People that know me know that when I turned 60 my body started giving me loads of trouble. I’m sure that none of the medical problems happened instantaneously. In fact I know they didn’t. I mean I have led a very interesting life. I believe in working hard and playing hard so it’s been great. However, when 60 came along I believe my body finally said, “OK Richard, it’s time to pay”. I mean, I was diagnosed with Cancer, fought that and beat it. My Aortic Valve stopped working very effectively so I had that replaced with a pig valve. Four of my arteries were close to being completely stopped up and I had those bypassed and now 2 of the vertebrae in my back has been fused. I’m starting to wonder if all that ‘hard playing’ was worth it. By the way, after thinking about it for 5 seconds, I’ve come to the conclusion that it was.
Taking care of these challenges over the last few years has provided me with the opportunity to learn a number of lessons that I believe can be applied not only to health issues but other types of issues, such as, business, relationships, etc. So I thought I would just list the lessons learned in this article and cover each one in more detail in future articles. Hope you stick with me on this because these are some good lessons. So here goes
1. Leave it along and it’s gonna get worse
2. Trick yourself into taking the first step – everything else will follow automatically (Unless you stop it)
3. Learn as much as you can about the situation
4. Take control of the situation – don’t let it take control of you
5. Identify and overcome your fears
6. Make use of your family, friends and colleagues
7. Do whatever you can to overcome the situation
8. Have goals for the future but live and celebrate today
9. Be grateful for every positive thing that happens
Have a great day.
Richard M
Richard Morreale is a consultant, professional speaker, trainer, coach and author in Strategic Planning and Implementation, Business and Culture Change and Project and Program Management. For more information, contact Richard at 336 322 1320 or Richard@richardmorreale.com. To view his Project Management Products go to www.richardmorreale.com/shop/.
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