I was a highly successful executive with a Fortune 500 company. While I loved my job, at the same time it was killing me. Working and traveling 24/7, and maintaining a regular diet of stress created a life-threatening health problem, resulting in organ failure. I needed a transplant to save my life and everything depended on staying alive while awaiting a transplant. The challenges of even making it to the next day were enormous, but I refused to surrender to the illness.
Instead, the breakthrough was realizing there was only one thing I was able to control – the story I told myself about my chances. Imagining my life after recovery turned out to be exactly what I needed. I learned how to train my mind to replace bad thoughts with good ones and that helped me see a different future than the one statistics had planned. It kept me from giving up throughout the 19 month ordeal.
I got a life restart, but I also got more. I got insights about how we can get through any life challenge and in the process become more resilient in the face of stress.
I learned how to reprogram my mind around a story which would lead me to the life I wanted. I now choose how I want to feel every day and have made happiness central to my life. I still have the same stress and adverse forces that we all do, but they no longer rule my life and they don’t need to rule yours, either.
Out of this journey I have developed a coaching methodology called Deliberate Living ™ where I help people purposefully choose their story because the story you tell yourself is the one you will live.
And now you know why “I am happy to be here.”
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I am the founder of PhȲlo Coaching and have a BA in Philosophy from Hamline University. I am a Certified Professional Coach through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (IPEC), have a certificate in Happiness Studies from the Happiness Studies Academy, and am a Master Practitioner of the Energy Leadership Index for both individuals and organizations.
Minneapolis, USA, English