Disability Dialogue with Bill

Embrace the Gift of Positivity

It is hard to believe we have already traveled through ½ of the year. I hope you have found your journey filled with excitement, joy, friendship, love and any difficulties you may have experienced has not stifled your positive attitude, energy for life and pursuit towards your goals. With the challenges many have during these uncertain economic times it is easy to fall into negative feelings and attitudes.  When we see and hear about all of the humanity injustices, our world resources being depleted and degraded, lack of jobs, the gap between the rich and the poor / middle class growing, causing many individuals to slip into poverty and become homeless and hungry can make one become negative. Extreme immediate changes in one’s life causes some to go into “Fight or Flight” mode and act and engage in battles for their own survival. Several feel this is the only way to act to survive. A few will even emotionally abuse the disabled and others in these trying times to get ahead. Some of the people who may make hurtful comments   may not be acting in such a way if times were not so challenging and difficult, in my opinion.

I hope you have accomplished positive work in these difficult times. With a positive attitude, courage and believing in your skills, talents and letting your inner beliefs and passions hold true, you can make a difference! 

It may be hard to break out of a negative frame of mind if your negative thoughts get a tight stranglehold on your inner beliefs in yourself. One good way to keep positive in what seems like challenges is to look at the difficulties and obstacles from another perspective.

An immediate way I can ground myself is to ride on paratransit. Paratransit is a service to drive the disabled who cannot drive themselves, provided in some areas. I am completely blind and ride paratransit to get to some locations. When I ride paratransit I ride with many people with a broad range of disabilities. Just the other day on the way to work I was sitting in the back seat. I was the only person in the car and was holding a pleasant conversation with the driver when it was time to pick up another passenger. When the driver helped the passenger get in next to me, I cheerfully greeted the person as I looked towards their face, with a heartfelt “hello, how are you today?” I did not hear an answer, so I asked again. The driver then told me the person sitting directly next to me cannot speak. I thought to myself as I looked towards this person, I wonder if they had any expression on their face of acknowledgment of what I had said. Since all I can see is blackness, I had no idea if they were even looking towards me as I attempted to greet them. Before I reached my destination this person got out of the car with help from the driver, without my being able to communicate with them, for whatever reason, I never knew why this person could not speak. These true to life, real experiences always make me think about what priorities should be most important in my life and what should be valued. This experience brought back memories of when I did not have the ability to speak for a while after I lost my vision. I wondered if this person’s lack of ability to speak was permanent or temporary.

Let’s work together to fight off negative attitudes, incorrect perceptions and thoughts that will hinder our ability and others to do work at our best potential. If I was not open to considering the possibilities of others, I might assume incorrectly, just because I could not communicate with the person I rode with on paratransit they were not capable of positive work, but in reality they could have been ingenious and were on their way to work to do very valuable, creative and important work that benefits all of us. Try not to let the distractions of the challenges make you lose your focus on what you really value. Do not stifle and blow out the flame of the positive energy of people you do not understand. We need all of the positive people working together to solve our complex problems we currently have.   I hope with the help of other positive and courageous people we can all draw from our strengths to help us pursue our goals and dreams in these extraordinarily challenging times. I believe positive energy can flow through virtual connections.

Has anyone noticed increased challenges for the disabled during these challenging times? Does anyone want to share your accomplishments this year,that you are grateful for? Any lessons learned? Anything you need help with during these difficult times?

Remember we are all extraordinary people. No verbal words or misinterpretations can tear down our true inner souls. They can only put superficial wounds in our outer body that will hurt terribly at times, although these assaults should not be treated as fatal and bring us down. Embrace the gift of positivity!!

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Adaptability and Attitude is Crucial for Success

Have you ever awoke and found yourself unexpectedly in complete darkness and discovered you were forced to immediately change the way you do everything in your life, including the way you work?

I recently had an opportunity to participate in an interview that was published in Careers and the disABLED that some might enjoy and find useful in their professional and personal life. In addition to my interview, you can read about other positive individuals that are truly making a difference in the world they live in.

