|
As seen in
Successful Meetings Magazine -
January 2005
Joan Brock, motivational speaker
By Suzie Amer
successfulmeetings.com
More Than Meets the Eye
As a young bride. Joan Brock took a job at a
boarding school for blind children in Vinton, IA, where her new husband worked.
She loved working with the children and helping them to realize their full
potential. and soon, she became a certified Braille instructor. "It was a
exciting new life, new town, new job," Brock remembers. She became the school
liaison officer to the community and often spoke to groups on the school's
behalf. She and her husband had a baby girl. Life was good.
Then one, morning, Brock was looking for her daughter's pink socks. As she
rummaged through the drawer, Brock could see every color sock except pink.
Finally, her daughter reached in and plucked out the right pair. "She handed
them to me, and they looked white," Brock says. Soon after, Brock, seeking
relief from a sinus cold, visited her doctor. "He checked the pressure in my
sinuses, numbed my eyes, and sent me immediately 60 miles away to the University
of Iowa," Brocks says. "In three weeks time, I was blind."
Unbeknownst to her, Brock suffered from a very rare
autoimmune deficiency that had caused the irreversible deterioration of her
vision. "At that moment, I had the immediate understanding that I would never
see my daughter's face again," Brock says.
It is the moment she shares with her audiences. "I
speak about coping with change. We don't like being out of control of anything.
But sometimes there's no alternative, and you have to change the negative into
the positive. I lost my sight, and there was nothing I could do about it. Should
I crawl into a corner and do nothing, after telling those children all those
years that they could live positive and productive lives?"
Just as Brock is pulling herself up by her
bootstraps, though, she suffered another major loss. Less than four years after
she went blind, her husband contracted a rare cancer of the sinuses, and at the
age of 36, he died. "My first big realization at that point was that going blind
was nothing," Brock says. "As a disabled, widowed, single parent-suddenly I had
all these labels-I had to make some serious choices." Brock began writing a
journal that she turned into a book, and soon, she was on the speaking circuit.
Now, she shares her perspective with corporations and associations of all
stripes.
"Being happy is within our own power, both
personally and professionally," Brock says. "In organizations, changes cause
confusion and uproar, and throw everyone into a tailspin. In the midst of that,
people tend to say, "I like it better the way it was." Well, I liked it the way
it was too, when I could see, but I can't change that back. You've got to find a
release, a way to get through it." And Brock encourages people to focus on what
is there, rather than what is missing. "You know, we call people disabled or
handicapped, and these are very negative words. But the people I have met are so
much more capable than others realize. It illustrates the need to stop looking
at what we can't do and focusing on what we are capable of.
|
