Mike's Regrets

On this blog, I've tried to write about the lessons I've learnt. I know that many of them are things that have worked; things that have gone well. That might make it seem that my recovery has all been plain sailing. I can assure you that, unfortunately, that's not the case.

Awhile back, I talked to friends of how, if I wanted to, I could call this blog, How NOT to Recover. One friend asked me what I regretted and what I would have done differently. I've reflected on that quite a bit since. Most of my regrets relate to times I simply pushed too hard - I ignored the constraint of my TBI and more or less tried to do stuff as I had previously done it.

In the list below, I've written examples of me doing that followed by posts or post labels discussing what I've learnt about each.

• trying to work for four straight hours well before I was even close to being able to (Fatigue);
• almost getting another TBI by trying to body-surf dumping waves at a surf beach I went to (Brain Lock);
• doing a new piece of work without having regular conversations with my boss about it. I subsequently embarrassed myself by having my work fall well short of expectations (Let's Talk About It);
• falling off my bike because of fatigue during a cycling trip and scarring my chin (The Hardest Thing of Mike's TBI Recovery? Acceptance!); and
• most critically, falling over and badly breaking an arm whilst out hiking when I knew I had poor balance, but hadn't bothered to use walking poles (once again, The Hardest Thing of Mike's TBI Recovery? Acceptance!).

So my recovery has had its downs as well as its ups! The whole way along, though, there's been lessons to learn and I've done my best to learn them.

Cheers,
Mike