Strategic Discipline Blog

My journey through Acute Myeloid Leukemia continues with Chapter V from CANCER CURED – The Most Powerful Force in the Universe

(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 Chapter V – The Most Powerful Force in the Universe. This segment is the first section, dealing with God’s Love, Signs, and An Introvert Gets Energy from Being Alone

Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.

~ Jean de La Fontaine

Dr. Begum's response to my dilemma on what to do and where to pursue treatment for my Acute Myeloid Leukemia was a surprise solution. Giving up, or giving in to what she felt was inevitable, “spend the time I had remaining with those I love,” sparked my rage and anger.

I was responsible for being where I was and the opportunity to change the outcome.

Despite my uncertain future, I was not going to allow Dr. Begum’s prognosis to deter my belief in continuing my choices and actions to overcome my cancer.

Long before this, a quote from Napoleon Hill inspired me, “You have absolute control over just one thing, your thoughts. This divine gift is the sole means by which you may control your destiny. If you fail to control your mind, you will control nothing else.”

My animosity turned me inward to deeper thoughts. My focus turned to what I could do, what I could control to prevent the outcome Dr. Begum was predicting.

This doesn’t mean I felt I was God. It meant if God wanted me to live, then I am responsible for making that outcome a reality through His Omnipotent Power.

Some would argue about what God’s Will for us is or was. After the fact, I’ve heard many people say, “Well, God must still have plans for you!”

You can look at anything after the fact and decide what God did or didn’t want.

We need leading indicators.

The best definition/explanation I’ve found for God’s Will is:

God = Love

Will = Thoughts

Therefore God’s will for you, I, and everyone is simply:

“Loving Thoughts!”

I trusted He wanted me to live. In going inside, to my deepest thoughts, I realized I’d not been able to achieve Joe Dispensa’s Meditation Practice Step 3, Admitting & Declaring (Accepting the Power of the Infinite), to release my survival emotion, and combine it with an elevated emotion.

I realized my inability to concentrate and stir in my heart an elevated emotion prevented me from experiencing the unexpected breakthrough for my cancer.

We’re not used to having God, our Infinite Power, intercede. I felt I had to do something, ACT. I needed to figure out the path to follow, a process to absorb myself in, to produce the outcome I wanted.

We expect to be in control of all the steps in the process. We think we must arrange the outcome, and how it will be achieved.

That’s the Known or the familiar, as shared in Dr. Joe Dispensa’s Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself.

We only must feel the outcome. Not how it will occur. This is the Unknown!

Instead, we need to perceive/feel it as if it were already happening.

God’s domain is to provide it. Leave the how, what, and when to HIM.

Let go, let God!

SIGNS

Is the reason we fail to see God performing miracles, and answering our prayers, due to the frequency with which these answers occur, a lack of observation, or our failure to have a close connection with God?

When we pray God answers our prayers in several ways:

• No
• Yes
• Delay
• Modifies the answer we want.

In meditation, Dr. Joe Dispensa asks you to expect an answer. I sense most of us, when we pray, don’t expect to receive an answer, nor do we seem overly upset when we don’t receive one. We hope, yet don’t believe?

Recent statistics say about 30% of adults attended church in the last seven days.

Many of us don’t pray anymore. We can’t expect an answer if we’re not asking.

My previous experience with meditation made me hopeful, as well as expectant.

Shortly after I began my meditative practice, a nurse came into my room unexpectedly. She seemed surprised to see me in bed. She fumbled with a response upon seeing me. She asked if I was “name?”   I said no, and told her who I was, and she fumbled again by responding she thought I was someone else.

As silly as this seems, I took it as one of the first signs my meditation was working. Through my meditations, I was breaking the habit of being myself. To have someone enter my room and think I was someone else, I took it as a sign. I was on the path to becoming a new personality.

Since that small “sign” I’d have very little else to show for the daily meditations. Many days I meditated two to three times!

