I have shared before how difficult those first days after my accident were. This month I want to give more detail. Not all of my struggles were in the form of physical struggles. There are things in life that are more crippling than physical trauma.
Sure the loss of feeling on the left side of the body, loss of motor skills and inability to walk were tough to deal with. The toughest parts were more mental and cognitive. This is why most brain injury survivors must be counseled by neuropsychologists. Life is hard enough without a disability and some days I would wonder if it was even worth it.
Being so young and so helpless was almost unbearable for me. To make matters worse, I was constantly being told by friends and family about how serious my injuries were. Even the nurses and doctors, including one of the best surgeons in the world at the time, would cautiously remind me that I was one stroke away from dying instantly.
Regardless, it was a given I would never walk again. Being young or just hardheaded, I was determined to prove everyone wrong—only to find myself falling off the toilet and eventually a bicycle. But each time I failed, my heart told me I could do it!
You Can Do It!
While I was going through rehabilitation the movie Waterboy came out and I went to see it with some friends from college. It featured a main character, Bobby Boucher, who was mentally challenged.
The premise of the movie was Bobby’s challenges kept him from doing things in life, like playing football or even getting married. However, by the end of the movie his rallying cry was, “You can do it!”
After seeing the movie, I unintentionally adopted this statement as my mantra. As I faced each setback or trial on my road to recovery, I would remind myself that, “I could do it!”
The writing life is challenging; at times we will have to encourage ourselves just to keep going when things don’t work out how we hope or plan. When it does, we must learn to adapt and press on. Here are some other thoughts to help you remember, “You can do it.”
- Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s not worth it.
- If you fall, you don’t have to stay down.
- Life is a marathon, not a sprint.
- Learn from what you’re going through or it’ll be wasted time.
Resistance!
Despite all the resistance we will face on our writing journeys, we must remember that resistance isn’t meant to stop us, only to make us stronger and better writers. During my rehabilitation, I learned that muscles I hadn’t used during my hospital stay had become weak and the only way to make them stronger was to put pressure on them.
The same principle applies going to the gym and working out. Our muscles don’t grow unless we test them by increasing the weight to give us more resistance. While the gymnasiums are closed during this pandemic, I decided to purchase a high-end resistance band set.
I don’t want to spend these weeks and months being sedentary and letting my muscles get soft because I have become comfortable. While the economy has slowed down to a record standstill, we writers need to be flexing our writing muscles to keep the creative juices flowing. Below are a few advantages of resistance.
- Keeps us motivated.
- Keeps us moving.
- Tests our strength.
- Keeps us productive.
Writing is a mental and physical workout that requires discipline to keep growing in our creative processes. Don’t avoid the resistance because you don’t feel like doing the work.
This is why I use the hashtag #Youcandoit on social media when I post about writing. Once you learn to process the struggles of writing, it can fuel your creative process in the long run. You can do it!
Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.
