Ice Cold Ideas for a Successful Life

I remember the day I was challenged to dump an ice-cold bucket of water on top of my head to support a national phenomenon. My son was filming the action when I dumped the bucket of ice water on my head and then half jumped, half dove into my pool which was right next to me. For some reason, the video has made me the laughing stock of my family. To be honest, I understand why my awkward attempt to do more than just dump the water on my head made them laugh.

My oldest son Thomas went to Boston College and was part of the athletic department as manager of the men’s basketball team for four years so when we heard of Pete Frates, a captain for the BC baseball team, diagnosed with ALS we were saddened like many. Thomas also knew Dick Kelly, the Boston College Media Relations Specialist, who battled the disease, loved the basketball team and died from it. I also knew someone with it, a friend named Mark Airel, which made me eager to take the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise funds and a cure for ALS.

The biggest take-away for me in the past year running my business, while dealing with alopecia, is the realization that life and business goes on when you have a medical diagnosis. Fortunately for me, alopecia is not a life-threatening disease only a life-altering one. But Pete’s death this week, after a seven-year championship run with the deadly disease, reminded me that sometimes life’s lessons are not to defeat us but to lift us to a higher place where we can make a difference for others.

Sometimes there isn’t a reason or rationale for being dealt bad luck in business, poor health, unhappy marriages or defeats in corporate endeavors, but if we look at the challenges as opportunities to advance our strength, insight, and selves while helping to give back, share or comfort others going through a similar situation, then our sorrows turn into unexpected abundance. It was a reason I took the risk of publishing my first book about the loss of my self-identity and lessons in kindness and compassion since becoming a bald woman. Instead of thinking, “Why me?” and being sad, I thought, “How can I help others in a similar situation?” and then I acted.

Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to remind you we all face challenges. There is no escaping the truth of life’s full experience. Some of us are dealt a better hand than others and the choice is all about what we do with that hand? Can we find fortune where there is ruin or wellness where there is sickness or hope when there is none? I believe we can. I know I have. I continue to believe it is a choice as evident by Peter Frates who decided to take his diagnosis and turn it into good for others facing the disease in the future.