If you happen to have doctors in your family or in your circle of friends, you surely have heard the stories… Stories about patients who defied the scientific predictions and either got miraculously healed or managed to prolong their time on this planet against all odds as they were facing terminal illnesses.
Not the most cheerful of topics to discuss, one might argue. Still, I would argue that the lessons derived from such stories can be defining examples of optimism and inspiration for all:
Athletes who got badly injured and were told that they will never play the game again, came back in zero time not only making headlines but actually winning trophies and bringing crowds to tears. Performing artists who got involved in nearly fatal accidents, suffering debilitating injuries and losing loved ones, came back winning international competitions and ended up touring the world. Children who were diagnosed with mental illnesses or neurological syndromes, needing life-long assistance and support, left their mark in the academic field as distinguished professors, intellectuals and ground-breaking thinkers. I personally happen to know more than 1 from each category…
Bringing up those names here would surely satisfy the lazy reader but if you are truly interested in such phenomenal people, you should undertake a research of your own and see what you discover. There might be much more into this topic than what I briefly describe… My personal favorite is the sick kid from Texas, diagnosed with heart valve leakage problems since the age of 7 and having to deal with the complications of this throughout his life. Despite the daily intake of nitroglycerine pills to ease chest pain, he became a military pilot, racing driver, he created one of the most iconic American sports cars, and got married a total of 7 times! It was at the age of 89 that C. Shelby died…
Defying the odds in medical terms is not always about triumphs though. Sometimes it is simply about love, devotion and the need to cling to whatever or whoever is vital to our emotional world. Again, ask your doctor-friends working in hospitals and they will have hundreds of stories to share about grandmothers and grandfathers in their final stages of terminal illnesses combined with the predicaments of old age, and how their life got prolonged for days and sometimes months because of Anticipation: a daughter, son or grandchild commuting slowly to meet them, perhaps for the last time, was all that was needed for the elderly to stay awake a little longer. I have personally heard stories about at least dozen cases where grandpa or grandma is considered to be in his/her very final hours until someone says that the daughter/son or a grandchild is coming in 6 days (for example). And guess what… 6 days it is! Upon arrival, and after the brief moments of greetings, warmth, and love, the elderly patient is gone…
And of course, the exact opposite also proves the point: those numerous cases where a severe but manageable illness leads to a premature and unexpected departure from this world, just because the patient realized he/she has nobody to anticipate and nothing to look forward to.
Leaving those strong images and moments behind, one has to wonder if there is a lesson to be learned here, not only for those times where you must outperform expectations in your professional field or overcome a physical misfortune but rather as a key to Successful everyday living. Ideally, it should be applicable even to those moments when no hardship has hit you and no bad weather is forecasted. Wouldn’t that multiply as well as augment the daily successful results?
The answer is YES and such a Key exists: it is called SHEER WILL
More in my next blog entry.