Confidence and Education - Battle to Victory

Monday 3rd June 2013

I was reading a book the other day and this little paragraph stood out

“It was only years later, many years later into adulthood that I was able to see that my diagnosis was really the journey towards the meaning and purpose of my life. A journey we all have to take, disabled or not.

Regaining confidence is where our personal fight begins. It is rare to find a person, able body or not, healthy or sick, who has not been knocked down by life at one time or another. Regaining confidence is particularly difficult when we face a debilitating physical challenge. But we need to transcend our human propensity for self pity if we want to feel fully alive and live up to our potential. I have always found that my confidence is boosted when I push my body to the limit – skiing, riding my bike, swimming long distance – and deal with the physical pain.

Win one victory, go on to the next battle, and win that to, soon these little victories start to add up to confidence. At that point, self pity becomes but a distant memory.” Book – Who says I can’t, by J Rosenberg.

That pretty much sums up my words for today...... Win one victory, go on to the next battle, and win that to, soon these little victories start to add up to confidence. At that point, self pity becomes but a distant memory.

This week swimming on Monday, (which is actually this blog post, its just a bit late coming online) gave me a bit more confidence than last week Thursday. Yet it is not the swimming that is hard, it’s getting over my thoughts of being disabled and having to swim with people who are top triathletes in South Africa. Remember I am the first disabled person in the club I have joined – My Training Day. So it’s all new to everyone! I had the question this morning from one of the ladies, “so are you just part of the swimming practice?” 

As a friend of mine said – it’s about Education....so I educated her on Paratriathlon!!

Distance swam today 2.4km!