Disability Dialogue with Bill

Succeeding in the New Year: Don’t be Afraid to Walk a Tight Rope

Hello all,

I hope you will be prepared to experience the New Year with all the exciting emotions and possibilities including fear, uncertainty, challenges, joy and wonderful surprises.

As each of us takes a unique path in our life experiencing this year we are privileged to have many choices that will affect us. Our decisions not only affect us they affect the people around us that our life touches.

Some choices we have on any action we take are easy and mundane. Others are difficult and may take considerable planning to accomplish our goals with success. Some opportunities we have require taking planned risks to achieve the fruitful benefits. Other responsibilities that some people need to prioritize into goals are to assist family members and friends who may require additional assistance. It is best to understand some people we attempt to help do not realize they need help or even more perplexing some people do not want to accept any assistance due to a variety of reasons. In my opinion the most difficult thing to do when faced with the heartbreaking experience of attempting to assist people who do not realize they need assistance or do not want it is to let go and stop attempting to assist within reason, no matter how difficult it is to see these people in need. This letting go is critical to preserve energy and limited time for the many other goals you want to successfully accomplish.

With the abundance of choices available I realize prioritizing my time to worry about what I can and want to have an effect on is a balancing act.  What I want to accomplish and what may help me and my family, friends, colleagues and employer for goals is also a part of the balancing act. I can compare this balancing of priorities and goals to walking on a tight rope under a colorful big top tent in a circus while balancing on a rope far above the ground even though I have never attempted walking a tight rope. One false step or incorrect choice and I can lose my balance and fall to the ground thus completely failing at my attempt to achieve my goal. Without proper preparation, concentration and a sense of confidence I could slip off the rope however with luck quickly grab the rope and pull myself backup into the standing position thus wasting precious energy and time completing the goal. With the proper tenacity, attitude and skills I can successfully accomplish my goal of balancing and walking across the tight rope with ease and grace. I understand that not all people have the ability to physically walk on the tight rope I describe just like I can’t physically see the colorful big top tent I am walking under (I am completely blind). In my example I hope you can imagine my analogy no matter what your ability is. 

Like many others I plan to complete goals this year that include balancing priorities, taking calculated risks, learning new skills and accepting new challenges/opportunities to improve my positioning for success and happiness. One of my goals I plan to complete shortly is to have surgery on my right hip and have a total hip replacement due to Avascular Necrosis.

After my surgery and recovery my goal is to get relief from continuous pain and enjoy my family without the distraction of the pain or the inability to be as mobile as I need to be. I intend to participate in activities such as enjoying hiking blind and concentrate on my professional and personal life without the distraction of constant pain. I also plan to accept and complete the rehabilitation needed to give me the best possibility of walking again with minimum of limitation. For those who are not aware of my history I have had the opportunity to learn to walk again after a critical medical condition took my ability to walk for approximately one year. That previous challenge was much different than the reasons I will need this time to relearn how to walk again. Hopefully I will be able to leverage the lessons learned. 

Let’s all climb up a ladder under a large, brightly colored big top tent and walk across the tight rope with confidence and a perfect balance of priorities in order to make it safely across to our rewarding and gratifying goals in this new year.

Does anyone have any goals you plan to accomplish and want to share along with the reasons why they are important to you? We all look forward to hearing from you to start our new year together.

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

Facebook: http://profile.to/wdtipton

Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton  

Celebrate Holidays, Assist the Less Fortunate and Plan for the New Year

As the year transitions to closure I hope we can reprioritize what tasks we feel are the most valuable to allow us to take time to celebrate the holidays with colleagues, neighbors, friends and family. The closure of the year gives us an excellent opportunity to not only plan for renewal with the arrival of the New Year but also puts additional focus on assisting people in need during the holidays.

I feel we all should take every opportunity to learn and grow and this time of year provides many opportunities to share the gift of ourselves with extra incentive to celebrate life, family and friendships. I feel that having the mind-set of generosity and the willingness and enjoyment of sharing the gift of ourselves contributes to better health and well being. I believe this positively enhances our professional and personal lives. Taking the time to care for others less fortunate not only touches those we are assisting it also provides us with an invaluable chance to learn and grow from others’ experiences and knowledge. This could be the extra help a person needs to assist them in getting over or through some difficult times to enable them to be all they can be and strive to be.