The interview with me has dialogue on the value of networking, reskilling techniques, ideas for selling oneself, proper attitude for success, and other valuable lessons to be successful in what ever a person chooses to accomplish in life. A positive attitude and willingness to accept unexpected changes can help us during hard times. Adaptability and re-skilling to accommodate change is an especially critical and necessary skill needed to resolve the complex social, humanitarian, ethical, environmental and business challenges we are facing with so much uncertainty, and in some cases, fear in the world today. Accepting change, help and holding determination in our hearts and having the courage to walk alone at times in uncharted territory with self confidence is necessary so we don’t slow down any transformation we might be going through in our fast paced world.

I sincerely hope none of you have to overcome going into a coma for three months, loss of all vision, give up the ability to look into people’s eyes, and see the person looking back with thought and meaning in their bright eyes and expression on their face. Also, never again being able to look at a computer monitor with one’s physical eyes, while using a computer and other challenges I briefly talk about overcoming in the interview in the Winter edition of the Careers and the disABLED publication.

This publication is shared electronically with the permission from CAREERS & the disABLED -Equal Opportunity Publications.

 

What did you learn from the interview that you can use in your life? Any suggestions to help us handle critical changes with a positive attitude and willingness to accept unexpected challenges? I wish you the very best in overcoming what at first looks to be insurmountable barriers so when you come through your struggles you can be even more productive, have the ability to help others, and yourself more successfully than you ever dreamed could be possible. We all look forward to hearing from you.

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Have Trust; Take Your Next Step

We all at times have to make difficult decisions that will significantly change our life and family and friends around us. Some times we are forced into actions. Other times we voluntarily make changes to seek out a more meaningful life where we can be respected for who we are, and our unique skills and passions are valued.

I use the analogy of our options in life as stepping stones. The stones are evenly placed with equal spaces between each one on the path of life as we move through our normal daily routines with no obstacles or unplanned events. Each step is easily reached with no effort. Most of the time the path is so easily walked upon, we can step from stone to stone without even realizing we are moving through life as the years pass.

At times we need to stretch our limit and experience some discomfort to reach the next stone when things are a little more difficult. Other times unexpected challenges will cause us to loose our balance and temporarily stumble as we attempt to step forward, making us feel a bit unsure of ourselves.

I believe to make a dramatic jump forward in our life, sometimes we have to leap through the air a little bit higher and leave the security of a solid stone, if the next stone is just out of reach. When this happens we need to leave the security and familiarity we know, leaving the ground and flying through the air to the next stone. Before anyone makes their leap, they should not hesitate, once they have made up their mind. Hesitation will drain their momentum causing them to fall short of their goal. The leap requires trust and confidence in a person’s abilities and skills. Such a leap into the unknown does not come without fear and anxiety. However, at times it must be done to realize our full potential in life. As we fly through the air in-between stones, wonderment might be dwelling on our minds, anticipating if the next stone we land on will be level, sturdy enough to hold us safely, and will have catapulted us to a place of joy and fulfillment. Instead of making the leap into the unknown, we could have taken the road of least resistance and found a closer stone to reach for. I understand that for some, if we are not forced into making the step into the unknown, the risk is not worth the potential benefits.

I hope you can trust your abilities, skills and your personal values to make such a leap without hesitation when you need to.

Is anyone taking a leap into the unknown? What made you make such a decision, instead of taking the road of least resistance? Do you have any tips to share to help others to trust themselves to take the leap with courage, faith and well being?

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Courage to Live and Create Meaning

Has anyone ever hit a roadblock that seems impenetrable? Have you been unable to sleep because the day’s challenges keep racing uncontrollably through your mind at lightning speed as you anticipate tackling challenges all over again the next day? Does your mind uncontrollably contemplate solutions, strategies and actions to solve your challenges as you try to force sleep? Does stress and anxiety ripple through your body?