Dr. Begum’s recommendation to give up and give in to cancer was another sign. I wasn’t doing the meditation practices correctly.

“Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” — Napoleon Hill

I was blind but now I see.

In one of the stories of the Old Testament, a servant of the prophet Elisha is terrified by the Syrian army surrounding his city. Elisha reassures him that God will deliver the people of Israel. Elisha prays, "O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see." God answers the prayer, and the servant suddenly sees that "the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha" (2 Kings 6:17).

An Introvert Gets Energy from Being Alone

My middle son, Joshua, often remarked that he believes I’m an extrovert. He sees me in restaurants, shopping at stores, at home, how I interact with customer service and waiters, and he sees someone who is engaging, asks questions, and is generally comfortable speaking with others. What he doesn’t know is how long it took me to be this way.

When I took my first job as a radio salesperson out of college, I had to overcome two obstacles: my lack of knowledge of how radio advertising works, and my discomfort approaching the owner/decision-maker in the businesses I called on. It was a lot of cold calling. Cold calling is uncomfortable whether you are an extrovert or an introvert.

After 3 months at the Ripon radio station, where I had deejayed while attending college, I started looking for another position where I could learn radio, how it worked, and how to be more effective selling it. It wasn’t just living remotely, I was required to come to the station (20 Miles away from Oshkosh) once a week, I wasn’t learning and being trained. I had no one to discuss my interactions with prospects to discover how to improve my approach, suggest ideas for ads or promotions, or overcome objections. At the time I didn’t realize what I wasn’t receiving at WCWC in Ripon was an essential part of who I am, someone with an insatiable desire to learn. Learning inspires and motivates me.

What is the difference between extroverts and introverts? Introverts (or those of us with introverted tendencies) tend to recharge by spending time alone. They lose energy from being around people for long periods, particularly large crowds. Extroverts, on the other hand, gain energy from other people.

If you’re an extrovert, being confined to a single room, with few visitors, might drain your energy. As an introvert, being alone a lot wasn’t going to make me less motivated or inspired to focus on my task of getting well. There would be no depression or anxiety caused by not having friends or people around. I feel the situation of being in a private room, unable to have visitors, worked to my advantage, empowering me to focus.

I don’t want you to believe this was easy. It was just easier for me to adapt to than it might have been for someone else.

Despite my cancer, despite being confined to a private room, despite any illness or physical challenges I faced during my “seven” months in the hospital, I awoke almost every day energized with a positive attitude. It wasn’t just because I got energy from being alone, it was also because I knew my attitude needed to be positive. I was blessed not to be sick very often during my stay in the hospital. Anyone who feels sick through their treatments has a much more challenging time than I did.

Nausea and vomiting can start within the first few hours after chemotherapy drugs are given and usually last about 24 hours. However, nausea and vomiting may start more than 24 hours after treatment and last several days.

The average recovery time after chemotherapy is usually six months or so.

How important were my attitude, my routine, my affirmations, and meditation practice?

I never felt nauseous or vomited my entire 7 months. Only during my chemotherapy before my bone marrow transplant did I have diarrhea.

Was I fortunate, or did my dashboard, mindset, and discipline make a difference?

I’ll let you be the judge of that.

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.

Introverts get energy from being alone. My private room in the hospital became a sanctuary for discovery. Discovering the Power of Elevated Emotions led to a breakthrough in my meditation. We’ll explore this next blog from Chapter V of Cancer Cured – Isolation Leads to Focus, Survival vs Elevated Emotions.  

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

Discipline sustains momentum, over a long period, laying the foundations for lasting endurance.

A winning habit starts with 3 Strategic Disciplines: Priority, Metrics, and Meeting Rhythms.   Forecasting, accountability, individual, and team performance improve dramatically.

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

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NEXT BLOG – CANCER CURED CHAPTER V - Isolation Leads to Focus, Survival or Elevated Emotions