As we get ready for year end and prepare to participate in holiday celebrations we should also prepare to assist those in need and set our personal and professional goals to catapult us into the New Year. We should do this with passion, renewed drive and a mind-set to pursue and accomplish our dreams and goals. We should however not overlook the need to plan and incorporate this mind-set into our inner values to help us succeed in whatever goals we want to achieve.

As I have learned we should not overlook life altering events that could cause our lives to go in a completely different direction than we had planned for. Such an occurrence might require us to add the completion of additional training or living modifications into our goals to adapt as best as possible to our new life situation in order to achieve our personal and professional goals. To prepare emotionally for such life altering changes we should anticipate such events and understand everything will not be as easy or comfortable as we might like or are accustomed to. However with the proper support from people around us these life altering changes might be a little more tolerable as we learn to adapt to our life situation.

How will you celebrate the holidays, share yourself with others and commemorate the end of the year? Do you plan to assist the less fortunate or those in need during this holiday season? How will you plan for a joyous and bountiful New Year? We all look forward to hearing from you.

Bill Tipton, Contributing Author

Global Dialogue Center http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

 LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

 Facebook: http://profile.to/wdtipton

 Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton

Helen Keller Achievement Awards & Exploring NYC Without Eyesight

In June, I was grateful to be invited by my employer to attend a Helen Keller Achievement Awards Ceremony / Dinner presented by the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) in New York City, NY (NYC), with my wife Kathy, colleagues and other attendees. This trip was my second opportunity to travel on a commercial airline since losing all of my eyesight. After I received the invitation to attend the event, I immediately started my planning and preparation to facilitate a successful trip that would hopefully be as trouble free as possible. I describe my trip preparation in a past blog post I wrote entitled Employee of the Year.

At the Helen Keller Achievement Awards Ceremony / Dinner I truly enjoyed listening to the people who introduced the award recipients, describing the work the recipients do to assist the visually impaired or blind by improving the quality of life, enhancing job opportunities by reducing barriers by increasing accessibility. I also enjoyed listening to the recipients humbly accept their awards and explain some of what they did to achieve this meaningful recognition.

The following day I was invited to go to AFB’s corporate headquarters and take a tour through the Helen Keller archives museum and meet with AFB. Being completely blind myself and belonging to some blind / low vision organizations in my local area, I have heard a few things about Helen Keller. During the tour I was pleased to learn many new things about Helen Keller. Now I have a better understanding of what a wonderful and remarkable person she was, and how she has helped change the world to assist blind, visually impaired, deaf, and hard of hearing, as well as many other people.

