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It was getting harder and harder to breathe. I was afraid to eat food because it was getting stuck in my throat. There were 5 doctors around me, feeling the 18-centimeter lump in my stomach. The pet scan indicated that I had cancer from my chin to my ankles. I was diagnosed with the big “C” and according to the pet scan, I lit up like a Christmas tree. The questions were ringing in my ears. How is she still alive? Can her heart make it through this treatment? She is going to die either way. How is she still walking? “Carol are you up for this? We are going to double the treatment, your heart might not be able to handle it, you will die if we don’t do something fast. I understand fully well. My own personal mantra is,” life is hard when we can get through hard we can have a good life.” I would survive, I knew it without a doubt. We are all survivors. If you are reading this, you are alive and you are a survivor. A thriver is living life to its fullest. I was using the, “as if,” principle and planning for the future.
Stage 4 plus non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I am a living miracle. I beat the odds. “Life is hard. Bad things do happen, but that doesn’t mean that they need to define us or destroy our life. We have things that happen to us and yes, they shape us, they mold us, but they don’t have to define us. In the end what defines you is the way you react or the decisions you make.” – Elisabeth Smart. Be, do, and have everything you want starting now. We all have bad things happen to us. It is easy to be a survivor, Elisabeth has taught us to thrive when faced with adversity.
I thought that after cancer treatments and becoming a survivor, I would jump into life and do great things, I could not be mediocre, I was a thrivor. I dreamed of muscles rippling, and the strength of my youth as a gymnast. My body rebelled at the thought and put me back to the sickbed. I turned to strengthen the mind and voice, then joined a Toastmasters club. I could see me on stage as a TEDx speaker. Five applications and five turn downs, my close family members thought they were comforting me by telling me it was not worth the effort. I could picture myself on stage, I believed and acted as though it was happening. I continued to participate in Toastmasters and finally, after the sixth tryout and interview, I was chosen to speak in the TEDxRexburg 2018.
Survivors versus thrivers are the same and different. Thrivers feel the pain and do it anyway. Thrivers fail forward and are continuous learners. They lead by example. They thrive on life. They are aware that life is hard and when they can get through hard, they can have a good life.
How can you be a thriver? What are your goals? Have you found that you are limited in one area and you changed your course? what did you learn? I would love to hear from you.
“In my walks, every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
