Why Can't I do that?

Every once and a while you meet someone you inspires you to look at your life a little bit differently. Last week I was lucky enough to meet that person at a CHHA-Hamilton meeting. Peter Stelmacovich is a trained audiologist and FM and SoundField Product Manager for Phonak Canada. Peter also wear a cochlear implant in one ear, a hearing aid in the other. Additionally, Peter is an active musician playing bass guitar in a band called Below the Belt. Finally, Peter is the author of a fantastic blog called "Deafened But Not Silenced", which details his life as a hearing impaired person. Listening to Peter speak made me realize that we apply limitations to our lives based on our perceived shortcomings. For me, there are things that I haven't done in years that I used to love to do simply because I think I can't because of my hearing. The biggest thing that I stopped doing because I didn't think I could anymore is playing music. To hear Peter say that he actively plays in a band made me think "why can't I do that?". Perhaps we all need that kick in the butt sometimes in order to really look at our lives and evaluate what we want to achieve, I know that in just an hour, Peter's talk did that for me.