SIGHTSEEING with My Wife: The Art of Using All My Senses
This was my first trip to NYC, therefore I wanted to take advantage of my short time in-between meetings and award ceremonies to see (sense) some sights. With my wife Kathy’s assistance we walked on foot paths next to the Hudson River near the 911 Memorial towards Battery Park. Kathy described many wonderful statues, memorials, flowers, trees, old iron fences, old fashion street lamps, and other beautiful and distinctive old style architecture built with many bricks. I took the time to touch some of these objects so I could sense their texture and physical size. This enabled me to more accurately imagine what these objects looked like in my minds-eye. She also described the color and perceived depth and width of the river, as she also described the Statue of Liberty at a distance across the river. She also described the many ferries and boats on the river, and helicopters flying above the river. The same day after our AFB meeting and tour we walked from Madison Square Garden and Pennsylvania (PENN) Station to 26th Street then towards 51st Street, Madison Avenue, Broadway Avenue and many streets in-between. On 34th Street Kathy described Macy’s department store (the largest in the world we were told). She also described the Empire State Building, Time square, Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We went into St. Patrick’s Cathedral and since it was a warm day the cool temperature in the Cathedral was an exhilarating and pleasant treat. We walked throughout this remarkable large old Cathedral as Kathy described the many carvings, statues and stained glass windows. To help me visualize how large this Cathedral is in my minds-eye I felt one of the very large columns that held up a portion of the large roof. The column was so large I could not wrap my arms around it, and it felt like it was made of stone, or a concrete material. I took this opportunity to sit down on one of the many pews in the Cathedral and prayed. After we left the Cathedral we passed Radio City Music Hall, many other landmarks and numerous stores. I truly applaud my wife’s site guiding technique and expertise, walking through NYC, evading hundreds of people, obstacles, yellow cabs, cars, and crossing busy streets with a variety of Hard (90 degree angles) and (Soft) curb cuts that gently sloped down at each intersection. All of this navigation was accomplished while at times I could not hear Kathy’s verbal instructions warning me about upcoming obstacles due to the loud traffic, and sirens from police cars and fire engines. Luckily I have learned to feel Kathy’s body movement with either my left hand on her right shoulder, or right upper arm with my right hand on my support cane while she sight guides me. With this technique I can react to her body movement and not rely on any verbal cues. By the time we did our very quick walking tour of mid town New York, it was getting close to dinner so we searched for a taxi. After observing which streets had the most taxies driving down the streets, we strategically placed ourselves on one of these streets in a location in which a taxi could easily pull up to the curb. By using this technique we soon found a taxi to take us back to our hotel in time for a wonderful dinner with a co-worker. After our wonderful meal and great conversations we went back to our hotel and prepared to leave for home the next day.

The Rest of the Story
Kathy and I had an incredible time listening to the remarkable people who were recognized for their work and received the Helen Keller Achievement Awards, listening about the valuable work AFB is doing to help the blind, visually impaired and visiting NYC briefly. Everyone we met on our trip was thoughtful, courteous and seemed to celebrate life and companionship.

A few days after we returned home we celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary. We honored and celebrated our life together, our companionship, devotion and our never ending love that will continue for all eternity. Read another blog post I wrote about our 20th Anniversary entitled:
Anniversaries: What they mean to you.

Have you had the opportunity to take a tour with assistance? This assistance does not need to be sight guiding or verbal descriptions, like the invaluable assistance I received. Maybe you have other challenges or disabilities which require other types of assistance when traveling and sightseeing you want to share? Has anyone attended or received a Helen Keller Achievement Award? Any other thoughts or comments?

We look forward to your comments to help us all grow personally and professionally, and expand our knowledge and awareness.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author,
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton
Facebook: http://profile.to/wdtipton
Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton

That What You Manifest Is Before You

I recently listened to an audio version of the book The Art of Racing in the Rain. Although I am completely blind, I enjoy motorsports racing, as I describe in Day at the Races. I also benefit from the companionship of animals. The combination of these and other topics resonate with me in this book.

I can relate to Enzo's mantra: "That which you manifest is before you." As the author Garth Stein notes on The Art of Racing in the Rain FAQ, “I think it's very important to take charge of your life, not to feel like you're a victim of circumstance or fate, but that you are an active participant in your future.”

You can most likely think of examples of where taking charge of your own life helped you manifest your own destiny, instead of waiting on others to do so, and possibly resulting in an outcome that was not beneficial and did not produce the results you had wished for.

I believe one example where I took charge of my own life and manifested the outcome, was when I returned to employment after an extremely critical medical condition which almost took my life.

After a seven month hospital stay, without a doubt in my mind, I planned on returning to employment as soon as I could. I did not let the fact I could not walk without aids for a period of one year after leaving the hospital, lost all vision and was now completely blind, and had to learn many new skills deter me from succeeding in my dream. I did not let the victimized mind-set take complete control; although I had many challenges and obstacles to overcome. I focused my energy, learning many new skills and meeting many new people expanding my network, enabling me to expedite my education, leaving no time to dwell on my life’s changing events and feeling like I was a victim. When I talked with many new instructors and others, my words reflected my positive attitude about returning to meaningful employment as the new person I had become.

