Amputees’ motivation to heal. | Rider Joseph Forde wearing his 3D Firm Athlon custom cover design for transtibial amputation
“Motivation to heal it’s a matter of mindset”.
This is what Joseph Forde (Titanium Tarzan on social media) said about amputees’ motivation to heal. Husband, father, graduated in banking compliance, and passionate about soccer and motorbikes, Joseph gave us a great talk about the importance of amputees’ motivation to heal when hell comes.
After a motorbike accident that kept him in the hospital for 46 days, his duty in life, according to him, is to motivate and inspire other amputees. For him healing is also a matter of mindset beyond medicine, otherwise people are lost.
He spent the first few days fighting for his life and also struggling with thoughts of being disabled. He told us that those thoughts were like being in hell, where demons fight against his people.
A war between "you’re ugly, you can’t do it, you suck" versus "yes, I’m an amputee, I’m disabled and I’m beautiful."
At first he didn’t stand a chance of surviving. Then time passed and he has proven that pushing for what makes you feel alive is vitally important to keep doing it.
Riding is his passion so his motorbike was his motivation to heal. Unfortunately, seven months after the accident he had to rescue his friend from a lake in the process of learning to walk again.
Life changes in a minute, so for him we all always need a back up plan.
Fortunately he hasn’t given up riding because he keeps pushing himself. However, riding again almost cost him a divorce but he’s a lucky man and has a beautiful family who support him above all.
As a result, he inspires and motivates amputees through his social media showing that he can still ride a bike because this is what gives him the energy to keep pushing. Besides, he’s always up to have a talk with anybody who needs it because «you never know what a call could change».
"I felt confident knowing that, hey, the more people I motivate, the more people I inspire, the more good that I get".
“Motivation to heal it’s a matter of mindset”.
When you have an amputation you lose a part of yourself, and a big part of yourself is image and people notice it.
When people see an amputee it might seem like a taboo to them or that they may feel sorry and don’t want to ask about the prosthesis because it feels inappropriate. However, when people see that you are confident about that, and you are able to show that you’re full of colors it creates a whole different approach.
Moreover, the image, shape and color provided by UNYQ Covers are for him another key of amputees’ motivation to heal: “UNYQ gives me the style to tell my story”.
Actually, nowadays he’s creating his own adaptive clothing line so that amputees can wear handy outfits that fit with both covers and prosthesis. “The brand is the representation of me: I am black and gold”, he said.
I’m the person that you don’t want to end up like. But if you do end up like, you can look like me.
– Joseph Forde
UNYQer to UNYQer…
In short, we all have to keep pushing because, for him, as an amputee or survivor, you are not allowed to fall into those bad feelings because they can crush you if you are not well prepared.
Sadly, life is not going to be easy, but as long as you keep pushing, it will be worth it. There will be times when you will feel like giving up and it’s okay to tap into those feelings. You can live in it for a while, but you can’t stay in it.
Thus, try not to focus on what has happened and focus only on what you could do, what you are capable of doing now, what you used to be able to do. Be as unique as you can be, regardless of your physical strength, regardless of what people may think.
Indeed, amputee’s motivation to heal depends on a good management of their mindset and self-image.
My advice to a new amputee would be to let them know that this life is not going to be easy, but if you keep pushing, it’s going to be worth it.
– Joseph Forde
At UNYQ we share Joseph’s opinion that both the image and the motivation of amputees are important when it comes to healing both physically and emotionally.
As a human-centered design company, it is important to us to give UNYQers a platform for expression and to inspire and motivate amputees to heal through their passions.
If you want to know more about this deep talk about amputees’ motivation to heal you can listen to the full podcast episode on Youtube or Spotify.