How we respond, not react, to the issues presented to us determine how well we resolve it.

Last week the doctor working with my daughter called my wife who was on travel for work.  In the call she communicated our daughter has a tumor with hardly any more information. Rightly so, my wife called me in great distress.  We talked and helped each other work through the feels and with the given information.  My wife made some more calls and found out it was benign and bone growths like this are a fairly common condition for kids growing up.  Even so, the hammer dropped when we were told about the tumor.  Our emotions have been high and we’ve been helping each other with our feelings.  We’ve spent the last week reviewing information from various sources.  With the larger picture in mind the situation is something we can deal with. Today we are visiting the doctors for other opinions, find out more information ,and potential treatment protocols.

Being parents, our first reaction was very emotional.  Working through the feels, we took time to reflect on the importance of enjoying the time we have with our loved ones.  Health issues have a way of bringing things into perspective.  Once we got back over our emotional centers of gravity, we thought about the next steps, scheduled appointments with the appropriate specialists and embarked on information gathering.  We gave ourselves a goal.  We want to enable ourselves to make the best decision possible.  We do not know what additional tests and doctor visits will bring.  We simply seek to reduce the unknowns so we can decide on an appropriate treatment for our daughter.  A healthy family is a primary objective of the business we manage together.  With this in mind, we are helping each other manage our reactions so we can respond to the situation in a manner beneficial to our daughter and ourselves.

Responding to the issues presented to us while being aware of and working with our reactions is critical to managing our biz.  Why do we do this? Why do we respect our feels as well as our thoughts and available information?  It’s quite simple.  Managing our biz in this manner enables us to achieve what is merely alluded to and asked for in the serenity prayer.  It allows us to minimize our drama and focus on what needs done right now.