 

What will you manifest in your personal or professional life? How can we assist each other not to feel like we are a victim of circumstance or fate? We all look forward to hearing your suggestions, examples and comments.

 

Let’s all live our life with the attitude of Enzo's mantra to help manifest our dreams into reality.

 

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

Facebook: http://profile.to/wdtipton

Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton

Trust; Walking Without Eyesight

During a leisurely walk on a route I take frequently for exercise and relaxation, I contemplate the importance of trust. I believe the mind-set of trust can be in a person’s own ability, self-confidence, faith, or in others to do the “right thing”.

 

The thought of trust and the value of it occurs frequently when I pass certain locations on a local walking route.

 

I am completely blind and walk with a white support cane in my left hand and in my right hand I swing a long white cane.  I use my long cane to detect obstacles and receive feedback about the surface I am walking on from the cane tip as it touches the ground on every swing. I am constantly listening to the environmental sounds to help with orientation by remembering unique sound landmarks and utilizing auditory senses to detect obstacles by interpreting sound waves as they travel from their source and bounce off surfaces. Soon I hear the noise of motor vehicles passing in front of me getting closer and closer at a perpendicular angle. This is an indication that I am reaching a cross street. Feeling the light prick on my left hand from a sharp Yucca leaf that hangs over the sidewalk causes me to quickly feel my hand for possible injury (blood or deep scratches). I do not feel anything out of the ordinary, so I continue my leisurely walk with a chuckle and a smile.  Not far after passing the Yucca plant I slightly touch a fence to my left with my cane as the sidewalk slopes down and turns left onto another street and I reach a curb cut for a wheelchair access ramp.  I hear noticeably more motor vehicles passing me, going much faster than they were on the street I had just left. My senses and long cane tell me this part of the sidewalk is narrow because I cannot swing my cane to the left too far without hitting a fence, or feeling an abrupt drop off to my right with my cane tip.

 

When I explore this part of the route I discover the sidewalk is a considerable distance above the street which reinforces the need to pay attention so I do not accidently step off the curb. As I get closer to the next corner the motor vehicles are even closer, due to the fact they are coming from the west and turning to the south (cutting the corner). At this point the sidewalk slopes down for a curb cut for a ramp that gently turns to the left as the sidewalk abruptly ends. I carefully step off the curb paying attention to the direction I was walking to enable me to make an accurate direction adjustment, angling my walk to the left slightly enabling me to find a footpath rather than walking into the motor vehicles just in front of me.  Just after stepping off the sidewalk in search of the asphalt footpath, I cautiously walk through grass and dirt sensing hidden obstacles with my feet and canes. I soon feel my feet touch something solid as I then hear the tap of my cane against a hard surface alerting me I have reached the footpath. Feeling the border of the path with my feet I turn left and continue my leisurely and joyful walk.

 

Not long after I get my rhythm going, my cane hits something metallic sounding and very solid causing my body to slightly collide with the obstacle from my forward momentum. I explore the unknown object with my cane while attempting to figure out what could be blocking the footpath.  After some investigation I determine the obstacle is a vehicle parked across the footpath. As I maneuver around the vehicle towards the left, so I do not walk into motor vehicles passing on the street to my right, suddenly my cane hits another metallic obstacle. This obstacle does not sound or feel (with my cane) as solid as the vehicle, although this obstacle has blocked me from continuing down the path. I attempt to find a way around the two obstacles, when I hear a voice speak to me in a language I do not understand. I ask this person I do not know with self confidence and friendliness in my voice, if the path around to the left is clear.  This person answers me in their language which I do not understand. I then feel a trusting and caring hand touch my arm and gently guide me safely around the obstacles. At this point I remember, at times, a person would set up a stand to sell fruit at this corner, and the stand and their vehicle might be what the obstacles are. As I maneuver around the vehicle and other obstacle I ask the friendly person if they are selling strawberries.  This caring person understands the word strawberries and responds “yes”.

