Sheer Bloody-Mindedness

I have been re-reading some of my earlier Blogs today and I came across the term ‘Sheer Bloody-Mindedness’. This is a term I often use at work when supporting patients and families who are dealing with a significant health event.

So, what is ‘Sheer Bloody-Mindedness’? To me it is that refusal to give up in the face of uncertainty and difficulty. The mindset that you will not let things get to you to the point where you give up. I had a conversation the other day with someone at work and we were talking about those who work in a health setting that are younger, say in their early 20’s. While I hesitate to make a sweeping generalization, they still have a lot of living to experience compared to those of us in the silver-surfer age group. The person I was talking to was similar age to myself – in their early 60’s – and it is not hard to imagine that both of us have had our fair amount of adversity during our lives.

When a major health event or trauma happens to someone who has had a settled and – dare I say it – easier kind of life, they may perhaps have less tools to use to get them through whatever the difficulties are that they are facing. From each difficult experience we have in our lives we learn something, not only about the situation itself but also about ourselves. From the adverse situations we build resilience and the knowledge that we can get through some difficult times.

It can be difficult to keep going sometimes when there is pain and uncertainty associated with the experience. Even smaller things like my trying to do things in the garden become difficult when they are associated with pain and physical limitations. There is a need to strike a balance between wanting to complete a task and going past the limit of what is safe or will cause more pain and discomfort than is ideal. Today while out in the garden I pushed myself to do a few tasks that required a bit of lifting and then went on to paint some furniture. I painted two pieces of garden furniture and then went inside the garage to get something. In doing so, I almost tripped on the bottom sill of the garage door. That was my signal that I needed to stop for the day.

There is always something to do when you have a house and garden to keep up with. The trick is to know when enough is enough and to be able to keep ourselves safe. Learning how to balance my ‘Sheer Bloody-minded’ determination to keep doing things and contribute to making our garden beautiful and knowing when to stop and leave things over for another day is always a challenge.

Hopefully, I am old enough and wise enough to know when to give in and give up for the day.

I have often said ‘If you learn from your mistakes, I must be a genius by now!’