Finishing the Journey – Success #2

by | Jan 12, 2017 | Henry Ward Beecher, Success - 2017 | 0 comments

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My Achilles Surgery Journey So Far

Leaving the Port

I recently had Achilles Tendon surgery to get rid of some nasty bone spurs in my left heel.  It was 6 years in the making before I actually made the decision to have the surgery. It was actually pretty easy for me to not only decide to do it but to actually have the surgery. All I had to do was lay back and let it happen.

Leaving Sight of Shore

The time immediately after the surgery wasn’t that hard either. I went home, rolled around on my little knee scooter for 4 weeks in a cast. It was annoyingly inconvenient and painful now and then but it wasn’t really hard. Then I got out of the cast and got in a walking boot for two weeks. That was a bit harder because I was meeting resistance, I was pushing the heel a bit and it was not happy about it. It meant more pain and more worry. But it still wasn’t that hard. I was restricted by the boot in what I could do and the pain level was high enough that I could pretty easily tell when I had gone too far.

On the Open Sea

And now it is 10 weeks after surgery, the boot is off and it has become harder. Why? Because my willingness to actively work on the recovery is front and center. I have no external restrictions, only my own judgment of how far to push, when to pull back, when to push again.  It’s all up to me, even if I do have advice from a Dr. and help from a Physical Therapist. And what is helping me decide all this? Having my home port in mind. What is my final destination?

Entering the Port

My final destination is to be back to running healthy and run a marathon by the one year anniversary of the surgery. That is the port I am sailing for. That is how I will know if my voyage has been successful.  Now, the truth is I could be blown off course by something beyond my control and have to recalibrate that goal. That is always the case in any endeavor. But I am not overly worried about things I can’t control. What I am focused on is what can I control? I can control my dedication to reaching my goal and I can control the actions I take to reach them.

While every step is important, knowing your final port of call is really critical because otherwise it’s very hard to gauge if you are being successful in your endeavor or not.  It also becomes V]very hard to want to go through the pain and unexpected setbacks that are always apart of a substantial journey without a positive goal ahead.

So, set your sails and prepare for that journey you want to take. You can do it!

Drawing and commentary © 2017 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com

Quote by Henry Ward Beecher, 1813-1887, Congregationalist Minister and Abolitionist

 

 

Perseverence vs Obstinacy

by | Nov 15, 2011 | Henry Ward Beecher | 4 comments

perseverence vs obstinacy

It seems to me that one mistake parents make is being as obstinate as their children.  They need to be smarter than their children, more sophisticated and more subtle in how they wage, and win, their battles.  Calm perseverence and intelligent persuasion vs obstinacy will beat obstinacy vs obstinacy any day.

And you have to allow that sometimes you will lose the battle with your child, and that is ok.  They need victories too, you know.  The main thing is, no matter the fight, no matter the technique, never let them go for long believing you are against them. You always want to keep in mind that you are on their side, that you are their champion in life and you want them to know that.  It’s not an easy position to carve out consistently but over the course of a life it can be done.

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote by Henry Ward Beecher, 1813-1887, American abolitionist and Congregational clergy

Compassion #2 – Sin and Condemnation

by | Feb 2, 2011 | Compassion - 2011, Henry Ward Beecher | 0 comments

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If you are in the position where you live with, deal with, suffer with, a person who is deep into addiction, sin, mental illness, depression or any other emotional/psychological/chemical trauma, you should have been able to tell by now that the simplistic anger leading to condemnation has really done nothing to help that person. It may seem like the way to proceed; it’s easy, feels good, feels morally right, but it isn’t and it won’t help that person, or you, in the long run.

Try compassion instead.  That doesn’t mean you aren’t strong and it doesn’t mean you don’t hold them accountable. But you do it with love and understanding, not anger and self-righteousness.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote by Henry Ward Beecher, 1813-1887, Congregationalist, clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist,and speaker. Very interesting guy, check his bio out when you get a chance.

We Need To Be Just – updated 2017

by | Sep 9, 2009 | Henry Ward Beecher | 0 comments

I like this quote, it makes sense. What is the use of being generous if we aren’t fair, if we aren’t just, in how we approach our generosity and our response to needs we see before us.

Drawing © Marty Coleman

“We need to be just before we are generous as we need shirts before ruffles.” – Henry Ward Beecher