 

As I continue my peaceful and exhilarating walk I listen to the babbling creek to my right, and light breeze blowing through the leaves in the trees' canopies. I imagine in my mind’s eye what these images looked like when I had eyesight as I smile with remembrance of the beauty of nature. Suddenly I hear the sound of a bicycle coming up from behind me. Staying calm I demonstrate faith and trust that the rider would see me and my white canes. I slowly move to one side and stop to wait for the bicycle to safely pass. After I hear the bicycle pass very close, I say “hi” to the rider as I wave in their direction and continue my relaxing walk.  The silence of nature and solitude is interrupted by the sound of feet hitting the ground and quiet human breathing coming towards me, providing awareness a jogger is approaching. I continue to walk trusting the jogger will see me and not run into me, but move to one side of the path to allow the jogger room to run by as I say “hello”.

 

As I continue my relaxing walk, the path gently starts to slope down and gradually turns to the left, then to the right. This change of direction and slope is my landmark to start searching for the end of the paved path to enable me to find the sidewalk on the next street. Soon I do not feel anymore dirt border to the left of the path with my cane   alerting me I have passed the end of the path and have started to cross the street. At this point I quickly and abruptly turn to the left and walk back in the direction I had come from, at an angle that will enable my route to end up near the intersection of the street and the sidewalk. Suddenly I touch a dirt border with my feet and cane and follow the border until I feel a curb rise up with my cane tip or my foot (whatever hits it first). I carefully step up on the curb using my support cane to assist. I am now safely half way on my relaxing journey.

 

Continuing my joyful walk, I anticipate the possibility of running into obstacles to keep me alert, providing practice negotiating obstacles, improving my orientation and mobility and cherishing the gratitude of meeting friendly people.  Soon my walk is over leaving me with the desire to take another joyful lap around the block. Every time I go on a walk I am reminded how grateful I am to have the ability to walk.  This attitude comes from knowing what it feels like not being able to walk, get outside or move at all without great difficulty. This is because the same medical condition that took my eyesight away caused me to be unable to walk for one year while I regained my strength and learned how to walk again. I am also grateful I demonstrated faith and self-confidence when the medical specialists told me I would never walk again, and I decided to pursue my dreams of walking again.

 

Do you have examples of when you demonstrated trust? What did you learn from trusting your own ability, self-confidence, trusting others to do the “right thing” or believing in your faith? Do you have any tips to help us increase our trust?

 

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

Facebook: http://profile.to/wdtipton

Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton

Value of Prioritizing to Achieve Work Life Balance & Enhance Productivity in Your Career

We are fortunate that in most cases we have choices on how we can manage our time, priorities and ability to decide what tasks (opportunities) we will accomplish to meet our goals. Some tasks are pushed to the front of our priority list by necessity and criticality, and others are less time sensitive.

 

I have been fortunate to have had the ability to experience a wide range of opportunities to practice priority management as I continue to accept new opportunities to learn.

 

For me, completing projects or tasks provides a feeling of satisfaction and a sense of contributing. Completing tasks or projects as quickly as possible “just to get them completed” can lead a person to complete a greater amount of tasks, however, these tasks might not be the most critical ones for the greater benefit. If you stop to consider what is most valuable in the long run, you might consider focusing your efforts on completing a task that is more challenging and might require learning a new skill set or accepting a risk of failing before you begin the task.

 

We all have opportunities to make choices, such as choosing to spend quality time with our loved ones, visiting with friends or relatives instead of staying at home, utilizes priority management skills.

 

Managing priorities is even more critical in these times when we are asked / expected to complete more tasks in less time.  If you need to incorporate caring for the elderly, having a disability, the need for medical management or assisting others in need, in addition to your normal tasks, your obligations may seem overwhelming, which reinforces the importance of priority management.

 

EXAMPLES OF UNPLANNED PRIORITY ADJUSTMENTS:

Discovering I have no eyesight, unable to walk or speak, sit up in bed or feed myself after a critical medical condition.

 

ADJUSTMENTS TO ACHIEVE RESULTS:

Learned how to walk, talk and feed myself. Enrolled in and completed many blindness related skills to enable me to live and work as a completely blind person.

