The Threat of Cancer Is the Only Motivation You Ever Need
Even if you don’t have cancer.
Cancer motivation has helped me do more in my life than I ever did before it.
This isn’t a morbid look at cancer that can rob you of joy. This is a strategy to empower you and make you unstoppable. It started out weird for me.
A near-miss with cancer in 2015 woke me the hell up. Then today, a family member was diagnosed with cancer in their stomach. Hours later, more tests revealed it had spread to their liver. My heart sank.
You can’t help thinking “that could be me.”
Then I opened my sock draw. There, sitting alone with my socks, was a letter I had hidden. It was a letter requesting me to book myself into hospital for the moment I dread more than any. The moment where they give me an anesthetic and take the video camera for a whirl through my insides, looking for cancer.
The first time, it seemed impossible. The second time there was a pattern. The third time, the doc said “you’re too young to be here — take a look around.”
I hid the letter for my hospital visit because of the pandemic. The pandemic let me off the hook. Now that my hometown has recovered from the chaos, there are no more excuses. I have to face the threat of bad news. As a self-help guy, I’ve learned to dislike bad news.
It’s ignorant, I know. So it’s time for me to book in. It’s time for me to see if my 100% plant-based diet has defeated the evil that grows inside me and gets cut out every few years. It’s time for me to watch the movie “Crazy Sexy Cancer” again and be reminded by the power of the human will to defeat anything.
Even if what you’ve just read isn’t your life, the motivation it gives you is incredible.
Cancer Motivation Forces You to Take Action
The day before hospital I always write a lot.
I’m sentimental about the process. I hug my girlfriend differently. I say “I love you” more often. And, I schedule all my blog posts I have in draft mode to be published, just in case. It’s my crazy ritual.
This is what cancer motivation does. Even if you don’t have cancer, the threat of a future death can make you do crazy stuff. You can blame cancer for a more productive life even if you’ve never had any run-ins with her.
All cancer is, is a reminder that your body and your mind will one day be no more. So use them while you have their gorgeous functionality available to you. Or they will disappear one day having never been put to their full potential. A helpful tool that has never had the chance to be helpful is a waste.
The thought of cancer crushes your excuses.
It Could Be You
The struggle of others could be yours. You’re not immune from the human plight. You’re born fragile. You stay fragile.
Anything can end this awesome experience of life — a golf ball to the head, an out of control car, an invisible virus, a human who has had a bad day. These are not things to fear; they’re things to remind you that tragedy could affect you, and will, one day.
Real motivation is knowing the bad times could be yours. So make the most of the good times. Live fully.
“Why Wait?” Is Perhaps the Greatest Question Ever Spoken
Whenever I want to procrastinate, I use this question as a reminder.
Most of what you want to do could be done today.
To wait is to assume you’re immortal. To wait is to assume your future is guaranteed. To act today is to assume all you have is right now — because that’s all you do have.
Present moment awareness is the wake-up call many of us need. Present moment awareness is a reminder that there’s no time to wait.
My philosophy: I don’t wait for anything. If I want it, I go get it. Now.
There are so many people in the cemetery who waited for the right moment to live out their dreams. Now they’re no longer alive and can’t enjoy all the moments they didn’t take action on.
If Not Now, Never?
This is another question I use. Not now, could be never (when you use cancer motivation as a strategy).
It’s now or never. Choose.
A six-foot giant named Tony Robbins, at an event in Melbourne, once stood right in front of me and screamed “When would now be a good time?” He was talking to the audience, but it felt like he was talking right to me. Nobody had ever made me understand the power of now like Tony.
You Can Ignore a Life-Threatening Illness.
In 1994 Tony Robbins was diagnosed with cancer. He had a tumor in his brain and was told things were going to get bad.
Despite the news he refused to accept his fate. He kept talking to doctors until he found one who would offer a different solution than cutting the tumor out of his brain and risking his life.
This led to the discovery by a doctor that he could in fact live a healthy life with the tumor lodged in his brain permanently. The tumor is still there to this day and is responsible for Tony’s signature giant look. See, the tumor upped his levels of human growth hormone and gave him seemingly superhuman energy. This reality led me to believe that a diagnosis or bad news doesn’t have to end your life.
You can keep searching for the answers or find new ways to gain meaning from an event that would cripple many.
Motivation can come from the pursuit of questions.
If It’s Not Cancer, It’s Going to Be Something.
Choose your poison… something’s gonna kill you, eventually.
So you may as well live your life the way you want before a health condition takes it away from you.
The next time your pain in the ass boss tells you what to do, think of this reality. The next time you’re not sure whether to say “I love you,” think of this reality. The next time you’re not sure what to do, think of this reality.
Answers come to you when you remember you’re going to die of something like cancer one day.
Your day takes on a whole new meaning when you lean into realities like cancer. You just don’t give a fuck with cancer motivation. Life feels like an experiment. You feel more in control. You don’t even blink an eye at random opinions thrust upon you. Politics seems small.
Your days are numbered. That’s the only motivation you need to make your audacious goals a reality.