By Scott Chesney
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• How do I stay motivated living with paralysis?
• Why would a company want to hire a person with a disability?
• What steps do I need to take in planning an accessible vacation?
• Can I still be sexual with SCI? How?
• How am I going to be an effective parent now that I have SCI?
These are just some of the unlimited types of questions that I will be answering as part of Action’s new featured Q & A column entitled, “Ask the Coach.”
As a person living with a spinal cord injury (SCI) for the last 22 years, since a rare spinal stroke left me paralyzed at the age of 15, I have had to face and ultimately embrace these types of questions and so many others relative to living life with a disability. For the last seven years since creating my own company, Scott Chesney LLC, I have devoted my work to empowering people from all walks of life (many of whom have an SCI) so that they can get from where they are today…to where they want to be.
As a world traveler to 38 countries, a motivational speaker to nearly two million people, a professional Life Coach, and host of VoiceAmerica’s Internet Radio show entitled, Maximizing Life, I help people help themselves make positive changes in their personal and professional lives so that they can live the life of which they are so deserving. Now is the time for me and my friends at United Spinal to help you, our brothers and sisters with SCI, to not only survive your disability, but to thrive in the face of it. Yes, I said thrive with an SCI. Never forget, anything is possible!
So, what can you expect from this column? Whether you are newly injured and are looking for strategies, techniques, or simply information on how to adjust, transition, and manage your disability, or have been paralyzed for 50 years and need a little jumpstart to your life, “Ask the Coach” is about providing you with as many tools, resources, and doses of inspiration needed for you to make life-altering and long-lasting changes to your life. The information shared with you each month will be a culmination of my personal and professional insights combined with the insight from United Spinal experts. How much will we be able to help you really depends upon your level of participation.
First, this column will only be as effective as the quantity of questions that we receive from you, the readers of Action and United Spinal members. As I share with all my coaching clients and audience members while speaking, I am simply a messenger. You are the ones participating in this thing called life. Have you ever heard that great saying that “You can only lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink?” Well, you are the horses and if you decide to drink, by taking these two steps, your lives will be enhanced.
First, you can write in with whatever questions related to your life that are important to you. Always remember, there is no such thing as a dumb question, only dumb answers which we will do everything in our power to avoid. Just know that no matter what your question is, whether you think it is minor and insignificant, there will be so many people reading it who will want the answer to it just as much as you do. Knowledge is power!
Second, you can take the advice that I provide for a test drive- in other words, try it out for a period of time. There is a theory that says if you do something for 21 days straight, it becomes a habit. Making changes can be challenging at times, but if you keep reminding yourself that your only objective is to enhance your life, you will find a way to do it. And I am here to help!
So if you have a question related to employment, travel, relationships, finances, health, friends, family, religion/spirituality, and so forth, please send me an e-mail at chesney12@comcast.net. All questions will be answered, but Action and I cannot promise that all questions will be published. Furthermore, all questions that are published will be anonymous, with simply your first name appearing after your question. If you do not wish to have even your first name posted, we will honor your wish.
I look forward to taking this journey with you!
“Coach” Scott Chesney is a motivational speaker and host of VoiceAmerica Internet Radio’s Maximizing Life. He can be contacted by e-mail at chesney12@comcast.net.
