How Cancer Changed My Business for the Better
Today is a letter from my heart to yours. And I’ll be straight up with you, it’s a topic that’s pretty scary for most, myself included, and that’s cancer.
In the summer of 2021, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The prior year my Mom battled breast cancer, and the year after, my Dad fought prostate cancer. It was a fuck of a few years, to put it lightly, for my family.
We each navigated our own surgeries, treatments, and countless follow-up appointments as best we could. There were moments of despair, grief, and fear. But there were also moments filled with love, joy, and finding silver linings. I’m happy to say all 3 of us are doing great right now, albeit vigilant as ever about our health.
What’s strange about this experience is that, despite it being the scariest thing I’ve ever been through, it was also the most transformative. It changed me…for the better.
I remember telling my therapist many months after my own surgery just how grateful I was for the experience. GRATEFUL for CANCER? But that was how I felt. Cancer was a BIG wake-up call.
It helped me see with fresh eyes what was really important, and what wasn’t. There were so many things I had given so much precious energy and attention to that suddenly seemed so damn unimportant.
I stopped being so concerned about what others thought. I stopped obsessing over getting things “just right”. I stopped being so self-critical. I stopped letting the little annoyances in life become big dramatic stories.
And… on the business front, it was equally as dramatic.
I realized just how much of myself I had poured into my career. Without realizing it, I was trading away so much of my life, not only in true working hours but also thinking and obsessing about work. So much of my waking hours were consumed by striving towards goals in my business. Yet even after so much accomplishment, I still felt empty.
So here I was, post-cancer, looking around at my life and thinking…”Damn, I need to rethink some things here.”
About this time, a book re-emerged on my shelf, divinely so, called the “Top Five Regrets of the Dying”. The author, Bronnie Ware, was a hospice nurse who would ask her patients about their biggest lessons from this life on Earth, and she heard some common themes:
"I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."
"I wish I hadn't worked so hard."
"I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings."
"I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends."
"I wish that I had let myself be happier."
As I re-read the book, now with the life-threatening experience of cancer under my belt, it took on a whole new meaning.
I could see how I might have some regrets at the end of my own life.
While I love my work and I feel deeply passionate about it, I was suddenly, abundantly aware of how often I prioritized my business, often above all else.
I had been working HARD for years. I had been prioritizing WORK over fun. I was in a constant state of NOT-ENOUGH-NESS and PURSUING MORE. I had been falling into the TRAP of doing things to please others, even when it felt out of alignment for me. I had been LOSING touch with friends.
It was all there.
And so was the voice inside my head that said, “Something has to change.”
In the nearly 2 years following my cancer diagnosis, things DID change. I followed that seed of intuition and started prioritizing LIFE. All of my life…family, friends, fun, faith, and love. It helped me reshape my business and start truly LIVING again.
I don’t believe God(dess) put us on Earth to work our asses off, especially at the expense of living the fullness of our human existence.
Yet, over and over again, that’s what we do as entrepreneurs. We pour so much of our time and energy into our businesses and leave the scraps for everything else.
There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t hear the story of a business owner, often in their 40s or 50s, that passes away unexpectedly. They never got the glory days, the days to actually enjoy the fruits of their labor.
You see, those future days aren’t guaranteed. The only time we have is NOW.
I’m no longer interested in feeding into the narrative that business owners need to hustle their asses off in order to be successful. I’m living proof of that, as are so many of my clients.
You can have a flourishing business and a wildly fulfilling life.
Both. And.
That’s what Sustainable Success looks like, and that’s how we coach entrepreneurs and business owners to build their businesses.
Choose your life, not just your business, because your days are numbered. And every day is an opportunity to allow joy & love to reign supreme.
Want to build your business “The Sustainable Way”? I’d be honored to show you the way.
Founder & CEO | Business Growth & Leadership Coach
XO, Hilary P. Johnson