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Do you want to know the one thing scarier than being told by your doctor that you only have a 3% chance of a full recovery? Being told by a doctor that the very pattern, the very strength that you have always considered your super-power is what made you sick. It went from being my trusted friend to my fiercest enemy and it is working against me.
My pattern was that I pushed myself. HARD. It didn’t matter how much of an underdog I was. It didn’t matter if I was sick or tired. It didn’t matter what effort it took. I worked hard. And I prided myself on my ability to outwork anyone.That was my winning strategy. I could point to it and say: “That’s why I am successful in my career. It’s why I maintained a 4.0 GPA during my undergrad and graduate programs. It’s why I am a published author.”
It’s also what led to my collapse back in 2003. About 18 months into my recovery, I found a new doctor and she assured me that I could get well again (which was great news as she was the first doctor who believed that I could).
I proudly told her, “Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it because I can push through anything.”
She looked at me and said: “That’s exactly what got you sick and what got you sick will not get you well.” That was the scariest moment of my entire recovery. We all have patterns that we’ve come to rely on over the years. The problem is that at some point, they start to work against us and they keep us stuck. In this short episode, I share more about how it happens and what you can do to identify it and regain control.
