Doing the Right Thing

Healthy Survivors obtain sound knowledge, find and nourish hope and take effective action. Today I'm focusing on the last step -- taking effective action -- because I suspect it is the step that gets the least attention.

Healthy Survivors do all they can to narrow the gap between knowing the right thing to do and actually doing it. A few mantras that have helped me when I've had difficulty doing the right thing:

• It's easy to do the right thing when doing the right thing is easy; it's hard to do the right thing when doing the right thing is hard.

• You find out who you are and what you believe when doing the right thing is challenging and requires sacrifice, not when it is easy and doesn't demand much.

Don't shrug off the first mantra as a "Duh" before thinking about it and, maybe, trying it sometime to see if it helps you. 

As for the second mantra, this taps into existential issues: Who am I? Who do I want to be? What kind of legacy do I want to leave? Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." In your efforts to take effective action, this mantra can help you become a Healthy Survivor by helping you live as fully as possible.

Comments

[Susan Allen]

Wendy,
The world needs to hear this message more often. I think people in general are coasting through life without really examining how it is they want to live their life.
I think any life-changing situation gives us the opportunity to step back and really look at where we've been and where we are headed. I know that "Cancer" did that for me and even after 18 years as a survivor I continue to examine my life and look for way's to grow as a person in order to benefit myself and other's.