The Mayor’s Commission on Disability and Families Helping Families of Southwest Louisiana hosted the 2023 Conference titled “Invest in Your Ability – Build Your Toolbox” on Wednesday.

The biennial event’s theme was chosen to “help ensure that the important work of expanding opportunities for individuals with all disabilities in our community” continues by building participants’ toolboxes with inspiration and information, according to a release.

There were multiple organizations and governmental bodies present to provide information, including the Calcasieu Council on Aging, the city of Lake Charles, Manpower, Louisiana Rehabilitation Services, Families Helping Families of SWLA, Calcasieu Parish School Board Special Services, Calcasieu Parish Police Jury – Housing, Imperial Calcasieu Human Services Authority, Southwest Louisiana Center for Health Services and Transportation: city of Lake Charles and Calcasieu Parish Transit.

The keynote address was given by Bruce Hamilton, local business owner, motivational speaker, beloved host of Pet Playhouse and author of “No Bad Days.”

“No Bad Days” is Hamilton’s philosophy of life, which he spreads throughout the United States with his energized and engaging motivational speeches.

His philosophy is based on the effects that a person’s attitudes and outlook can have on their well-being. He referenced the positivity factor, a scientific belief that a positive attitude can influence “the road to success.”

“You are where you are and what you are because of what goes in your mind. If you want to change where you are and what you are, you have to change what’s going on in your mind. … “If you allow yourself to have a bad day, you lose.”

Hamilton believes that positive thinking, alongside consistent efforts of self-improvement, is the key to getting the most out of life.

“If someone says ‘Why would I?’ and I say ‘Why wouldn’t you?’ Why wouldn’t you be as happy as you can be. Ya, everything’s not perfect, I know that. But it’s the perfect place to be.”

He drove home the fact that positive thinking doesn’t prevent bad things from happening. “No Bad Days” accepts that trials and tribulations are inevitable, and encourages a focus on bringing positivity to life factors that can be controlled.

“I believe that the messenger of misery is out there, and he visits everybody. That’s his job. … He’s either at your house right now, or he just left your house, or he’s on his way to your house.”

He speaks from experience. The messenger of misery visited him at 9:03 p.m. on Aug. 12, 2002 in a Holiday Inn Express in Dallas. He experienced a stroke that incapacitated him for 13 hours on the hotel room floor.

“I didn’t talk, I didn’t speak, I didn’t see, I didn’t move, I didn’t swallow, I didn’t wink, I didn’t do anything, because I couldn’t. I was 100 percent paralyzed.”

His only working sense was his hearing, and he listened as he was found by a hotel employee, as the EMTs put him in a helicopter to fly him to Houston Methodist Hospital and as his wife sat by his side in ICU.

Five days later, his daughter posed a question to him: Dad, are you having a bad day?

In that moment he questioned his own philosophy, he said.

“The doctor just told me that I was going to be a vegetable, that I wasn’t going to be able to walk… I started thinking ‘How am I going to take care of my family?’ … That was the point that turned my life around, because I knew at that point I had one of two choices. I was either going to buy into a bad day or I wasn’t.”

Other than the loss of his vision in his left eye, he fully recovered. He recalled a moment between him and his doctor on his 21st day in ICU in which Hamilton was told, “We’ve determined that the reason for your miraculous recovery is your attitude.”

That same day, he was asked to speak to other stroke victims at Houston Methodist.

“I said, ‘Bring them all. Bring them. I think God’s got a job for me.”