--- title: Given a 1% Chance to Live, a Former Lycoming Coach Built a Daily Practice Around Today description: Given a 1% chance to live, brain injury survivor Tim Chiarolanza built the Today Effect, a daily practice of purpose, action, presence and connection. image: https://triumphinrecovery.com/hubfs/blog/the-today-effect.jpg --- [Skip to content](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/the-today-effect#main-content) ![Black and White Circle Global Tech Logo (2)](https://triumphinrecovery.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Black%20and%20White%20Circle%20Global%20Tech%20Logo%20(2).png?width=150&height=150&name=Black%20and%20White%20Circle%20Global%20Tech%20Logo%20(2).png) - [About](https://triumphinrecovery.com/our-story) - [Blog](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog) - [Get Involved](https://triumphinrecovery.com/#contact-us) Open main navigation Close main navigation - [About](https://triumphinrecovery.com/our-story) - [Blog](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog) - [Get Involved](https://triumphinrecovery.com/#contact-us) - [Donate](https://triumph-in-recovery.givecloud.co/fundraising/forms/G2EXWJD6) [Donate](https://triumph-in-recovery.givecloud.co/fundraising/forms/G2EXWJD6) Oct 29, 2026, 4:33:27 PM # Given a 1% Chance to Live, a Former Lycoming Coach Built a Daily Practice Around Today [Triumph In Recovery](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/author/triumph-in-recovery) Share: [facebook-f icon](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/the-today-effect) [linkedin-in icon](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/the-today-effect) [Twitter icon](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/the-today-effect) [pinterest-p icon](http://pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/the-today-effect) [envelope icon](mailto:?body=https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/the-today-effect) On September 21, 2021, Lycoming College named Tim Chiarolanza its head strength and conditioning coach, a job at his alma mater he had wanted for years. About two months later, on a warm November evening in Williamsport, his dog Finn broke free from his leash and ran into the street. Tim ran after him. A car traveling about 40 miles per hour struck him. ![Open rear cabin of a medical helicopter on its landing pad](https://triumphinrecovery.com/hubfs/blog/the-today-effect.jpg) *The Guthrie Air helicopter in Sayre, Pennsylvania.* A paramedic performed a cricothyrotomy at the scene, an emergency airway procedure he had never done before. Tim was flown to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville with a ruptured aorta, a separated pelvis, a collapsed lung and multiple broken bones. Three days later his brain began to bleed and swell, and he spent three and a half weeks in a coma. Doctors gave him a 1% chance of survival. He survived, relearned how to walk and talk, and built his life back around a practice he calls the Today Effect. ## Tomorrow, almost taken Before the accident, Tim was young, healthy and assumed he had plenty of tomorrows ahead of him. "Tomorrow was almost taken away," he says. The Today Effect grew out of that realization. It is a conscious daily practice of focusing on the present and finding gratitude in it, structured around four anchors. ## A purpose The first anchor is purpose. Each day, Tim chooses a purpose word that defines what the day is for, and that word drives the action he takes. On a hard day in recovery, the purpose might be as simple as getting through a single therapy session or calling a friend. ## An action The second is choosing one action that serves the day's purpose word and then carrying it out. The two are directly linked: the purpose word sets what the day is for, and the action is how Tim makes it happen. One action is small enough to finish on a bad day and specific enough to count. ## Presence The third anchor is presence, a deliberate effort to stay in the moment instead of measuring the day against life before the injury or worrying about what comes next. ## Connection The fourth is connection: choosing one person to reach out to, whether a fellow survivor, a friend or a family member. For Tim, that anchor reaches back to the people who kept him alive. In March 2025, during Brain Injury Awareness Month, he traveled to the Guthrie Air base in Sayre, Pennsylvania, to thank the flight crew that had transported him to Geisinger. ![Tim Chiarolanza with two Guthrie Air flight crew members in front of their helicopter in Sayre, Pennsylvania](https://triumphinrecovery.com/hubfs/blog/the-today-effect-guthrie-air-crew.jpg) Tim Chiarolanza with the Guthrie Air crew in Sayre, Pennsylvania. Image courtesy of [Air Methods](https://www.airmethods.com/press-releases/trauma-patient-reunites-expresses-gratitude-to-guthrie-air/) Flight nurse and clinical base lead Larissa Colton told Air Methods that Tim is the reason the crew does what it does and trains the way it trains. ## Small steps, every day Melissa Hlavaty, the Geisinger trauma case manager who worked closely with Tim, has said his message to other survivors is that where they are now is not where they will be tomorrow, and that progress comes in small steps. The Today Effect gives that message a daily structure that works for survivors, for caregivers and for anyone else who has been putting life off until later. ![Tim Chiarolanza with a group of young men in Lycoming gear](https://triumphinrecovery.com/hubfs/Gallery%20Photos/story3.png) *Tim Chiarolanza with Lycoming athletes.