Monday, October 15, 2012

WOULDA, COULDA, SHOULDA - And The Ghosts Of Our Diabetes Care Past

Written on 10/15/12 and on my ipad during a seminar focusing on everything that people do wrong at work - And not once mentioning what people do right. And as I listened to the speaker drone on... and on... and on - It totally reminded me of living with diabetes! Also, how the heck do I hyperlink on an ipad???
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WOULDA, COULDA, SHOULDA,  I hate that phrase and I hate all the second guessing and self bashing that phrase represents. Especially when it comes to our diabetes - And the many ghosts of our Diabetes Care Past.

Bottom line: We can't change what we did or didn't do when we were younger/ or first diagnosed in life and our life with diabetes.
We can't change what diabetes technology was or wasn't available to us and we can't change whether or not we were receptive to it. And we can't change the state of mind we were 20 minutes ago let alone 20 years ago!
We can only use all of the above as a valuable tool to navigate our future.
So instead of focusing on "WOULDA,COULDA,SHOULDA," how about we focus on: I WILL, I AM, I CAN, I'M LEARNING, I'M DOING, I'M BECOMING and I HAVE?
Why not focus on how far we've come in our diabetes management - And why not celebrate all the many times we've fallen on our "Diabetes Path," but have gotten back up and kept on trucking!
Why not embrace all that you've learned and all you want to learn in the future?
Seriously guys, how come we spend more time beating ourselves about our D past and barely acknowledge how far we've come in our diabetes present?
Remembering the issues of our diabetes past is one thing. We should remember them and do our best not to repeat them - And we should always learn from them. But getting so focused on the mistakes of our diabetes past that we neglect to see how far we've traveled in our diabetes present, directly affects our diabetes future.

4 comments:

Kate Cornell said...

EXCELLENT post!! Yes, yes, YES!! thanks Kelly.

Unknown said...

Its a great perspective

Colleen said...

Nice reminder!
An old song...
Accentuate the Positive, Eliminate the Negative.
I sing it to myself, a lot!
http://youtu.be/f3jdbFOidds

Mike Durbin said...

So very well said, my friend. Lots of love!