I believe we can all help each other meet such challenges we face in an ever changing and complex world we live in.

Like others, I have faced many challenges, some small and some critical.

Skills learned during hard times can be transferable and leveraged to help us in our every day life. Have the attitude that such painful and uncomfortable learning’s are a blessing in disguise. We need to be observant as not to miss out on how we can gain knowledge from our difficulties and learn to live without fear.

With our shared experience, and lessons learned in handling such challenges we can help each other in our personal and professional lives.

A few key lessons learned from my experiences

Some thought they should unplug my life support when I was in a coma for 3 months.

• Trust your inner instinct, have faith like my wife Kathy, family and primary care doctor did when they decided not to end my life

• When you enable a life to live you never know how many others that life will have a meaningful impact on.

All medical specialists said I had no hope of ever walking again.

• Believe in yourself and do not fully rely on the opinions of others.

•Dare to live, have faith, take chances and do not believe all negative comments directed towards you.

I recently listened to the recording of an excellent dialogue: Putting Our Differences to Work: HARD TIMES: Gifts of INSIGHT hosted by Debbe Kennedy. Many insightful and passionate leaders discussed and shared valuable lessons about difficult times and the value of learning and accepting these as a new opportunity for a new beginning.

I hope we can all have the courage to live without fear and create meaning in our life.

How can we help each other confront and defeat our roadblocks, fear, challenges and other obstacles’ that prevent us from fully flourishing as the person we want to become? Any insight to help put our restless minds at peace when we try to regenerate in our daily needed sleep? Do you have a story to share with lessons learned?

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

New Year - Time for Reflection and Renewal

I hope you had a wonderful and fulfilling last year.

It is time for careful thoughts, reflection, re-examining our ethical morals and start planning on how we can be confident in handling uncertainty, stay positive, productive and loving to others as we precede down the road of this new year. This year has started out with some deep ruts, steep ditches just off the surface, large rocks, littered with other obstacles and plenty of dead ends that will temporarily halt our progress. To get back on our road requires self reinvention enabling us to successfully continue to our destination. It is important while navigating such a challenging road, we do not take on too much collateral damage projected by others to weaken our inner souls and true self core values and beliefs.

To help prevent us from going off our road of life will require our careful and undivided attention to successfully navigate down a road filled with such obstacles.

Have you had challenges, obstacles, barriers or other difficulties last year? Maybe last year was productive and fulfilling and all you hoped for.

With the economic meltdown, people losing jobs, and other critical global issues, I believe last year had more challenges to test us than other years.

With instability and uncertainty some people tend to stray from their faith and ethical morals and act selfishly, only looking out for themselves.

With the global issues we face today, we need to work together to solve very challenging and complex problems we have. During these difficult times, it is no time to trample over other people or intimidate them into submission to make small temporary short term advances for oneself, as tempting and easy as it might be. We need to stay our course of humble, strong humanitarian leaders to lead others successfully through the maze of difficult and unique obstacles and challenges.

In either case (negative or positive) experiences you had last year I hope we can learn from our experiences to help make this year all we wish for.

I truly believe, even from our most dire and uncomfortable experiences we can find valuable learning’s to help us in our personal and professional life.

Do you have any experiences (negative or positive) you want to share with us? Any lessons learned that will help us in this new year?

In your new year’s resolutions I hope you include being the best ethical leader you can be, to help guide lost and weak individuals who are tempted by quick fixes for solving challenging and complex problems, and help the ones who are losing their jobs and homes, by no fault of their own in most cases.

We look forward to hearing from you in this new year so we can all work together to help each other navigate a challenging new year successfully and rejoice in our opportunities for renewal.

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Simple Holiday Gifts of Great Importance

                    
During December we have many opportunities to celebrate cultural, spiritual or religious holidays in our own unique and thoughtful ways. Just a few examples are Sinterklaas, or St. Nicholas Day, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Year’s Eve.

How do you enjoy celebrating your special holidays?

