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CANCER CURED CHAPTER IV – Patience & Focus

Posted by Douglas A Wick on Mon, Dec 16, 2024

CANCER CURED CHAPTER IV – Patience & Focus

My journey through Acute Myeloid Leukemia continues with Chapter IV from CANCER CURED – Patience & Focus

(Previous segments of CANCER CURED are available here:  CANCER CURED BOOK -to read these from the beginning you’ll need to scroll through to the bottom to find CANCER CURED – What do You Feed?, which is the first in the series.)

This is the first segment from Chapter IV

“Think not of "how," Douglas, whether in terms of logistics, people, or inspiration, but of the end results you dream of. The end, in thought, combined with action in its general direction, will always create the necessary circumstances, serendipities, epiphanies, ideas, and discoveries necessary to bring about the desired manifestation. The hard part is done for you. Your part is the easy part: Think and let go. Knock on every door and turn over every stone. Do not insist upon the path, but upon the overall change you wish to experience, and never take no for an answer. 

You've been doing it your whole life.”

~ Mike Dooley, co-founder of TUT

An Early Lesson in Determination

“Way to go Herky!”

“Nice job Herky!” 

Several of my classmates and friends were slapping me on the back, offering me congratulations for the game I’d just played in. 

It was embarrassing. Despite it being the most points, I’d ever scored in a game, and despite finally getting to play in an “official” basketball game, I felt deeply embarrassed. 8 points were all our “C” basketball team had scored in the short game we had played.  We had won 8-0, and all 8 points had been scored by me, the tallest player on the court, a 6th grader, when most of the other players were 4th or 5th graders. Most of those 8 points were scored by rebounding my own missed shots.  I was so much taller than everyone it was easy to get rebounds.

St John The Baptist Church Princeton, WIHerky was a silly name I’d acquired in the 6th grade.  Herky was the name of our school’s lunch cook’s husband. Mrs. Bartel was beloved in our school and when I found out her husband’s name was Herky, I must have mentioned it too much. My classmates took to calling me it. 

The adulation, cheers, and recognition of my achievement felt shameful. The rest of my class were on the “A” and “B” teams.  Two of the boys from my class started on the “A” team at St. John’s and they would win our annual grade school tournament which closed the regular basketball season.

At the time, I was still not a very good student, and had limited athletic ability, but had received a growth spurt in the 5th and 6th grade to inch almost as tall as my 5’9” 8th-grade brother, Gary. 

Peer pressure, feeling loved, and being socially involved, all were becoming more important to me, especially in school.  I’d never fit in with the athletic group at playtime, always ending up being one of the last chosen for any game we would play.  My brother had gotten better at basketball, and the two of us practiced a lot together. Either because I’d not practiced enough, or my coordination had not caught up with my growth spurt, I wasn’t very good at basketball.

The excess embellishment felt more like criticism than praise. It stung! I felt I should be better.  I felt I should be playing at least on the B team with my other classmates. Being on the C team was an indication of just how insignificant I was.

When I got home that afternoon after the game, I felt ashamed. I went outside to our basketball hoop in front of our old two-stall garage and started shooting.  

The entire time I was in deep thought:  Questioning why I was so bad at basketball.  Why did the coach embarrass me in front of the entire school by putting me on the C team? Why had my brother Gary gotten better, and how could I be like him and play on the “A” team and contribute to my school’s athletic prowess?

Bill Gates had said, “Early success is a terrible teacher. You're essentially being rewarded for a lack of preparation, so when you find yourself in a situation where you must prepare, you can't do it. You don't know how.”

That day I made a promise to myself to practice basketball at least one hour a day.  I made a goal to be the best basketball player in the world.  My view of the world was narrow. I’d read about Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points in Boy’s Life. In the same magazine, two boys from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, believed eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches helped them grow to be 6’8”. 

To become the best, I would need to grow taller. 

I dedicated myself to practicing every day for an hour, eating lots of peanut butter sandwiches, and being better than anyone who ever played the game of basketball!

I didn’t become the greatest basketball player in the world.  I did achieve a modicum of success, however.  By the next year, 7th grade, and the following year, 8th grade, I started on the “A” team.  My growth spurt continued so by the 8th grade I was 6’.  In one game, as an 8th grader, I never missed a shot and scored 20 points.  In my freshman year in high school, I started on the JV team scoring 8 points a game, followed by starting on varsity as a sophomore, scoring 16 points a game.  In my junior year, I scored 24 points a game, led the conference in scoring, and made 1st team all-conference center.  In my senior year, I duplicated those achievements, without the scoring title, gaining a small scholarship to a Wisconsin state school due to my athletic and academic performance.

The effort I put in and sustained helped me recognize the value of persistence and goal-setting.  Going from a “C” team klutz to an all-conference basketball player proved what hard work and focused practice can achieve.

BEING IN THE ZONE

1971 HS Basketball DougThere’s another aspect of playing sports I feel is worth sharing, although the feeling isn’t necessarily isolated to sports.  Anyone can get into the “Zone!” as it’s called.  Being in the zone is described as (Wikipedia) In positive psychology, a flow state, also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.

