Monday Morning Motivational Message - Lessons

When was the last time you learned a valuable lesson?

One of the important lessons my 13-year battle with cancer has taught me is the need to find meaning in your misery, the message in your misfortune. We don't suffer in vain.

Time, experiences, and circumstances cannot help but change people. Sometimes, this change is for the good; often, it is for the worse. 

When I was in school, teachers made lesson plans to guide their daily activities. Our instructors would explain the "Lesson of the Day" in each class. That was the main theme we were supposed to learn during that instructional period.

The lessons we studied every day weren't there to mark time; they were to teach us something that would benefit us as we grew up and got into life.

​Every day is an opportunity to learn a new lesson. However, we don't grow when our circumstances are easy and comfortable. We develop when our conditions provide us with adversity and difficulties. That's when the life lessons can become ingrained in us. That's when we stretch our minds, bodies, and souls.

We can choose to learn the lessons our discomfort is trying to teach us, or we can whine, complain, and gripe about our status in life. How many of us take responsibility for our success and happiness by learning the lessons life is teaching us?

No one ever promised that life would be fair or that we'd all experience the same number of good and bad events in our lives. 

We know some people seem to have life constantly beat them to their knees, while others rarely encounter any misfortune.  

I've learned many lessons from my cancer journey, but two stick out to me as vitally important.

First, I don't think you truly know yourself until some form of adversity has tested you in life. This difficulty doesn't have to be cancer, such as I experience, but it does have to be something challenging.

Second, cancer has made me a much better human being. I've often been asked the lofty question, "If you could live your life over again without experiencing cancer, would you?" My answer, without a doubt, is "No." I would go through all the drug therapies that wrecked my body, along with the amputations of my foot and leg, all over again because the lessons I've learned from cancer are so much bigger than the disease. Cancer doesn't define me. It's not who I am. It's what I have. 

I'm no masochist. I don't enjoy pain and discomfort. But I do appreciate the lessons pain and discomfort have taught me. Those valuable lessons, which have made me a much better person emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, far outweigh the discomfort and distress my body has to endure so I can grow from my physical challenges.  

Instead of avoiding your difficulty and distress, learn the lessons they are there to teach you so you can become stronger and more resilient. 

Please leave me a comment about the lessons life has taught you. Your opinions and perspectives are important, and I enjoy hearing from you.