It’s been a very busy couple of weeks, and my spouse says I look tired. Indeed. I am tired. And I have an early appointment tomorrow morning.
I have been having a lot of trouble getting up in the morning — this is a change, from when I used to have trouble staying asleep past 5:30 a.m.
Well, things change.
And so do we.
My job is going pretty well. It’s up and down, and it’s a LOT of work, but it’s going.
Ca va?
Oui. Ca va.
I have been thinking a great deal about what becomes of us in this life. Character. Strength. Discipline. I have been much too busy to take time to write it all down, but I hope to do some of that this weekend.
Before I sign off for the night, let me ask — How are you moving towards greatness in your life? What steps are you taking to create a truly great life? Not just a scraping-by life, not just a barely-made-it life, but a truly amazing, wonderful, remarkable life?
“But I’m not doing that!” you say? Baloney. Each and every one of us has seeds of greatness within us. We cannot help but seek out that which makes us better. Plenty of people will argue with me on this point, but I don’t believe them.
How are YOU pursuing your own greatness?
Broken Brain - Brilliant Mind 
Oui. Ca va. Et toi? That is about all I remember after 4 years of French!
I am investing in myself every day through physical exercise, meditation, voice exercises, manual dexterity exercises, writing, brain training, etc… to ensure that my future is the best it can be…glorious even.
I do believe that we create our realities. I am living the one I created in the past. Gonna make damn sure the one coming up is great no matter what comes my way! 🙂
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I think it is “est toi?” now. Who knows?!
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I have been following your blog for a little while now on and off. I think that potential and greatness can be scary for all of us. I know that I like to hope that my weaknesses may be enough to excuse me for where I fall short. My strengths are not the type that can be quantified as much or marketed.
I am not sure if I have had a TBI specifically as I blacked out and do not know if my head hit the pavement or another incident may not qualify. However, I do feel that I might have learning disabilites from whatever origin.
Your post on how you have to parot back comments to friends and struggle to know what they are saying made me grateful that I can usually follow conversations pretty well. My weakensses are in other areas and I have few life skills. Not to be too dramatic, but there were also trauma that influences my lack of life skills and also ocd. I probably won’t comment again. I plan to keep reading. I wish you all the best. –Barb
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I agree completely with you, and often forget this truth … Thanks for the reminder 🙂
I’m writing, working hard to think good thoughts (very challenging to do with any kind of brain injury, yes?), and keeping up with my housework and self-care. Very much the basics right now. Strong houses are built on solid foundations … 🙂
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You go, girl!
🙂
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Hi Barb –
Thanks for checking in. Head injury is a tricky thing – maybe you had one… Lots of people have had head injuries they don’t recall. Ironic, isn’t it?
I wish you all the best and hope you have a great day. You never know… some life skills may appear just when you least expect them 😉
Best
BB
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Indeed – the basics are essential. Personally, I feel like it’s the “simple” things that are sometimes the most difficult to do well.
Keep that house strong.
BB
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Thank you for your reply! I like feeling connected even if it is a small way to people that I meet on a blog. I guess that I never answered the question. With all of my limitations, I feel so much purpose. My mind is constantly thinking of activities that involve mentoring others or uplifting social gatherings. I sometimes lose sleep planning. I should add that it is hard for sometimes just to go outside. If I do these activities, I would want to be separate from the others such as behind a back stop or have a separate entrance behind a desk. I dream so much. I know dreaming doesn’t get much accomplished. I did have a brief encounter outside last weekend that counts towards my goal. I also am studying phonics, which is important for my goal. I study a lot of subjects because I feel like a work in progress and feel like I need to have a lot of general knowledge to do what I am supposed to do in life. I work from home so I can use my energy towards these goals. I do want to add that I have had someone hit my head more than once but I don’t think it bruised so probably no damage. Also, I want to share more in just a moment.
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The following is rather personal but if you can’t share it on an anonymous blog where can you share it. It is often difficult to share with people as they don’t seem to understand or follow up. As you mentioned post traumatic stress sydrome, I wanted to say that my problems with life skills may not just be due to possible learning disabilites but also abuse. I will try to give a feel for it as much as I can to help you understand. Starting in my teen years, someone would go into a rage if I didn’t do something the correct way in their mind. I could never hold a tool right or vacum right or do things in general. They did praise my good grades in school and much of my sports ability. There were times when they went into a rage about shortcomings in sports but usually they exagerated my ability to make it sound like I was best in the state or region.
When working they would go into a rage “use a system,” so that I wouln’t miss something. When I was doing something with them such as putting up scaffolding or helping them plant flowers, they would want me to think ahead of them and figure out and stand where they wanted and figure out the next step. It was like they wanted me to read their mind and would go crazy. They went into a rage once or maybe more than once when I didn’t see a spot they were pointing at or something and pushed me to the ground from behind and held me there. My other parent was not like this but never taught me how to do things really. When I was small, the abusive parent acted like I did things very well and they were not abusive then.
I don’t expect any advice. Things are going good now. While I may never achieve life skills without therapy or such, I do hold down a job and get paid pretty good per hour and have a steady schedule.
And I have pretty good self esteem in areas not related to my ocd or lack of life skills.
Thanks for listening. I don’t plan to post again but I should never say never.
I appreciate learning about tbi here although I don’t know if I ever had one. I used to worry if I were mentally retarded but as I graduated from the University with honors, I think I am pretty okay there.
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Someone once said to me that sometimes people turn their greatest weaknesses into their greatest strengths. It meant a lot to me, then, and I hope it means something to you now.
All of us are a work in progress — good for you for recognizing it and making the effort to do the work.
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I often think of how many people are living out their lives knowing only part of their full potential because of what was said/done to them by people who were ill, unstable, or just plain mean. Each of us has our challenges, and I think we all need to give ourselves more credit. This is not to say that these things are any less difficult or harmful — it’s just to say that our human family isn’t the easiest crowd of folks to get along with at times, and we all share some level of pain and damage.
Hey – in this economy, steady work and a steady schedule are nothing to sneeze at.
Be well.
BB
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I wanted to comment briefly to say that I appreciated your comments. I have learned to filter out a lot of the negative messages from my youth. You are right that so often we give control of our image to people that have their own shortcomings whether it is biochemcial or their nature. I have read your more recent posts and insights. I am so grateful that I googled this site some months ago. I think I used words such as rage to help my second cousin who is behaviorally disturbed learn some coping mechanisms. Although I have a pretty good edit button and seldom have mood swings where I get angy enough to say mean things, I too found your insights to be very helpful. Thanks for being here. I hope that you get proper rest and that your headaches go away. Take care! I plan to keep checking in from time to time although I may not comment.
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Thanks for your comments. It is very helpful for me to know how people find their way here. I think a lot of the issues TBI folks have are common to the rest of the human race — we just have a much more concentrated (and often puzzling) combination of issues than “regular” folks.
One thing my neuropsych is trying to convince me of is that TBI doesn’t make me any more “abnormal” than other people. It introduces issues I need to deal with that I didn’t have to deal with before, but it doesn’t make me any less human or less able to change and grow and heal.
Good lessons… but challenging ones that seem to take forever!
Thanks again for your note.
Be well
BB
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