learn the difficult news earlier: reflections on breast cancer

1 in 8 women in the US will get breast cancer in their lifetimes. I am one in that eight.?

How many times have you heard me talk about learning the hard news earlier, to give yourself and your business options to thoughtfully respond to that bad news? Pull testing forward, discuss options theory, test your strategy, practice big room planning to pressure test your strategy deployment?

When you seek to learn earlier, you can more often stay out of firefighting mode.?

I’ve been testing for years, ever since the thoughtful medical community who supports me suggested I do so. And likely being in a line of business that helps others improve their results also helped me keep this habit.

I’m thankful for it all, and all of you. For the people who care for me, look out for me, teach me, learn with me, learn from me, hire me to help your teams and leaders learn.

I found my cancer very early, and was lucky that it had not yet spread, so I didn’t have to undergo the firefighting of chemo, like so many women unfortunately do. I wish we could catch everyone’s cancer earlier, before firefighting was needed. My five year relative survival rate is likely in the high 90% because we caught it early, localized. So many more life options. So many more #bonusdays.

On the one year anniversary of my learning, I’m using my reflection to remind other amazing humans I adore: Please get your own regular, early checks! And, if you can, gently remind the amazing humans you care about to get their tests, too.?

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If you want to talk about the roller coaster that is learning and treatment, I’m happy to share. Please PM me. You can also learn more here:

https://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/breast-cancer-facts

Image credit also: National Breast Cancer Foundation