Strategic Discipline Blog

Something dramatic happened during my seven-month stay at the University of Iowa Hospital.

On one of the most difficult days of that experience, two words appeared on my computer:

Cancer Cured.

I received those words as a sign from the Universe—a message that I would be free of the cancer threatening my life.

But the realization that I was no longer the same person happened differently.

It happened quietly.

A little more hope than the day before.

A little more peace in the middle of uncertainty.

A bounce in my step as I walked the hospital halls, listening to music and imagining a future I had no medical evidence would ever arrive.

Eventually, the music stopped.

But the feeling didn’t.

That was when I began to understand: although my circumstances had not yet changed, I had.

When Everything Around Me Said Otherwise

In 2012, I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Eighty-four percent of my bone marrow was cancerous.

Five rounds of chemotherapy reduced that number, but not enough to qualify me for a bone marrow transplant. My standard treatment options had been exhausted. A clinical trial remained, but there was no guarantee it would work—or that I would be healthy enough to begin it.

Everything in my environment gave me reasons to be afraid.

Yet during my second week in the hospital, I began practicing the meditation process I had learned from Dr. Joe Dispenza’s book, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself.

I had never met Dr. Joe. I had never attended one of his events. I was simply a man in a hospital room attempting to apply what I had read.

I began paying attention to the thoughts I was thinking, the emotions I was repeatedly feeling, and the future I was mentally rehearsing.

Instead of continually preparing myself for the outcome I feared, I began practicing the future I wanted to experience.

Rehearsing a Future I Couldn’t See

I imagined myself healthy.

I imagined speaking to leaders, sharing what I had learned and helping people change their lives.

I imagined celebrating with my family in Hawaii.

As I walked the hospital halls wearing jeans and a casual shirt—refusing to allow a hospital gown to become part of my identity - I listened to music to help me feel my vision of my future.

I wasn’t denying the seriousness of my condition. I wasn’t pretending the medical facts didn’t exist.

I chose not to allow those facts to determine who I would be at that moment.

My body was in the hospital.

But my mind was rehearsing for another future.

At first, it required conscious effort. Fear still appeared. Doubt still tried to pull me back toward the familiar and predictable.

But I continued.

I practiced feeling faith before there was evidence to support it.

I practiced gratitude before there was a result to celebrate.

I practiced becoming the person I wanted to be when healing came—rather than waiting for healing to permit me to become him.

Dr. Joe says, “If you’re waiting, you’re not changing.”

The Change Happened Before the Result

Looking back, I can see the entire change process we have explored throughout this series.

Awareness helped me notice the thoughts and emotions keeping me imprisoned in fear.

Recognition allowed me to catch myself when I returned to those patterns.

Choice allowed me to respond differently.

Identity asked me to decide who I wanted to be in circumstances I could not control.

Rehearsal allowed me to experience that future internally.

Repetition made those thoughts and emotions more familiar.

Crossing the River of Change required me to remain in the discomfort of the unknown rather than retreat into the familiarity of fear.

And gradually, what I had been practicing began to feel more natural than the fear I had been living.

The first result wasn’t physical.

It was internal.

I became more peaceful before my medical condition improved.

I felt hope before the laboratory results gave me a reason to feel it.

I experienced moments of joy while I was still surrounded by uncertainty.

My external circumstances had not yet caught up with my internal change—but they were no longer defining me.

The Music Stopped, but the Feeling Didn’t

That may be the clearest evidence I have of becoming someone different.

I would walk the halls listening to music, feeling healthy, purposeful, and alive. The music helped awaken those emotions, but eventually I noticed something remarkable.

When the song ended, the feeling remained.

The hope was no longer dependent on the music.

The peace was no longer dependent on my circumstances.

The future I had rehearsed was beginning to feel more familiar to me than the future I feared.

I didn’t understand all the neuroscience then. I didn’t have the language of awareness, recognition, identity, rehearsal, and repetition that I use today.

I simply knew I was no longer responding to my circumstances as the same person.

Three weeks after receiving the “Cancer Cured” message, a bone marrow biopsy confirmed I was in remission.

That medical result was extraordinary. Dr. Margarida Silverman shared, “Doug, you’re a medical miracle!”

My transformation had begun before the biopsy confirmed it.

What This Means for Leaders

Most leaders will never face circumstances like mine. But every leader will experience moments when the environment appears more powerful than their intention.

Revenue declines.

A valuable employee leaves.

A major customer is lost.

Conflict spreads through the leadership team.

Pressure builds, and familiar reactions begin taking over.

The circumstances may be different, but the underlying question is the same:

Will your environment determine who you are—or will who you choose to become determine how you respond to your environment?

Transformation may arrive through a dramatic moment. More often, the evidence appears quietly:

A calmer response.

A conversation in which you listen instead of becoming defensive.

A moment when you interrupt an old emotional reaction.

A decision made from clarity rather than fear.

These moments may appear insignificant from the outside. But they are evidence that a new pattern is being built.

Your results may not have changed yet.

Your organization may not have changed yet.

But the person creating those results is beginning to change.

Eventually, the outer world begins to reflect what has already taken place within.

Why I Share This Story

My recovery was extraordinary. But I don’t share this story to suggest that every challenge will end the way mine did—or that mindset replaces appropriate medical treatment, sound strategy, or decisive action.

I share it because the principles I teach are not merely concepts to me.

I have lived them.

They changed how I faced the greatest uncertainty of my life. They continue to shape how I coach leaders and organizations today.

Change does not begin when your circumstances finally cooperate.

It begins when you become aware of the patterns keeping you connected to the past—and repeatedly practice the thoughts, emotions, choices, and behaviors of the person you choose to become.

Whether your realization arrives through a dramatic moment or a series of quieter ones, the most meaningful evidence may be found in how differently you begin to think, feel, and respond.

A little more peace.

A different reaction.

A better decision.

Perhaps even a bounce in your step.

And one day, you may look back and realize:

I am no longer the same person.

Next Blog - The Stress I Couldn’t See: What Achievement Was Costing Me

Before I was diagnosed with AML, I looked successful—serving more than 40 clients, leading several radio stations and pursuing an ambitious revenue goal. What I couldn’t see was the price. I was exhausted, constantly tense and rarely present with the people I loved.

In my next blog, I’ll explore how stress can hide inside achievement—and what that unseen pressure may be costing you.

Ready to Create Change That Sticks?

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Through Change Your Mind. Create New Results.™, I'll show you how to use neuroscience to intentionally rewire the thinking, emotions, and behaviors that drive performance, leadership, and culture.

Most people don't struggle because of capability—they struggle because their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are neurologically conditioned to repeat the same results.

Through Change Your Mind. Create New Results.™, I help leaders interrupt stress-driven conditioning, regulate themselves under pressure, and create cultures driven by intention instead of survival.

Change the Pattern. Change the Result.

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If you're exhausted by pressure, stress, emotional reactivity, or repeating the same leadership patterns, maybe it's time to stop managing symptoms and start changing the conditioning that drives them.

Real change begins when leaders learn how to regulate themselves under pressure—because regulated leaders create healthier cultures, clearer communication, and stronger performance.

If you want to create a different future for yourself and your organization, let's start the conversation.

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NEXT BLOG - The Stress I Couldn’t See: What Achievement Was Costing Me