 

EXAMPLES OF PRIORITIES WHICH TAKE LONGER TO ACCOMPLISH, BUT MAY HAVE A BROADER REACH:

After learning how to use my assistive technology; I found the tools needed to perform my job had usability / accessibility barriers. Therefore, I realized I needed to reinvent myself to find a new career.

 

ADJUSTMENTS TO ACHIEVE RESULTS:

Took the initiative to complete courses in project management, Microsoft Office products in conjunction with screen reading software, locating and reading accessible books on a variety of computer topics and business and leadership skills to enable me to be proficient and productive in a new career

 

EXAMPLES OF CONSISTENT PRIORITIES:

Completing every day activities you are comfortable with for your job or personal life without the need to learn a new skill set.

 

ADJUSTMENTS TO ACHIEVE RESULTS:

Demonstrate discipline to put some of these “easier” tasks you know you can achieve with ease on hold, postponing a sense of accomplishment and complete some of the larger more complex goals.

I feel that time management is critical to work/ life balance, health, and well being, in addition to enhancing productivity and accuracy in your professional career.

I am grateful to accept help to continue to learn how to enhance time management.  I hope these comments provide ideas to help us all grow our skill set in this critical area.  

We look forward to hearing your valuable comments to help us manage our time and priorities.

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

Facebook: http://profile.to/wdtipton

Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton

Tranquility and Acceptance Through Alternate Senses

 Sitting in complete darkness, feeling the warm sunshine, breathing fresh clean air,  smelling the light scent of flowers, grasses, plants, trees, listening to geese honking, occasional eagles and hawks screeching and the gentle splashing of fish jumping and swimming, is very relaxing and rejuvenating (for me). As the sun sets and the vibrant bright day transitions to dusk, the air slowly cools and the sounds of geese give way to the deep croaking of bullfrogs and my contentment becomes complete. As day turns to night and the sky becomes inky black, except for the brilliant twinkling stars and bright moon; my physical vision is unchanged from when the sun shined brightly during the day.

 

Why isn’t there any light perception between day and night for me? Does this distinction really matter for contentment, tranquility and fulfillment?

 

About twelve years ago I became completely blind instantly, after a critical medical condition almost took my life. I have accepted the fact I will never again see the sights I described above with physical sight as I continue to enjoy the beauty and relaxation of the outdoors.

 

When I am out in the country, or any city, for that matter, I never allow my lack of physical vision to interfere with the joys and sensations I can experience when I utilize all my senses available to me, and do not focus on what I can’t experience. Most of the time I never even think about not having physical sight, because I am too busy actively experiencing the world all around me. On a recent trip to a lake, I was able to share life’s joys and blessings with others, in spite of the fact I am in complete darkness, like the inky black sky of the night I describe above, less the stars and moon light.

 

When I am invited and accept gracious invitations to locations I can’t get to easily without eyesight, or participate in events, where you might think eyesight is required; I do not hesitate, or even think about not being able to see or participate in any or all activities others might be experiencing.

 

Other people with disabilities or challenges, or even those without any disabilities or challenges might experience the same attitudes and beliefs when choosing and accepting to fully experience life.  

 

Do you have any experiences you want to share, with examples, where you expanded your alternate senses? Any tips to help us enjoy life, despite any challenges or obstacles.

 

We look forward to hearing your valuable comments.

 

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

Facebook: http://profile.to/wdtipton

Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton

Volunteering: Mutually Beneficial for All

Volunteering to assist people in need, not only provides a valuable resource for the person receiving the needed assistance, your outreach can also provide mutual benefits in ways you might never expect.

 

 There are many opportunities to become a volunteer. People being affected by natural disasters, victims of war, aging world population, people with disabilities and many others needing assistance are just a few examples.

 

Over the years I have been grateful to have had the ability to provide my time, caring and skills to help others in need.

After I lost all of my eyesight, I was very fortunate to have found unselfish caring volunteers to assist with tasks I can no longer accomplish on my own.

