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When I was diagnosed with Stage 3 Bowel Cancer, I knew I couldn’t count on anybody or anything outside of me. I needed to count on me only…
Meaning…I needed to take full responsibility for what I had done to get me to my diagnosis. There was no more stories, blaming, resentment that I could depend on if I wanted to survive chemotherapy.
I knew turning up to chemo wasn’t going to save me. Cancer recurrence is massive…and I didn’t want to live a life walking in egg shells, scared that cancer was going to come back…
Taking personal responsibility is very different than blaming myself. I never for one moment regret how I lived up to that point, I just made a decision to make different choices from that moment on…
I started reading every book I could find on health, cancer, diet, exercise, emotional healing…you name it. I couldn’t leave up to chance anymore…
I needed to take this seriously…
I felt I got another chance to live…
I wasn’t going to press repeat this time and stay stuck thinking everything I had done to that point was right…
I had to let go of the need to be right…
I had to let go everything I knew behind…
I had to let go everything I felt was contributing to my diagnosis…
Life is constantly changing…throwing us curve balls….sometimes pretty big ones…
We can choose to stay in the same place, doing the same thing and getting the same results
Or we can change to adapt, change and respond to it by accepting personal responsibility and making different choices.
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Ready to join?
Hey, thanks so much for reading! Elephant offers 1 article every month for free.
If you want more, grab a subscription for unlimited reads for $5/year (normally, it's $108/year, and the discount ends soon).
And clearly you appreciate mindfulness with a sense of humor and integrity! Why not join the Elephant community, become an Elephriend?
Your investment will help Elephant Journal invest in our editors and writers who promote your values to create the change you want to see in your world!
Already have an account? Log in.
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