“Never stop being a student.” This phrase speaks of military people and individuals who practice covering their ASP. This means Attitude. Skills. Plan. They are a phenomenal website and I have linked them. The people who practice ASP are eager to learn, never a beginner for more than once, and they are always improving. These are the real people that change the world, those willing to never compromise, and never quit.

Dyspraxia does not have a “cure”. There is no antidote for a neurological disorder. I use that term lightly. I’m living “with” it. I’m not going to freak out about the degenerative properties of having something neurological, though I'll confess, sometimes I do. But like some out there, I’m not going to let it take over my life. Dyspraxia doesn't stop me. The only thing that can stop you is your brain.

There will be good and bad days to dyspraxia. Some days my handwriting is a lot better than others. Other times, it’s hard to get my hand to write something I want to create, and it’s frustrating. I’m smart. I know I know how to spell that word, but my neurology just gets so mixed up. Too much information can overload my system. I’m like a computer. An example:

I was at the store recently with my momma, and we are checking out a new comforter set for my new and improved room. It looks like I’m a 20-year-old now, not an eight-year-old. So we are picking out some comforter sets, just looking at them, and all the sudden it happens. My head started going haywire! The psychedelic patterns, all the different pallets of colors, not many of them matching — most of them clashing. I freak out and put my head down and look at the floor. The light was shattering my head and my eyes! It feels like someone was jabbing a knife in my eyes, but it didn’t hurt per se.

Mom was concerned; I’d had a cluster headache four hours before where my head started pounding, so she was worried. It was not a cluster headache, my eyes and my brain were so overloaded by the plethora of different colors and patterns it came out as...well not pain, but it had to do something. My body gave me something to process. I was suddenly nauseous. Sensitive to any light. It was pretty scary, to be honest.

On top of that my mom didn’t know what to think, so we got out of that area. I was almost instantly better. It was the craziest experience, and I started realizing that this dyspraxia is a very real thing.

So, how do I make it better? How is something that I know is going to get worse with time not going to beat me? Well, there is an answer to that question and that is to train your brain. I will not out train this thing, like a good workout will not out train a bad diet — and by this I mean over eating. I will never cure my brain by teaching it, but I can slow it down. I can force my brain to be better at things I’m not well versed in performing.

For a very long time — and I’m so guilty of this, and still am — I’ve been afraid of failure. I don’t do things I know, or think I know, I’m not going to do well in. This still happens, but it’s gotten so much better with just a bit of confidence. The important thing to realize is that 'failure' is growth. I have also learned something new and that is there is no such thing as failure. If you're trying, giving it all you have, there is no such thing. There is only gains and progress. I fall, I brush myself off, I stand. That was the biggest turnaround for me was to realize the hardest lessons are the ones that push you to grow.

I recently started a new type of training, one that I've been dying to do for years, but too afraid to make it happen. My coach (his website found at the link there) informed me of this fact as I confessed my nervousness about picking something new up.

So the ones that are afraid of training because they might fail, failure will make you better. When working out, you want to push until failure. When I shoot, I want almost to miss my target to get better, to not drop my hand, or spaz out when I pull the trigger and not jump. I want to drop my shoulder more or breathe. The only way to do that is to miss the target. Or maybe in my online self-defense training, I want to skid maybe my knees on the carpet, or fall doing a back kick to work on my balance. Or maybe hit something wrong, to tighten my fist or push through the wall, and not pull my punches.

I put myself in situations where I have to improve. There are no options. I am always training. Working out helps because there are certain moves where my body is in on plane of space, and in the next, it’s in an entirely different area of space. And my dyspraxia hits my spacial orientation with a truck! It’s so hard for me to place something in spacetime with ease. I make my body be in different areas and have to think about it. My brain has to put my hands in the right place. So that is the biggest piece of advice that I can give you. Is make your greatest curse become your best asset. With enough hope, dedication, tenacity, and training, we can show others that dyspraxia does not have to rule your world.

ASP goes for every aspect of your life and there are many recources to help you. If you live in Virginia and want to know about the most important thing you can do for yourself, please visit my coach here. Learn about him and learn about you.

So:

Never Quit
Never Stop Being a Student and cover your ASP