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nolan mcdonnell

Nolan McDonnell

Empower Yourself

  • SJSU

Category: Motivation

Transferred to the Acute Rehab

From the minutes came out of the coma I immediately realized that I had to do something that previously I did not think was possible.  I had to believe in myself and my process I envisioned to make a full recovery. I could have the best surgeons, therapists, and team of doctors behind me, however, […]

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Overcoming Anxiety

I told my mom, “I think I am going to drop my math class.” I had just finished my first quarter at college since my brain injury, and I had an anxiety attack about the next term that was starting only one week later.    I registered for critical thinking and math classes over this […]

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Law of Least Effort

  Before my injury, I used to run alongside a creek, located deep inside a gulch.  These runs changed my life because, one day, nature awakened me beyond the influence of any mortal soul I have ever encountered.  On this particular day, as I was running, I was observing the characteristics of water and it’s […]

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True Colors

“Friends show their true colors in times of need; and not in times of happiness.” -Sir Kristian Goldmund Aumann   When my injury first I became surrounded by strangers, relatives, and came out of the woodworks offering unlimited support saying, “If there is anything I can do for you, please, let me know.”  Talk is […]

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Progess Is Impossible Without Change

When you think you know everything, your mind tends to close off, you are no longer open to new ideas, and you begin to boast about everything that you do know and do less examining about what you don’t. Additionally, when you think that you know everything, you tend to lack empathy for others, and […]

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Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

Hellen Keller once said, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”  Instead of creating violent scenarios, in an effort to force everybody else into submission to selfishly have their own needs met, lighting cars on fire inside the Oakland  Mercedes dealership, Trump deporting illegal immigrants, protesters murdering innocent civilians, label […]

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Broken Glass

When you think you know everything, your mind tends to close off, you are no longer open to new ideas, and you begin to boast about everything that you do know and do less examining about what you don’t.  Additionally, when you think that you know everything you tend to lack empathy for others and […]

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Standing Firm on Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs

Ryuho Okawa said, “If we do not challenge ourselves again and again, we will never be able to accomplish anything.”  New challenges give you fresh ideas by bending the mind around problems, which expands your thinking, and forces the mind to think in new ways that it never has never done before.  Where the challenge […]

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Intense Intent will Manifest

“Hey Nolan, would you mind if I interviewed you for a documentary about paralysis?”  I went down to Los Angeles, six hours away from my house to learn how to walk at a paralysis recovery center called Next Step.  Being excited about doing my first interview for the media I asked the videographer if it […]

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My Journey After Being Shot in the Head

I was shot in the head on April 23, 2017.  It was my parents 20th wedding anniversary, I was sitting in my car, parked up against a wall, wall at the end of a cul-de-sac, and I saw these five sixteen year old kids hopped this wall and came running in my direction.  I did […]

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