ReBUILD Tuesday D - (UBC 31) Determination

purposeful, persistent, and unwavering - DETERMINATION

The last step in ReBUILD self esteem is Determination. Today that’s what we will talk about. It's a fitting topic for our last day of the January Ultimate Blog Challenge. I would say this was planned, but it was not. When I started the challenge, I was planning out how I could write about different topics for each day of the week to make it easier on myself. I knew there were 5 Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays to plan for. I knew that my ReBUILD days would have to be 5. It could have been Sunday or Monday but I had topics that matched the beginning letter on those days. So, not really planned to occur on the last day of the challenge, but it is a happy coincidence.

Why is Determination a great topic for today? Well, that is just what I needed to complete this challenge. I needed to be purposeful, unwavering and persistent. I wanted to do it. It matched my goals.

But how did I do this and what does this mean to me personally?

With my aphasia, I need to pace my cognitive activities. (I didn't always do this well during the challenge and I experienced a lot of neurofatigue.) I also have to be patient with myself when I can't think of words and when I make grammatical and spelling mistakes. I needed to remember and use strategies that my SLPs taught me (breathe, categorize and summarize). I had to use technology to my advantage. Google and spell & grammar checker are my friends.

For this challenge I had to do these things and more. In order to upload a blog post each day and read and comments on other blogs in the challenge, I had to have clear goals and a specific plan. I planned ahead for the more difficult posts (Mondays and Tuesdays). I finished each post in the afternoon after my “rest”. Once I uploaded my blog, I read the required two posts above mine and posted a comment. If I had enough cognitive energy, I read and responded to as many other blogs as I could.

I can admit that I took the easy way out having less demanding topics 5 other days of the week. Although I did spend more time than I thought I would. I confess now that I intended to do a one sentence response on Self Care Saturday but I didn’t. My intentions was to just say “self care Saturday is for self care and I will do this xxxxx today” insert one self care activity and be on my way. I had a lot of fun each of the days of the week and I’m glad I set up the month this way.

With todays post, I officially completed my 2nd Ultimate Blog Challenge. I am so proud of the work I did. Looking back at my recovery I would have never been able to do this 3..., 2...., or even 1 year ago! Recovery from a stroke, especially with aphasia, is a long journey. I can see that every thing I did, every little step along the way, helped me to be able to do this now. I have shared that my aphasia affects my reading, speaking, understanding and writing skills. At the beginning each skill was rudimentary. With lots of speech therapy AND lots and lots of practice, my skills have improved quite a bit. Understanding and writing have improved the most. I still hope to improve further with reading and speaking. Improvement can always be made.

How does all of this relate to our last topic in the ReBUILD self esteem? Part of improving self esteem is having the drive to get things done - to accomplish goals. Working on goals and achieving them helps to improve self esteem in a number of ways.

In order to achieve goals first you need to want something tangible - a result. Weight loss, a new job, a boyfriend, a new car, etc. As you commit and work toward this goal, you boost your self esteem.

Just wanting something new can mean that you acknowledge your wants and needs as a person of worth. You deserve it.

Sometimes, experiencing a trauma (stroke, debilitating illness, etc) can make us doubt that we still have a purpose. I say, Where there is life, there is hope and a purpose.

We have this one life to live right now. I believe that everyone is here for a reason. We don't always think about purpose in life. Our purpose changes through the years. Finding our purpose is not always easy. At times it's just doing the best job we can for the task that is at hand.

I have found that I progressed in stages with this step of improving self esteem.

1. making plans and setting goals - for recovery

first with support and then on my own

finding and using motivation and improving resilience alone the way

2. finding a new purpose

identifying my strengths and core values

3. moving forward to live my best life

It takes determination to get your goals achieved. Achieving these can help boost self esteem as well as get you to the place you want to be - living your best life for as long as we have left. I'm reminded of the song......When you only got a 100 years to live......

I'm going to rest now. I will probably be off all social media for a while. Thank you very much for reading my blog and being part of my journey.

Until next time.....