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Second Chance to Live

Empowering the Individual, Not the Brain Injury

Instead, We Can Create Our Own Genius

May 3, 2022 By Second Chance to Live

To make the information available for individuals who learn through watching and listening I created a video presentation of the  Instead, We Can Create Our Own Genius Video Presentation

In follow up to the article and the video presentation I decided to create a keynote/ zoom presentation. Instead, We Can Create Our Own Genius Zoom/In Person Presentation

Living with limitations can leave you and me believing that we are stupid. But we do not have to fit into anyone’s mold. Instead, we can create our own genius.


Following a brain injury what we were once able to accomplish, now seems out of reach. As a result, we may focus on “Why Me?” and “What is Not?”.

But the good new is that we can instead shift our thinking and attitude. We can see our circumstances through the eyes of “Why Not Me?” and “What Is?”.

In my experience, I needed to grieve what I could not change (why me? and what is not?) to see what I could change — my mindset. “Why not me?” and “What is?”.


“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believe that it is stupid.” Albert Einstein

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas Edison

“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” Babe Ruth

“It is not that I am so smart, it is just that I stay with problems longer.” Albert Einstein

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” Bruce Lee

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


I spent many years attempting through different academic and vocational paths to work in traditional employment. Each of these efforts and endeavors to succeed were met with one closed door after another.

In my experience, when all of my diligent efforts resulted in closed doors I was faced with 2 options. Option One, I could either give up or Option Two, I could look for a way that would work for me.


With my change of attitude I began to realize that I no longer needed to be limited. Instead, I could discover the vastness of possibilities. I could learn how to use my creative genius.

I am glad I choose Option Two. To read the back story of Option Two, click on these 2 links: Back Story of Second Chance to Live — Part 1 and Back Story of Second Chance to Live — Part 2


Questions to Consider

What is your genius?

How can you develop confidence in your genius?


“Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel deeply and vitally alive, along which comes the inner voice, which says, “This is the real me” and when you have found it, follow it.” James Trusdale Adams

“Insist on yourself, never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you only have a extemporaneous half-possession…Do that which is assigned to you and you can not hope too much or dare too much.” Ralph Waldo Emerson


Concepts that I Pledge to Each Day as I Develop my Genius

Learn from and see my experience as an opportunity and a gift to empower my life, well-being and relationships.

See people, things, events and situations from a “glass full”, instead of “half full” or “empty” regardless of how “they” may look now.

Determine to see people, things, events and situations through the eyes of faith, instead of through “a” / “the” prism of fear.

Stop straining, seeking or striving to prove anything to anyone (including yourself) through doing. Let go of the outcomes.

Realize that I always have a choice to do something differently. I do not have to stay “stuck” like a deer in the “headlights” of life.


Quotes that Inspire Me to Pursue my Genius

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

“You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, and expect to win.” Zig Ziglar

“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” Lou Holtz

“Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.” Bobby Unser


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

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

“Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful.” Zig Ziglar

“Don’t give up at half time. Concentrate on winning in the second half.” Paul Bryant


“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something is more important than fear.” Ambrose Redmon

“Follow your dreams, believe in yourself and don’t give up.” Rachael Corrie

“The most common way people give away their power is thinking they don’t have any.” Alice Walker

“If you want light to come into your life, you need to stand where it is shining.” Guy Finley


“You are the only person on earth who can use your ability.” Zig Ziglar

“The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” Tony Robbins

“When setting out on a journey do not seek the advice of someone who never left home.” Rumi

“Not everyone will understand your journey. That’s okay. You’re here to live your life, not to make everyone understand.” Banksy


“Believe in yourself, go after your dreams and don’t let anyone put you in a box.” Daya

“You may be the only person left who believes in you, but it’s enough. It just takes one star to pierce a universe of darkness. Never give up.” Richelle E. Goodrich

“If you change the way you tell your own story, you can change the colour and create a life in technicolour.” Isabel Allende

“Create your own visual style…let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.” Orson Welles


“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.“ — Helen Keller

Learning How to be Confident in What Works for Us as We Create Our Own Genius

“Confidence is a state of being clear-headed either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective. Confidence comes from a Latin word ‘fidere’ which means “to trust”; therefore, having self-confidence is having trust in one’s self.

Arrogance or hubris, in comparison, is the state of having unmerited confidence—believing something or someone is correct or capable when evidence or reasons for this belief are lacking. Overconfidence or presumptuousness is excessive belief in someone (or something) succeeding, without any regard for failure. Confidence can be a self-fulfilling prophecy as those without it may fail or not try because they lack it and those with it may succeed because they have it rather than because of an innate ability.

The concept of self-confidence is commonly defined as self-assurance in one’s personal judgment, ability, power, etc. One’s self-confidence increases as a result of experiences of having satisfactorily completed particular activities.[1] Self-confidence involves a positive[2] belief that in the future, one can generally accomplish what one wishes to do. Self-confidence is not the same as self-esteem, which is an evaluation of one’s own worth, whereas self-confidence is more specifically trust in one’s ability to achieve some goal, which one meta-analysis suggested is similar to generalization of self-efficacy.

[3] Abraham Maslow and many others after him have emphasized the need to distinguish between self-confidence as a generalized personality characteristic, and self-confidence with respect to a specific task, ability or challenge (i.e. self-efficacy). Self-confidence typically refers to general self-confidence. This is different from self-efficacy, which psychologist Albert Bandura has defined as a “belief in one’s ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task”

[4] and therefore is the term that more accurately refers to specific self-confidence. Psychologists have long noted that a person can possess self-confidence that he or she can complete a specific task (self-efficacy) (e.g. cook a good meal or write a good novel) even though they may lack general self-confidence, or conversely be self-confident though they lack the self-efficacy to achieve a particular task (e.g. write a novel).

These two types of self-confidence are, however, correlated with each other, and for this reason can be easily conflated.”

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence


Filed Under: Building Self-Esteem after Brain Injury

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