 

As you can imagine, having perfect eyesight one day and finding myself completely blind after awakening from a three month coma adds new challenges, obstacles, barriers and opportunities for me and my family.

 

SAMPLE - Tasks I can no longer accomplish or need assistance with (Volunteer Ideas):

• Read printed materials

 

• Fill out paper forms

 

• Ability to go anyplace any time without first planning, to insure there is an accessible route to my desired destination

 

• Drive a motor vehicle to travel when and where I want or need to go

 

• Complete all required maintenance around my place of residence

 

• Mechanically and electrically maintain our family vehicle

 

•Help my wife around our place of residence, like I used to be able to do

 

SAMPLE - Volunteer opportunities I have had and benefits:

 

• Mentor individuals with disabilities or other challenges to provide encouragement and sharing of life’s experiences to assist the individuals to not give up on their dreams and pursue ahead in life

BENEFITS: I have been able to feel the satisfaction of assisting individuals to maintain their current job or assist them in searching for a new career. I have also heard the joy and renewed confidence in the person’s voice after assisting them to better cope with the stress, anxiety and uncertainty of being affected by a new disability or other challenges.

 

• Accept the fact I can no longer do all I used to be able to do and allow volunteers to help me

BENEFITS: I have had the opportunity to meet caring and unselfish people, some have become lifelong friends. I was given the opportunity to learn from my volunteers’ unique experiences.  I was able to accomplish and experience many passions I had when I had eyesight and now with the assistance from volunteers I am able to continue some of my passions as a blind person.

 

• When possible contribute to local nonprofit organizations and all people they assist by contributing time as a volunteer, donate financially or, if asked, being on their Board of Directors

BENEFITS: Helping the community I live in and the people who require the organizations’ assistance. Learn valuable management and business skills to assist with my professional career.

 

I feel it is vitally important to assist others in need.

Just imagine if your assistance helped a person overcome an obstacle to propel them to accomplish work to help many others that could not have become a reality without your assistance.

 

Do you participate in volunteering? What benefits do you get from assisting individuals and non-profit Organizations? Do you have any tips or stories to help us be more effective volunteers?

 

Let’s help others in need by becoming a volunteer and by assisting non-profit organizations.

We look forward to hearing from you.

 

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

Facebook: http://profile.to/wdtipton

Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton

Courage: Enabler for People with Disabilities or Perceived Differences

Increasing your courage to take calculated risks can improve your general well-being and attitude in life. Learning to transform the negative reaction of fear of failure to a positive sensation of opportunity can enhance your chances for success. I believe people with disabilities, or perceived differences, get more opportunities to demonstrate and practice courageousness.

 As a person who went completely blind instantly, lost the ability to walk for one year and had the opportunity to overcome other obstacles has provided me many opportunities to practice courageousness. When it is essential to adapt to living life with a new disability, experiencing traumatic life changing events or being perceived to be different than others can aid in increasing the ability to demonstrate a courageous attitude. I believe this is true because you are somewhat forced to learn the skill of courageousness, instead of having the option to choose when you will take risks and practice courageous behavior.

I listened to an excellent dialogue called Courageous Leadership with Bill Treasurer online at the Global Dialogue Center. This reinforced the value of adding courage to our skill set to help propel us to our next level of success. 

Valuable Leadership Skills and Attitudes I Learned from Listening to Courageous Leadership:

• Increasing your courage requires taking calculated risks.

• Accept the fact that you will fail at times when you extend yourself out of your comfort zone to take on new opportunities. This is particularly true when you’ve not attempted a certain task, or you are not completely skilled “yet” in your next opportunity.

• Leverage past experiences to increase your skills in courageous and effective leadership. If you have a disability, or are perceived to be different or have experienced other challenges, you probably have plenty of past experiences where you have demonstrated courageousness you can recall to get strength and courage to handle your next risk with less apprehension.

• Have the courage to provide your own opinion regardless of how uncomfortable you might feel, even if you are the only person who verbally agrees with your opinion. Keep in mind if you have had unique life experiences, you will have certain skills nobody else has in the group, and therefore unique and valuable opinions.

