Author and speaker Terry McBride was a specimen of health when
at age 22 he was leveled by an incurable spinal infection.
Undergoing 27 surgeries over an 11-year period, McBride all the
while stubbornly refused to accept the prospect that he would end
up a feeble invalid.
Author and speaker Terry McBride was a specimen of health when at age 22 he was leveled by an incurable spinal infection. Undergoing 27 surgeries over an 11-year period, McBride all the while stubbornly refused to accept the prospect that he would end up a feeble invalid.
Doctors dutifully sent him to a psychiatrist who delivered this no-nonsense assessment: “Face up to life in a wheelchair.” McBride’s reaction: “I told him I didn’t want to learn how to live in a wheelchair with dignity, but that I wanted instead to learn how to get well. He said I was living in a dream world.”
A heated exchange ensued between patient and practitioner for nearly an hour. The doctor said McBride was in denial; McBride called the doctor a jerk.
Finally McBride stood up and asserted, “I won’t believe you! I am not my medical records, I am not my past, and I won’t use what is going on now as a predictor of my future!” As he walked out of the doctor’s office McBride heard the psychiatrist say, “Who do you think you are?”
That was a defining moment, one that took McBride to the core issue of self and spurred him on even more. Today Terry McBride is a picture of health, and he isn’t in a wheelchair.
“Who do you think you are?” What a penetrating question for each of us!
Who are you? How do you define self? Think about this association: Are you your body? (“I’m short, pretty, fat.”) Are you your occupation? (“I’m a technician, Realtor, teacher, nurse.”) Are you your ideas, causes, interests, political leanings? Are you the things you own? Are you your religion? Are you your various roles in life? Have you become your accomplishments or failures?
We would be wise to disqualify these factors as criteria for measuring our value as people, although convention tempts us to do so. It’s dicey to peg what we think, do or accomplish as a price tag for worth, since external conditions are ever-changing and fleeting. What happens when Superman becomes wheelchair man? What happens when supermodel gets a super jowl? What happens when a seemingly fairy-tale life is poof! … spoiled by illness, lay-off, or divorce?
We each have the capacity to create a potent mental antidote when self support is on the line. We can be accepting. “I respect and value who I am.”
Inside your head is a kaleidoscope of constructive emotions – motivation and encouragement you can use to nourish your soul.
Resist the self-defeating practice of comparing yourself with others: siblings, co-workers, neighbors, friends. Most of us will never have as much, whether talent, money, brains, looks – whatever. There’s always someone else who has more. Base your opinion of yourself on your internal standards.
Look inward and learn who you truly are. Who you are is the sum of your values, principles, vision, enthusiasm, spirit.
You are your deep, original thoughts. You are the inventor of your possibilities. You are a creature with immeasurable capacity for creativity. You are someone with an important gift to share. You are outrageously marvelous.
Celebrate the wonderful person you are.