* ## Paying it forward Four years after the accident, Tim considers himself about 85% recovered. He lectures about his recovery, sits on the board of the American Trauma Society's Pennsylvania Division and serves as a peer mentor. He also leads Triumph In Recovery, the Doylestown nonprofit he started with his wife, Sarah, and their families to support survivors of traumatic brain injury, trauma and stroke. To connect with Triumph In Recovery, email triumphinrecovery@gmail.com. To support its work, donate at [triumphinrecovery.com](https://triumphinrecovery.com). ## Keep reading - [Bucks County Has More Brain Injury Help Than Most Families Ever Find](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/brain-injury-support-bucks-county) - [Ten Weeks to Home, Four Years to 85%: The Real Timeline of Brain Injury Recovery](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/traumatic-brain-injury-recovery-timeline) - [After a Brain Injury, the Family Joins the Care Team](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/how-to-help-family-member-traumatic-brain-injury) - [Paying for a Recovery That Lasts Years: Where Pennsylvania Families Find the Money](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/financial-help-after-serious-accident-pennsylvania) ## Sources 1. Geisinger, "The 'Today Effect': How surviving trauma gave one coach new purpose." [https://www.geisinger.org/about-us/patient-stories/emergency/timothy-chiarolanza](https://www.geisinger.org/about-us/patient-stories/emergency/timothy-chiarolanza) 2. Air Methods, "Trauma Patient Reunites, Expresses Gratitude to Guthrie Air," March 17, 2025. [https://www.airmethods.com/press-releases/trauma-patient-reunites-expresses-gratitude-to-guthrie-air/](https://www.airmethods.com/press-releases/trauma-patient-reunites-expresses-gratitude-to-guthrie-air/) ## Related posts [![Tim Chiarolanza standing with a woman beside memorial plaques at a Lycoming College event](https://triumphinrecovery.com/hs-fs/hubfs/blog/how-to-help-family-member-traumatic-brain-injury.jpg?height=200&name=how-to-help-family-member-traumatic-brain-injury.jpg)](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/how-to-help-family-member-traumatic-brain-injury) ## [After a Brain Injury, the Family Joins the Care Team](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/how-to-help-family-member-traumatic-brain-injury) [Triumph In Recovery](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/author/triumph-in-recovery) Oct 29, 2026, 4:33:38 PM A neurologist at Geisinger Medical Center gave Tim Chiarolanza's wife and father the prognosis in... [Read more](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/how-to-help-family-member-traumatic-brain-injury) [![Tim Chiarolanza smiling as he hugs a supporter](https://triumphinrecovery.com/hs-fs/hubfs/blog/financial-help-after-serious-accident-pennsylvania.jpg?height=200&name=financial-help-after-serious-accident-pennsylvania.jpg)](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/financial-help-after-serious-accident-pennsylvania) ## [Paying for a Recovery That Lasts Years: Where Pennsylvania Families Find the Money](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/financial-help-after-serious-accident-pennsylvania) [Triumph In Recovery](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/author/triumph-in-recovery) Oct 29, 2026, 4:33:36 PM In November 2021, a Guthrie Air helicopter carried Tim Chiarolanza from UPMC Williamsport Hospital... [Read more](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/financial-help-after-serious-accident-pennsylvania) [![Tim Chiarolanza in a hospital bed after his 2021 accident](https://triumphinrecovery.com/hs-fs/hubfs/blog/traumatic-brain-injury-recovery-timeline.jpg?height=200&name=traumatic-brain-injury-recovery-timeline.jpg)](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/traumatic-brain-injury-recovery-timeline) ## [Ten Weeks to Home, Four Years to 85%: The Real Timeline of Brain Injury Recovery](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/traumatic-brain-injury-recovery-timeline) [Triumph In Recovery](https://triumphinrecovery.com/blog/author/triumph-in-recovery) Oct 29, 2026, 4:33:41 PM Image courtesy of Geisinger Tim Chiarolanza went home on January 28, 2022, ten weeks after a car... 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