Juan Lopez.
The four stages of transformational learning are visioning, which requires you to recognize a problem that is significant to you, the problem at hand doesn’t have to be big or catastrophic, it can also be small and insignificant. But still a problem has to exists that has to be recognize by you, so that you can move on to step two which is acquiring and for you to do this you must come at the problem from every angle, because if you don’t a solution will be out of reach. After confronting the problem and figure the source of it and what lead you to do that decision.
You must also reflect on it which means finding a solution to your problem, think things through don’t just rush towards an answer, but take your time in finding a solution. Because if you don’t you might find yourself at another stand still. After finding a solution to your problem you are ready to move to the last step which is “doing” or integrating the problem with a solution to your life or to the situation at hand. If you don’t integrate your problem then your stuck with a problem that has been solve, and that will never see the light of day.
I remember when I was first diagnosed with diabetes it was such a roller coasted ride of emotions, at the very moment the doctor told me about my new fate, suddenly my world had change especially if I wanted to get better. I wondered who would understand me or anything that I was about to go through, would there be a single person who would know what It would be like living with the disease. I wasn’t blind about the disease I had been a nurse for years before I was told about me being diabetic, but now it was my turn to experience what it truly meant to live with diabetes. Everything I had learned through word of mouth to what I had see from other people, to even what I had read in books in nursing school was true and false at the same time.
After a couple of days of living with it, I came to realize that I wasn’t that hard, that my life was still the same, the only difference was that now I had to eat properly, exercise, and remember to take my medicine and to check my blood sugars. Other than that I was still the same person I was before I became diabetic. A week after getting in the new lifestyle I joined a diabetic support group, and that’s when I realized that no matter what I went through there was also someone who had gone through it already, there were nurses, doctors, and even everyday people who had diabetes that would help me understand every bump that I came across. Which made me feel a little bit more relieved. A weight had come off my shoulders.
Soon after joining the support group I decided that if I could live with diabetes for about two weeks then I could live with it for the rest of my life, but I know that no matter what I might encounter I always have people who truly understand what I go through.
Looking back at this situation in my life I feel that I experienced and went through stage one which is experiencing a disorientating dilemma, not only was it hard for me to understand what was going on at that time, but it was more of a shock, asking myself questions of “why” or “how could this have happened to me” and after that stage I also feel that I used the self-examination stage. Not only did I step back but I had to tell myself do I want to live with a disease that controls me, or me who controls the disease. I knew that I wasn’t going to get cured, but I knew that I had to control it so I could lead a normal life.
I also feel that I used stage four which is recognizing that others have gone through a similar process. After the initial shock, and the self-examination I remembered that I wasn’t the only one , and that there were other people. Who have gone through everything that I had already gone through, and there would be people who could help me cope, manage, and facilitate my life and that was thanks to the support group I joined. I also feel that I used stage six which is formulating a plan of action. For me that meant I had to check my blood sugars before meals and after meals, but finding a way to stick to it, also I had to make sure that I took my insulin and I also had to count every carbohydrate that I consumed, but my main focus was that I had to eat differently, I just couldn’t eat one meal a day, or even eat junk food all the time like I was so used to doing. But I had to learn another way of eating a healthier way.
After I formulated my plan of action, I reintegrated myself by remembering that I’m still alive, and letting
myself live by doing a couple of things that would help me with that, I also had to learn more about
diabetes, instead of listening to hearsay. I came to realize that as the years pass I am able to help other
people who were like me in the beginning. by reminding that they are still alive, also by reminding them to
check their blood sugars, exercising, and eating healthier. I also try to remind them that they are not the only
ones with diabetes.
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