If your special holiday tradition requires the purchase of material gifts, I understand such traditions and partake in such customs as well, like I talk about in Decorating a Christmas Tree with a Disability.

I have found the simpler, non-material gifts have more meaning and are just as valuable as anything that can be purchased, in my opinion.

In   Special Thoughts During Holidays I talk about the gratitude and joy that can be experienced from non-material gifts, as I laid in a hospital bed for 7 months.

In Holiday Traditions I talk about how after I went completely blind I am still able to experience my enjoyable traditions that include family and friends.

It is far more important to be grateful and find meaning in simple meaningful gifts of human companionship and helping others when we celebrate our traditions. With the global instability in the world we are experiencing, these attitudes and actions are even more important to help us enjoy the holidays and others during this time of joyful and caring celebrations. 

Even a simple gift of a glass of lemonade can be cherished with extreme joy! To learn how and why a glass of lemonade can taste so good and be the best gift of all, if this was your first drink of cool liquid in many months, listen to Lemonade on the Road to Recovery on Podcasts at the Global Dialogue Center.

My Thoughts Of Valuable Simple Gifts Of Appreciation

 • Give the gift of  your personal companionship by spending time with others.

 • Offer your expertise to others to help them. In return, you will find the person you help can help you equally and mutualisticly.

 • Work to help the less fortunate, or those who are in need.

 • Offer some of your time and energy to help others in your community and in the world.

 • If you are in a position to give, give to others and organizations that can use your aid.

 • Teach, mentor and give guidance to people in your personal and professional life.

 • If in your professional life you are in direct contact with customers, treat them with respect and caring, like you should do for other co-workers.

 • If you are working, educate yourself for innovation and leadership thinking, even if you’re in an individual contributor role.

These gifts I list are equally reciprocal  as gifts to yourself. When you give the gift of oneself, there are others that receive your gifts through the people you touch you will never know benefited from your generosity. These gifts of ones self spread from person to person like wild flower seeds blowing through the wind and sowing an open field of dry grasses with the seeds of life. With kindness and gratitude and helping to create a better place for all I picture the gifts of California Poppy, Purple and pink Lupine seeds covering the hillsides for miles and miles. Soon a field of beautiful bright orange,  vivid purple and vibrant pink flowers cover the fields where once only dry grasses, rocks and dirt  in a variety of brown and tan hues existed.

During this holiday season, let’s plant some wild flowers of joy for others by giving the unselfish gift of our self.

How do you like to celebrate your special holidays? How might you celebrate this year? Will you be the one who gives the gift of a drink of lemonade to a person who was not able to drink any cool liquids for many months and make their day?  We all look forward to hearing from you, so we can celebrate this enjoyable season together.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Thankful For Unexplainable Guidance

        
I believe all things happen for a reason. Most of us have had unexplainable circumstances at some point in our life that have had underlying meanings.

One unexplainable event happened to me very soon after I got home from the hospital. I was in the hospital  for seven months and lost all of my vision and ability to walk, due to an extremely critical medical condition that hit me without warning.

Very shortly after getting home from the hospital I received a telephone call as I laid in bed recovering. The voice on the telephone asked “ is this Bill Tipton?”. I said with some hesitation, “yes, it is” Then the person on the telephone asked, “are you blind?” I answered “who is this? They quickly responded I am John Doe, from a church I had never heard of. John Doe  said a member of his congregation had found a Braille bible in one of their pews after a service. The Braille bible had my name and telephone number hand written in it. John Doe  said they were calling me to return my Braille bible. I responded with astonishment, my name is Bill Tipton and I am completely blind. I told them I had never been to or heard of their church. I also told them I just got out of the hospital after a seven month stay and that was not my bible and I did not know Braille. I graciously thanked them for taking the time to call, as we both were in wonder of who the bible belonged to. 

I felt sensations of bewilderment and amazement run throughout my body wondering with astonishment how this bible with my name and telephone number got into their church. I wondered  why that apparently lost bible was left on a seat in the pew of that church. I thought this unexplainable event must have happened for some very special reason.

