Health Viewpoint
Do You Need a Push?
By Christy L. Parkin, MSN, RN, CDE | Associate Editor
What motivates you to do a better job in managing your diabetes? I often hear the frustration and sense of hopelessness when things don’t go as well as expected—mostly because of high blood sugars and inability
to lose weight. Diabetes is a demanding disease, and there are no
vacations. It’s always there in the back of your mind every time
you eat, exercise, or take your medication. It’s a constant juggling
act to think like a pancreas. Sometimes a person or a book presents
itself, inspiring us to do more in terms of our health. Inspiration
comes in many forms, and it’s different for everyone. I want to
share a couple of books that may inspire you to think differently
about the way you view your diabetes.
Although this book has been out for several years now, The Last
Lecture by Randy Pausch is worth picking up again and again to
read his powerful and inspiring words. Pausch was a professor
of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and a devoted
husband and father of three who was diagnosed with pancreatic
cancer at age 45. His “last lecture,” before an audience of
30 AUGUST 2012 Diabetes Forecast
400 students and colleagues, challenged
them to think about what wisdom they
would impart to the world if they knew it
was their last chance … if they had only
a few months left. He chose to live every
moment like it was his last.
Pausch told humorous stories of his
childhood and lessons he wanted his
children to learn. “The reason to turn
brick walls into motivating forces is that
if we don’t, they become excuses as to
why we can’t accomplish things,” he said.
“We can all do much more than we think,
once we decide to do it. Remember, you
deserve the best life has to offer. We
cannot change the cards we are dealt,
just how we play the hand.”
The second book, The Book of Better: Life
With Diabetes Can’t Be Perfect. Make It Better, is
by Chuck Eichten, a design director at Nike.
This isn’t your average book about diabetes;
each page is a colorful and visual delight—
inspired by his design background—that
offers a compilation of what Eichten has
called the “idiot things, and the occasional
smart thing, I did along the way to making
my diabetes better.” Eichten was diagnosed
with type 1 in 1975 at the age of 13. “With
diabetes … even a little better is still better.
And better, for all its foot-dragging, is the
history of diabetes,” Eichten writes. “Maybe
we can’t make diabetes go away. Maybe we
can’t make it perfect. … But we absolutely
can make it better.”
Sometimes it helps to be pushed beyond
our comfort zone. What’s your inspiration
to live just a little better?
Dan Page Collection/ iSpot.com