• Work and live your life with confidence and courage to increase your performance. Working in fear, anxiety and intimidation leads to poor performance and distorts your judgment and can impact your health negatively.

Additional Resources to Inspire Courage: 

What did you learn from listening to Courageous Leadership? How will you demonstrate and practice courageousness in your personal and professional life?

We look forward to hearing from you as we take our calculated risks to grow our courageous skill set together.

Bill

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author,
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton
Facebook: http://profile.to/wdtipton
Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton

Dreams: Powerful, Valuable & Insightful

I woke up one day, opened my eyes and discovered I had no eyesight, attempted to talk and could not speak, tried to breathe through my nose and found I was not able to. Shortly after experiencing these new physical challenges I found I could not lift my legs or arms.

WHAT WOULD I DO, HOW WOULD I RECOVER, AND WHAT WOULD I LEARN:

Too weak to panic at the loss of some of my abilities, or care (at the time), you might think someone experiencing such life changing events would contemplate what would cause a drastic change in someone’s life, and what you might learn from such an experience.

POWER OF DREAMS:

I had just awakened from a three month coma, finding myself with these new obstacles to overcome. (In reality I did not awaken from my coma all at once. I opened my eyes very briefly one day, and very gradually stayed awake longer and longer each day.) During my coma I had many long dreams that seemed to last for days. These dreams were agonizing, uncomfortable, terrifying nightmares, in which I was aware of my critical and deteriorating medical condition. I believe these dreams helped prepare me to accept the fact that my life had changed forever. I had lost the ability, or option to live my life the way I had known since birth.   The way I had become so comfortable and accustomed to living my life was gone forever. These valuable dreams helped teach me to have the patience to endure my inevitable long hospital stay (7 months). They prepared me to commit my passion and energy to the needed rehabilitation and training I required to return to my professional career and my personal life with my new disability. These dreams also helped me discover my own unique and valuable abilities.
 
I had almost died many times in my dreams. I experienced relentless, torturous discomfort, pain and agonizing fear, and uncertainty, along with some visions of hope. I traveled many places in this temporary dream world, meeting with several people, seeking consultation and a remedy to my critical medical condition.

Relentless determination to live and the power of faith must have led me to meet a power much stronger than all during my dreams. This power, I believe, gave me the strength and courage to awaken from my coma, and join the “real” physical world, again. These dreams gave me a unique 3 month opportunity to explore my feelings of enduring torturous pain, discomfort and growing spiritually. This, I humbly believe helped to reinforce the fact that I might be able to return to the “real” physical world for a reason.  After such a gift of life, I was determined not to let anything stop me from overcoming my many new challenges to accomplish my goals in my personal and professional life.

My wife Kathy had the same vision and beliefs that I would not die. She believed this so strongly, that she refused to let the doctors remove me from life support, which would have ended my life prematurely, causing me to never reach my destiny.

Having the support and care from the many skilled doctors and nurses at the Catholic Hospital, along  with the many prayers from the Nuns, Priests and Chaplains at the hospital, and many prayer groups, and prayer circles around the country praying for my recovery,  aided in my physical and spiritual healing.

POSITIVE NEWS:

Although I have lost all my physical eyesight forever, I am happy to say I am able to speak again and breathe on my own through my nose and mouth. However, this all happened only after the life support and feeding tube was removed, my tracheotomy healed up, and I had to endure many hours of speech therapy. I am also happy to say, after many painful and exhausting hours of physical therapy and orientation and mobility training, I can not only move my arms and legs, I can even walk again with the aid of two canes.

I hope everyone has the ability to dream, and hopefully learn from your dreams. Never underestimate your ability to adapt and re-learn (everything, if needed), to trust and believe in yourself and your higher power. Please do not let anything, or anyone extinguish or squelch your dreams before they have the ability to come to life and flourish, like a hillside full of thriving wild flowers blooming in the spring sunshine.

We very much look forward to hearing how dreams (night or day) provided support, guidance or learning opportunities to help all of us.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author,
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton
Facebook: http://profile.to/wdtipton
Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton