Quality of life.

That term is easily bandied about. I use it myself. The professionals at my dialysis center used that term to reprimand non-compliant patients.

It’s like “good art.” You may not know what it is, but you know it when you see it.

So, each of us has to define “quality of life” for ourselves.

Now, since we just mentioned that the “quality of life” is difficult to define, how would you know if you have a high quality of life or not?

One approach is to look at your life in a way similar to the way you look at a product, like a computer, or an automobile.

There are certain “features” in a product that you require the product to have in order for you to consider it “quality.” If you can’t afford the product with all the desired features, you compromise.

As you examine your life, you recall situations that were just…fantastic!

Maybe it was a social gathering where you were the “life of the party” and hated for it to end.

Maybe it was one of those…romantic moments!

Maybe it was the time when you solved a really difficult problem, and actually got rewarded for your solution!

Maybe it was that “spiritual” experience that you had in a nature setting.

What I’m suggesting is that the quality of your life is the quality of your experiences. It follows then that in order to have high quality experiences, it would be helpful to put yourself in the environment where such experiences are most likely to occur.

For the PKD patient, depending on the stage of his/her disease, entering an environment where high quality experiences may occur can be somewhat problematic.

Case in point: Before I was symptomatic, I took several wilderness vacation trips–two to Alaska and one to India.

That came to an end as I approached kidney failure!

So, as with the purchase of a car or computer, sometimes we have to compromise–this time with ourselves!

To be continued…

Have a Quality day!

Coach Richie Perl

Certified Professional Coach

Certified Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programing