Vicarious experiences are key in giving us a sense of self belief that we to can achieve something.
It was the famous psychologist Albert Bandora who developed the theory that suggests a person’s confidence in their abilities can determine their drives and decisions.
Someone with a high level of self-efficacy tends to foster a more positive outlook and experience a lower incidence of stress in life and have a deep inner belief they can achieve goals they set.
Self-efficacy is important because it plays a role in how you feel about yourself and this is even more important if you are faced with a life changing injury.
When I was paralysed it was Janine Shepherd the ex-skier who helped boost mine through seeing her achieve greatness post injury.
That’s the vicarious experiences part that forms the self efficacy framework, seeing other people do things that you may have thought were impossible.
This is also called the Bannister effect after hundreds broke the four-minute mile after seeing Roger Bannister break it in 1954. The Mile record today is an incredible 3:43.13.
One person who has rewritten the rule book when it comes to the Bannister effect and giving those with injuries that may see them lose part of their sense of self is the ex-rugby player Ed Jackson.
If you are a long-term reader of my column you may remember Ed, but if you missed my column around Ed’s story it is one of chills, hope, persistence and triumph.
Once a man mountain who stood 6ft 4in and weighed over 17 stone, Ed’s life changed forever after one fateful dive into a swimming pool left him paralysed from the neck down.
However, in all bad-luck stories from the wards of a spinal hospital there is always one’s that you think “wow, they were lucky”
Coincidentally Ed’s book is called ‘Lucky’, and you may think ‘what’s lucky about breaking your neck and being paralysed from the neck down?’
Well there are a few things, firstly there is the part where you find out if you are an incomplete or a complete spinal cord injury case.
This is important as if you are complete, no matter how hard you work, you ain’t walking.
This was Ed’s first diagnosis, and he heard the words “you will never walk again”.
This is where the lucky part comes in, his toe moved in hospital and at that point he knew there was hope.
The second thing that made him lucky was his dad.
Ed’s dad was a doctor and was there on that fateful day.
The key here is you can’t move someone out of a pool without a spinal board.
Switching from dad mode to doctor mode may be what saved Ed.
Then there was the surgeon who luckily was on shift that Saturday, so I can see why he called his book Lucky.
Then there are the vicarious experiences Ed looked for, and I am humbled that I was one of them.
Having been a few months ahead of him in hospital he could see what was possible with an incomplete injury.
However, Ed went way beyond what anyone thought possible and that story is now captured on the big screen and as I write this will launch around cinemas across the UK.
I was fortunate enough to see a pre-release of The Mountain Within Me this week in London and strangely enough sat next to Ed for the screening.
This was the first time since our injuries that we had met in person and as the story unravelled on the screen in front of me it brought back so many memories of my own injury I think there was a few times where my hand was on his shoulder.
The Mountain Within Me is not to be missed and for a good dose of inspiration, Ed shares an honest view of life with a spinal injury in the documentary film.
Not just for those injured, this story is one that can make anyone stop, pause and reflect on life.
I was sat watching Ed climb to the summit of Snowdonia a year after his injury to scaling mountain peaks in the Alps and taking on 7000m peaks in the Himalayas with Ben Halms, a paratrooper who is a beneficiary of Ed and his wife Lois’s charity.
And I was left spellbound by how the guy sat next to me who had been paralysed from the neck down was walking up and climbing mountains that I think most able-bodied people in the cinema that night could not do.
Polly Steele has definitely directed a masterpiece in terms of real life and the rawness of the human journey when faced with paralysis.
And Ed, well he has created a vicarious experience for hundreds of not thousands of people around the world on what is possible when facing what some would say is impossible.
