. Then at the end of 1999, 32 years later and after going through 2 vocational rehabilitation processes (one in Florida and one in North Carolina) I was told that I was unemployable.

At the end of 1999 my 3rd application for SSDI was approved and I began the process of living on a monthly disability check.

Once the 3rd application for SSDI was approved I found myself in a place of frustration. A place of frustration because although I worked diligently (both academically and vocationally) to find my place in society as a productive citizen, none of my efforts proved to be enough. Being unemployable and disabled left me feeling inadequate, undesirable and as though my life, hopes and dreams no longer mattered.

To Read More About My Journey and Process click on this link: About Page

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Although

Being unemployable and disabled reinforced my feeling of being (that although I had applied myself academically and vocationally) all dressed up with nowhere to go. All dressed up with nowhere to go because I was unemployable and societally stigmatized as disabled.

Although I could have given up on my hopes and dreams (of using my gifts, talents and abilities) I am glad that I did not give up on my hopes and dreams. Although finding a way to follow my hopes and dreams took another 7 years, I am glad that I did not give up on my hopes and dreams.

To Read More About My Process of Discovery Click on Part 1 and Part 2

Back Story of Second Chance to Live — Part 1 of the Process

Back Story of Second Chance to Live — Part 2 of the Process

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I share my About Page and the 2 Parts of the Backstory with you to encourage you to not give up on your process. More will be revealed to you with time, as more is continuing to be revealed to me. The pieces of the puzzle will come together in the right order and at the right time.

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Hopes and Dreams Don’t Die

As a result, we may find ourselves wanting to give up on our lives, hopes and dreams. But the reality is that our hopes and dreams do not have to die.

“Dreams do not vanish, so long as people do not abandon them.” Phantom F. Harlock

“Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world: making the most of one’s best.” Richard Willard Armor

 “Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.” King Whitney Jr.

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.” Marie Curie

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Finding a Way

 As our brain injuries changed the way we go about living our lives, so can we go about living our hopes and dreams in a new way. In a way that will work for us. But finding the way that works for us may take time. Lots of time. But don’t give up on the process.

 “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas A. Edison (inventor of the light bulb)

“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” Babe Ruth (home run leader for many years, also the strikeout leader for many years).

“Don’t think of it as failure. Think of it as time-released success.” Robert Owen.

“Through perseverance, many people win success out of what seemed to be certain failure.” Benjamin Disraeli

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Taking a Different Form

Although we may no longer be able to do somethings well, we can learn to do other things well. Our hopes and dreams no longer have to be out of our reach. Instead, they can take on a different form.

 “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.”Helen Keller

“There are so many opportunities in life that the loss of two or three capabilities is not necessarily debilitating. A handicap may give you the opportunity to focus on more art, writing or music.” Jim Davis

“If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work for you. If you work your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end us building us.” Jim Rohn

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“Whatever”

And we may say to ourselves, I just don’t have the “whatever” to be able to accomplish my hopes and dreams because of my brain injury.

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good that we oft may win, by fear attempt.” William Shakespeare

“People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success, because they don’t know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to.” George Allen Sr.

“Take control of your destiny. Believe in yourself. Ignore those who try to discourage you. Avoid negative sources, people, places, things and habits. Don’t give up and don’t give in.” Wanda Carter

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Not Giving Up

You and I may have been seduced into believing that we need to accept what we can’t do. Such a belief may leave us believing that we are victims of our circumstances. Trapped by our circumstances to go no further with our lives.

“When one door of happiness closes, another door opens; but often we look so long at the door that has closed that we do not see the one that has opened for us.” Helen Keller

“Our circumstances are not meant to keep us down, but they are meant to build us up.” Craig J. Phillips MRC, BA

“Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not realizing that life is made up of little things.” Frank A. Clark

“History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking success before they triumphed. They won because they refused to be discouraged by their defeats.” B.C Forbes

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Told “it” Won’t Work

You and I may have people in our lives that tell us that trying something new, just won’t work. That we are simply wasting our time.

“Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.” Henry David Thoreau

“I was told over and over again that I would never be successful, that I was not going to be competitive and the technique was simply not going to work. All I could do was shrug and say, ‘We’ll have to wait and see.” Dick Fosbury (winner of the gold medal at the 1968 Mexico Games.) Mr. Fosbury invented the revolutionary (Fosbury Flop high-jump technique).

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 Overcoming a Fear of Failure

And many of us may have a fear of failure. A fear of failure that holds us captive. But the reality is that we don’t have to do things perfectly to move forward. Instead, we can build our hopes and dreams a little at a time. And build we can do one brick at a time.

“Regardless of your lot in life, you can build something beautiful on it.” Zig Ziglar

 “Sow an act… reap a habit. Sow a habit…reap a character; sow a character…reap a destiny.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If you advance confidently in the direction of your dreams and endeavor to live the life that you have imagined…you will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” Henry David Thoreau

“Slow and steady wins the race.” Robert Lloyd

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And Stay Focused and Committed

We may have people in our lives who may discourage us from following our hopes and dreams. You may have been told that you are unemployable or find yourself societally stigmatized for being disabled, but don’t let that let your hopes and dreams vanish.

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel you, too, can become great.” Mark Twain

“If you are able to be yourself, then you have no competition. All you have to do is get closer to that essence.” Barbara Cook

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” Steve Jobs

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