Inspiring and empowering people to maximize their quality of life in spite of a chronic health condition or a disability

STEPS TO CHANGE

  Issue # 9                                                                                                                                                                          January 2005

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      IN THIS ISSUE

 

TRAVELS WITH TRISH

FEATURE ARTICLE Decision:  If You Don't Make It, Someone/thing Else Will

FEEDBACK FORUM

CHUCKLES TO LIGHTEN YOUR DAY

FR~EE RESOURCES

WORDS TO CONSIDER

ABOUT TRISH

 

A chronic health condition can be a catalyst for personal growth and self-discovery. 

Are you ready to break free of the bindings that are holding you back from discovering your own personal level of optimal health?

 We all have one – no matter what the condition is that ails us.  

I challenge you to want to discover yours!

I take people from an overwhelmed existence to a comfortably paced lifestyle. 

Are you ready for that journey?

Contact me today for a fr~ee sample coaching session and get started on living your maximum life.

TRAVELS WITH TRISH

Thanks to everyone who emailed me after my CP24 interview last month.  Your feedback was warm and positive in spite of the fact that the event didn't quite go as planned.  When I got to the CHUM studio they told me that David Onley had been called away on assignment.  They were going to set me up with another anchor person for my interview.  Oh, those TV-types, eh?  ...so hard to pin down.  That was the bad news.

The good news was that since I'd been promised an interview with David Onley, I was going to be invited back for a second shot at TV-magic, this time with the man himself!  They thought that I might be disappointed.  Huh?  Two international broadcasts instead of one?  I don't THINK so!  They made my day.

Ernest wondered about the value of 4 minutes on TV weighed against the almost 3 hours in the car getting to Toronto and home again.  It didn't take long to see the value though, I had 2 phone calls as a result of the interview.  One contact has already signed up as a new client and the other is signed up for my monthly events.   Yeah!  Thanks CHUM!

If you weren't able to catch the spot in December, tune in on the afternoon of Wednesday, February 16th.   Check out CHUM CP24 www.Pulse24.com to see David Onley interview me!  David anchors from 2:00 - 3:00 pm (EST) and I have no idea which five minutes during that period that I'll be on.  You can either check with your cable company to see if they carry the CP24 broadcast or you can watch it live from their website.  Just click on the link above and look for the CP24LIVE link half way down on the right hand side. Test it out now to make sure you've got the plug-ins on your computer that you need.  If you don't, you'll be prompted to download them for free.  Email me if you get to see the interview.  I'd love your feedback!

A few days later I'll be off to Montreal to deliver my Living Well with Chronic Illness workshop.  I've been hired by one of the MS drug companies to facilitate this event for their Patient Advocate Program conference.  I've only been to Montreal once before but I remember how friendly and accommodating the people were in spite of my non-francophone status.  Thank goodness!  My grade one to grade twelve French lessons didn't give me enough conversational skills to ask for directions to the elevator at the hotel!  Wish me luck.  :-)

FEATURE ARTICLE

DECISION:  IF YOU DON'T MAKE IT, SOMEONE/THING ELSE WILL

Decision-making can be defined as the process of selecting a course of action from among multiple alternative options.  Often, the longer it takes to make that decision, the fewer options you have to chose from.  Further, if you neglect to make the decision entirely, some other force will likely make it for you. 

In order for decision-making to be more “user friendly”, lets break it down into a set of 6 steps.

1.      Define the problem or the situation that needs addressing.

2.      Gather information to assemble options to choose from as a course of action.

3.      Assess the likelihood of success of each option.

4.      Make a choice, picking one option over one or more other options.

5.      Take the action necessary to follow-through on the choice made.

6.      Review the outcome for success or a need to return to step 1.

There are many decisions to face in life whether you live with a chronic health condition or not, but when your health is at stake, understanding the need to take ownership over this process is critical.  It can ultimately make the difference between taking charge of your health or becoming a victim  to it.

Let’s start with diagnosis.  Most of us with a life-altering condition will remember the exact day that we were diagnosed.  It felt like a sledgehammer to the upper torso, to say the least.  In the days and weeks that follow, after the initial numbness wears off, we become aware of the need for decision-making.  Who and what to tell or not to tell?  Continue working or not?  Seek treatment or see how things progress?  This can be a very overwhelming time in our lives but each of these issues have the potential to take a turn for the worst if unaddressed for too long.  Making proactive choices to: inform those who “need to know”, cut work back to part-time and research possible treatments and healthy lifestyle changes can all be empowering experiences.  Making these decisions before some other force makes them for us, allows us to remain in the driver’s seat.

If and when our condition progresses, we’ll be faced with more decisions to make.  Should we be using a walker?  Is it time to file for a disability pension?  Can we sell our two-story house for a bungalow?  Proactivity affords us more choices as well as the opportunity to retain influence over the direction our lives are about to take. 

Later, we may be faced with the prospect of giving up our driver’s license, needing to move in with family members or setting up a power of attorney.  Ultimately, making our own decisions about these issues enables us to maintain our dignity, safety and free will.  Procrastinating tough decisions may be tempting, but if we wait too long, we end up giving up our personal power and becoming a victim to our circumstances.  

So, what’s it going to be?  Make a choice and own the outcome or ignore the options and give away the freedom of choice?  It’s up to you to make that decision; are you up to making it?

FEEDBACK FORUM

LG is a horse owner and aspiring breeder living with clinical depression

CHUCKLES TO LIGHTEN YOUR DAY

FR~EE RESOURCES

TeleSupport Group

Support for People with a Chronic Health Condition

(membership is a $10 per month value – yours FREE)

Held the 1st Thurs of every month 7:00 to 8:00 pm (Eastern)

What's a TeleSupport Group?

Glad you asked that!  It's like an in-person support group meeting in that there is a facilitator (me) and there'll be participants (yes, hopefully you) and we'll be getting together to share the challenges and successes we've experienced living with a chronic health condition.  The differences are that you don’t have to leave your house, you don’t have to drive to some distant location and you don’t even have to get dressed! 

How do I join?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TeleClass

Essential Elements of Living Well with Chronic Illness

A multi-part series - content changes every other month

(this event is a $30 per month value – yours FREE)

WORDS TO CONSIDER

"People who cannot find time for recreation are obliged sooner of later to find time for illness."

~~ John Wanamaker

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."

ABOUT TRISH

Trish Robichaud is a Maximum Life Coach living with multiple sclerosis and major depression.  She's grateful to have been blessed with a God-given, instinctive ability for seeing assets in people and then reflecting those assets back to them. This enables her clients to confidently reach for and unleash their full potential.  

She facilitates TeleClasses and a monthly TeleSupport Group at no charge to participants as well as publishes a free monthly electronic newsletter.  Her background is in business with training in supportive counselling and life skills facilitation.  

Together with her experience advocating for people with disabilities, this makes her ideally suited to coaching others through their life and vocational transitions. She can be found on the web at www.ChangingPaces.com.