Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Living life to the fullest

Last night I gave my first public talk about being a breast cancer survivor.

I was nervous about revealing such intimate information and a bit wobbly to start but once I got into my stride, I realized that I do have an important message to convey. In my presentation I described my membership in the cancer club in terms of features and benefits. As most of the women were in business, I figured they would get the correlation.

But what may have surprised them was the fact that there are benefits:-

1. You become more focused. You don’t sweat the small stuff and become more selective on what you do, where you spend your time and who you spend it with. Negative people be gone.

2. You follow your passion – for me it was starting Company of Women and launching our magazine Company last year. Making a difference in the lives of women is important to me. This is my legacy.

3. You learn how much people love you. With all the cards, letters and kind gestures, you feel enveloped in love and caring. It’s like hearing the eulogies but you haven’t actually gone.

4. You take charge of your health. Information is power and for me I adopted a more healthy lifestyle – one that included exercise and regular work outs.

As I said at the end of my speech, ““Each of us finds our own path to survival. No path is every walked the same way twice, but we need not walk alone.”

To me this speaks to life, not just life with cancer.

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