The game in grade school where I made 10 of 10 shots might have been an example of being in the “zone.”  I don’t recall the game very well. 

I do recall two other instances where I was in the zone. 

As a sophomore, we played a home game against the 2nd best team in our conference.  We hadn’t won a game in the conference that year, so it was expected we’d get whipped. 

meditation-happiness-flow-18-3-1I usually played as a post player, which meant I was under, in the lane, or near the basket most of the game.  For some reason this game, I brought the ball down the court several times and played like I would play against my friends, shooting jumpers from the outside.  I was unconscious or in the zone.  By half-time, I had twenty points, and we were ahead.  

In the second half, I either choked up or simply didn’t want to appear to be a “hog.”  I was always conscious of how some players got arrogant when they were scoring a lot, and I never wanted to be associated with that moniker!  I quit shooting, and played closer to the rim, with of course the opponent making sure I never got the ball.  I took two shots in the second half, making both.  One of them was rather ridiculous.  My brother was a senior that year, playing as a reserve, and late in the game one of our players was at the free-throw line for two shots.  My brother was playing and during the timeout before the free throw attempts, my brother instructed the player to make the first and miss the second on purpose.  He said, I would get the rebound and put it in, and we’d be down by one point (we were losing by 4 at the time.)  If you play basketball, you know it’s not as easy as this to score on a rebound off a free throw, yet, just as my brother had drawn it up, I did exactly that.  

We lost the game, and several players asked why I didn’t shoot more during the second half.  I never really revealed why.  Had I had more confidence at the time I’m sure I could’ve played better. 

The other time I recall being in the zone, was as a freshman in college.  I was on the Freshman team, and our coach at the time had an unusual practice of playing 5 starters for the first 10 minutes of the half, and the second 5 in the last ten minutes of the first half, then playing those who had played the best in the second half.

Our team was in the University of Wisconsin State College system, and I was playing for Platteville.  This game was in Oshkosh, Wisconsin which was only 35 miles from my hometown of Princeton.  

A lot of my friends and family attended the game due to the proximity.  I started the game and proceeded to not miss a shot.  It didn’t seem to matter the distance I was again “unconscious” or in the “Zone.”  In this game, I took 9 shots from the floor, made all of them, and shot and made two free throws.  

It was the best game I played in college, and I can remember the head coach of the varsity team singling me out at the restaurant we ate at after both the freshman and varsity games were finished and complimenting me for not missing a shot. 

Why is this important?  

Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself - When we’re in a creative state, the frontal lobe becomes highly activated and lowers the volume on the circuits in the rest of the brainLater in this chapter (Time, The Body, and the Environment), I’ll share what Dr. Joe Dispensa studied and determined are the four similarities in people who achieve spontaneous remission. Number 4 is getting into this “zone.” It’s when we are so present in the moment that we lose track of our environment, our body, and time. We’re unconscious, so wrapped up in what we are doing that we lose sight of everything else. We’re super creative and effective. 

In Meditation, we become fully immersed in this mental state. 

Call to Action

Challenge your team, your business, yourself.  Contact Positioning Systems to schedule a free exploratory meeting to challenge, inspire, and ignite purpose and passion in your business!   

Create an environment where everyone is inspired to give their best.

Growth demands Strategic Discipline.

Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself - One of the main purposes of meditation is to go beyond the conscious mind and enter the subconscious mind, in order to change self-destructive habits,If you’ve never experienced meditation, you’d have reason to doubt its value. I had a positive previous experience with meditation, which elevated my belief. Chapter IV of Cancer Cured continues with Why I Believed Meditation Would Work, the next blog.    

Building an enduring great organization requires disciplined people, disciplined thought, disciplined action, superior results, producing a distinctive impact on the world.

4Dx Cadence of AccountabilityDiscipline sustains momentum, over a long period, laying the foundations for lasting endurance.

A winning habit starts with 3 Strategic DisciplinesPriorityMetrics, and Meeting Rhythms.   Forecasting, accountability, individual, and team performance improve dramatically.

Meeting Rhythms achieve a disciplined focus on performance metrics to drive growth.

Let Positioning Systems help your business achieve these outcomes on the Four most Important Decisions your business faces:

FOUR DECISIONS

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HARMONIOUS CULTURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY

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Positioning Systems helps mid-sized ($5M - $500M+) businesses Scale-UP. We align your business to focus on Your One Thing! Contact dwick@positioningsystems.com to Scale Up your business! Take our Four Decisions Needs Assessment to discover how your business measures against other Scaled Up companies. We’ll contact you.

NEXT BLOG – CANCER CURED CHAPTER IV – Why I Believed Meditation Would Workmeditations_for_breaking_the_habit_of_being_yourself-resized-600meditations_for_breaking_the_habit_of_being_yourself-resized-600

 

Topics: Cancer Cured, CANCER CURED BOOK, Being in the Zone, Basketball

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