To this day I never found out how that bible got in that church. Every time I think about that Braille bible with my name and telephone number written in it I am in wonder. When I think about that telephone call those same sensations I had when I got that mysterious telephone call run through my body all over again. 

Some incredible events in my belief that followed that mysterious telephone call.

 • I returned to church in my wheelchair without any eyesight.

 • Learned how to use a screen reader to allow me to use a PC and applications without eyesight.

 • Learned grade one and grade two Braille.

 • Learned how to walk again and left my wheelchair behind after many doctors from multiple hospitals said I had no hope of ever walking again.

 • Joined three non-profits in my community to help others.

 • Returned to work after a tremendous amount of re-skilling to enable me to contribute my very best to my employer  as I help many customers and employees from all over the world.

I truly believe others have experienced unexplainable events that have taken them on similar paths as mine. If you have not, maybe we need to take life slower, so even the dimmest simplest of signals do not go unnoticed. Even if you do not fully understand the underlying meaning, your heart and attitude needs to be open to let your inner self accept the signals. Unexplainable events if associated with proper timing to your calculated planned events can catapult your success. Just a few examples of the planned events  I talk about are  learning from co-workers, friends, observing others, networking, work experience, formal education and doing volunteer work to help others.

With everyone attempting to accomplish more in less time in their personal and professional life, it is vital to pay attention to your unexplainable events  as much as your planned events. This frame of mind is needed to take advantage of the catapult  effect I described when you associate different types of learning opportunities together. This is even more critical during our unstable financial and economic situation our world is in today, when we are asked to do more with less, some are loosing jobs and their homes. In some parts of our world some are fighting for the bare necessities of life to enable them to live without enough food, access to medication to fight critical deadly diseases, lack of shelter  and other very unfortunate situations. .   If you do not take advantage of unexplainable events, it is like throwing away a free learning opportunity.

In the US we celebrate Thanksgiving Day this week. This Thanksgiving Day one of my many things I am grateful and thankful for is the ability to accept help from unexplainable sources with humbleness and gratitude. Live with an attitude of faith and expectance to help your dreams become a reality. 

Has anyone else had a unexplainable event happen? If so, after the event happened did that event trigger any special learning’s to help you? Do you see any explanations from my mysterious telephone call? We all look forward to hearing from you.
 
 Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

            

Insight Without Sight

Like a terrible storm with blustery winds blows out the flame of a candle or knocks out a city’s power, a storm hit me without warning one day. The strong winds from that painful and fearful storm blew out my candle of eyesight forever. My terrible storm was the critical medical condition that left me completely blind forever.

I am very grateful to be so blessed that I survived my storm of a critical medical emergency to live and experience life’s joys and challenges to the fullest. 

Now even though I do not see any physical light through my eyes, does not mean I do not have any sight! My sight is now experienced through many other senses and sensations.  Having no eyesight has enabled me to see things other people with eyesight might overlook or have challenges sensing. Some people with eyesight might be interpreting their surroundings and other sensory input through their eyes and might not allow their other senses to experience what the eyes can not pick up on.

I can now sense new ways of accomplishing tasks, taking advantage of dealing with  opportunities, obstacles in my path to my goals, and insights into personalities’ I could not see when I had physical eyesight. Others who do have eyesight might be able to pick up on these senses, but in my situation my other senses were enhanced and enriched to allow and provide me with valuable new uniqueness to enhance the quality of the work I do in my professional and personal life.

Now, when I have an obstacle that seems overwhelming at first, I am finding with my new senses and skills I can take my newly acquired approaches to handle my obstacles and difficulties with tactfulness, strategic thoughtfulness and grace.

Not being able to read peoples facial expressions I now rely on voice tones, volume, fluctuation, hesitation, vocabulary, and other auditory senses and writing styles to help me interpret how to best accomplish my professional and personal work.

