Strategic Discipline Blog

“If I emulated you in any way as a creator today, send me a signal in the form of feedback in my world to let me know that you were noticing my efforts. And bring it in a way that I least expect, that wakes me up from this dream, and leaves no doubt that it has come from you so that I am inspired to do this again tomorrow.”  The voice of Joe Dispensa softly speaks to me at the end of my meditation

It’s a call to action to make me accountable to the Creator.  Dispenza calls it Quantum Feedback.  About a week after I discovered I had Acute Myeloid Leukemia I began a disciplined regiment of meditation.  This statement is critical to getting results.  No question there is doubt.  What if it doesn’t work?

This should be a reminder that no matter your personal or business aspirations you should expect results.  You need to measure your top priority.  You need leading and lagging indicators to make sure you’re on track.  You should have a personal and company accountability dashboard.  Always remember Pearson’s Law, the fundamental principle of Strategic Discipline, “When performance is measured, performance improves.  When performance is measured and reported back, performance improves dramatically.”

My reasons for making meditation the main focus of getting my AML into remission are numerous.   First I believe, “If Our Thoughts Can Make Us Sick, They Can Make Us Well.”   In addition, I had already discovered and realized a miracle in my life through meditation. 

Sometimes we need to chew our food more than once.

A lesson and a miracle I learned had to be learned again. The week after I discovered I had Leukemia, Alan Fendrich, a former client, who I’d been meeting with regularly in a mutual “coaching” meeting, reminded me of the power of this tool (meditation) that I’d previously learned.  He introduced me to Joe Dispensa’s book, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One.  Read my newsletter Cross the Red Sea #128 4-30-12 (What’s Your Formula for Success?) about my first discovery of the power of meditation.  After such a significant event you’d think there would be no way I would forget its impact to keep me in touch with my Higher Power - God.

Alan Fendrich and I met when we were both in radio.  He was the founder of a company that helped radio stations sell unused inventory by hiring telemarketers to promote public service messages in their community.  Through this association, we eventually became customers of each other.  My radio station signed up to run his telemarketing program, and he was an E-Myth client as I pursued the coaching process while still managing the radio station.

Possibly the most admirable aspect of Alan is where he lives now. In Israel on the Mediterranean Sea.  I suggest to him frequently that he is living his dream. I recall when working on his Primary Aim that his goal was to live in Israel someday.   He’s living that dream now!  He sold his company in 2001 to a dot.com business (which he started in 1995) and moved to Israel in July 2003. We maintained our friendship and Alan now owns a company that is based on the discovery he made on how to successfully hire better salespeople through his first company.  You can learn how to gain an advantage in hiring salespeople at AdvanceHiring.com.

Having Alan as a coach immediately made me more accountable for my health.  We discussed the book, the CDs Dispenza provides, and the formula to follow.  I’d already determined that my recovery was going to be the highest priority for me.  I felt I could beat this.  The book and having a partner to help me work through the process of meditation gave me both the structure and faith that I could accomplish it.

Weekly Alan and I shared our results, challenges, and questions regarding the meditation process.  I can recall one occasion when I had a question about the formula to follow.  Dispenza suggests you take steps with meditation, and I started by going through the entire one-hour plus of meditation listening each day.  Alan admonished me to go slower.  My response was, “Alan I don’t know how much time I have. I don’t have time to go slower!” 

Through six chemotherapy treatments, I maintained daily one-hour-plus meditations.  Some days when I couldn’t sleep at night I would meditate again.  There were good days and bad days. Days filled with hope when it appeared several times after biopsies that the Leukemia was retreating, yet from February to early July the reality was I was out of options. 

The next step is clinical trials.  It’s the last option.  My family and I considered other hospitals and clinics and even other methods including high doses of vitamin C.  We decided to try one more time with the University of Iowa Hospital a clinical trial my doctor recommended. 

Early in the morning on July 5^th, after a particularly difficult day where several doctors and attendees at the hospital worked on me to get me to take a drug that could be damaging to my kidneys, I received Quantum Feedback.  It isn't easy to describe exactly what happened early that morning.  I was working on my computer. At about 12:30 AM, I received a shock that jolted me.  My computer screen went blank, then to snow, slowly emerging in the middle of my screen in blue letters appeared, “Cancer Cured.”  The entire event was over in a flash, yet it seemed to last a lot longer.

You can’t imagine how I felt.  Can I be sure it even happened?  Yet I recall the moment, the visual experience as I can recall my wedding day, my children’s birth, or any other significant event in my life.  Whether I was dreaming this or not I don’t know and frankly, I don’t care.   I knew from that moment that I was cured.

What followed the next several days was brutal to my wife and family.  For the first time, I had to go into intensive care due to my pneumonia.  While I was only there for about ½ day what followed included swelling all over my body.  I went from 198 pounds to 256!   It was uncomfortable!

Yet while my wife struggled and feared for the worse, I recall wondering what the fuss was about and feeling supremely confident that this would pass and I would be healthy again.

I still have to navigate the Bone Marrow Transplant and Graft Versus Host Disease issues that are in front of me. In two weeks I will be undergoing another biopsy. It's been six months since my transplant and this one is particularly important.  IF my blood is 98% or more than my donor’s (as it’s been so far in the previous results) and they fail to find any trace of the Monosomy 7 chromosome issues it will be significant!  Previous to this I’d not had any symptoms of GVHD (Graft Versus Host Disease).  That’s what will make this biopsy more revealing.

Could I have done this without my partner and coach Alan Fendrich?  Possibly.  Not being aware of Joe Dispensa’s blueprint, nor the meditation CDs, I’m sure I would have followed my Crossing the Red Sea formula without Alan’s help.  His coaching and our weekly meetings on discovering the best way to meditate, answer questions, and discuss the process were critical. 

As a bottom line of course God is with me.  As one of my friends stated he must not be through with me yet!  Faith, The Stockdale Paradox, dedication to the principles Positioning Systems teaches on Strategic Discipline, and the outpouring and overwhelming support from my friends, you, and my family helped me to be in the position I am today.  Thank you so much for any way that you contributed!

Next blog we’ll look at a few of the other “coaches” that have helped me.  Do you understand how a coach can be a Catalyst to your business success?