I believe I can now grasp easier the inward or hidden nature of things and perceive in an intuitive manner as I go about doing life’s activities

I know other extraordinary leaders who have such senses who did not need to loose any of their physical senses to hone the skills I have talked about.

Do any of you have techniques to help us have better insight to keep us on our path of life? Did any of you loose any senses which enhanced any of your other skills?

We look forward to hearing your thoughts, comments and suggestions to help us all have better insight.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
www.globaldialoguecenter.com  

Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

." On Sept. 18, 2007, only a month after doctors told him that he had three-to-six months to live following a recurrence of pancreatic cancer, he presented a lecture called "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" to a packed auditorium at Carnegie Mellon.

The moving and often humorous talk recounted his efforts to achieve such childhood dreams as becoming a professional football player, experiencing zero gravity and developing Disney World attractions. In the process, he shared his insights on finding the good in other people, working hard to overcome obstacles and living generously.

"If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself," Pausch said. "The dreams will come to you." Listen to Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.

What I learned from Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture.

• Teach by story telling.

• Never loose the childlike wonder, it is just too important.

• Focus on people, not yourself. • If you do the right thing, people will listen.

• Find the best in everybody.

• Show gratitude

• Do not complain, just work harder.

• Brick walls are there for a reason. They are there to see how much you really want it. These walls are there to keep out the people who do not want it bad enough.

• If you are doing Pioneering work you will get arrows in your back.

 

What did you learn from listening to Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture?

What childhood dreams came true of yours?
Do you have a story around accomplishing your dream?

What lessons did you learn from making your dream a reality?

Did you learn something from not accomplishing your dreams?

How did your dreams help you in your personal or professional life?

 

We all look forward to hearing your comments and thoughts.

 

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Opportunities, How to be Prepared

Do any of you feel like others get better opportunities than you do?

It can be easy to fall into this thinking when you are working many, many hours and are putting your heart and soul into your work, and you are not seeing the results you expect. It may seem like your work is not valued or noticed.

During times of global instability in some corporations, organizations, non-profits, local communities, our environmental degradation and other challenges it is easy to get discouraged and doubtful of your value, or the work you are doing.

I believe we need to pay attention to opportunities that demonstrate our value and skills to work towards our goals. We should be ready to engage in and jump at the chance to participate in any worthwhile opportunity to demonstrate our skills, learn by doing or learn from others.

These opportunities may come your way, if you are aware of what is going on around you and are ready with the correct skillset. Others you will have to search out. If you are pioneering a new and different opportunity, you will need to create this opportunity yourself.

There are many ways you will come across your opportunities in your professional and personal life.

Some skills that will enhance our readiness to accept new opportunities
List of 10 items.

• Embrace and learn from changes in your professional or personal life.

• Use and learn new technology to increase your value as an employee or to yourself.

• Find ways to further your skills by education, or learning by doing.

• Increase your personal and professional skills by networking and learning from others.

• Constantly be aware and be looking for new opportunities in everything you do.

• Think ahead about how one opportunity can open the door to your next opportunities that may be better aligned with your end goals.

• Know how and when to turn down new opportunities if you are too overloaded to complete them successfully. Adjust your current work load to accept new opportunities that better align with your goals and stop others as needed if possible to fit into your schedule.

• Learn to value your differences and use them to enhance the successes in your opportunities.

• Work with others ethically and value the differences in all when you are pursuing your opportunities.

• Do not be afraid to do something you have never attempted before and are not quite sure how you will accomplish the task. If we wait until we are sure we can accomplish the task with the precision and ease of accomplishment we feel comfortable with, we will miss the opportunity. That opportunity we miss might have been the one that will advance us to our next level of our desired goals. Be ready to accept the challenge with passion and courage!

Does anyone have any suggestions or comments to help us increase the amount of opportunities we find? Any suggestions to help us be as ready as wee can be to accept the opportunities with eagerness and passion? Do you have suggestions’ to help us take advantage of every opportunity we get?

We all look forward to hearing from others.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/