By Good Morning MOJO,
Today’s MOJO is written by a good friend of mine and the manager of our Intero Silver Creek office, Chris Hawkins. Tomorrow he starts chemotherapy and his fight to beat stage 3 cancer. Attached is a link to the same video I sent last week in the event you did not get a chance to see it. I think’s appropriate again. LiveSTRONG!!!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi7sPSOTErY
By: CHRIS HAWKINS
In a couple of days I will start my first cycle of chemotherapy. I am a little nervous, dreading perhaps the idea of possibly being sick for four to six straight months. It bothers me also that I may not be able to give my all to those in my life who have given, and continue to give, their all for me. I want to wrestle with my kids and I’m not sure if I will be able to.
I had major surgery to remove a tumor in November. After my chemotherapy treatments, according to 2 different doctors, the chances of beating my cancer and surviving to live a “normal” life is somewhere between 60% and 70%, encouraging on the upside and, as you can imagine, a bit disheartening on the downside.
I remember the first two or three days after learning I had cancer in late October. It was hard to escape the notion I may not be around to grow up with my kids (4 and 2 ½ years old, plus a third due in March) and teach them how to live. I remember one tearful conversation with my wife Leah as I, barely able to speak, expressed my desire to one day walk my beautiful, four year old daughter Mia down the aisle on her wedding day. Occasionally, I would wonder, as if I wasn’t there, if my son Joe and his soon-to-be little brother would be good athletes and play on the school teams like I did. The mind is amazing.
Then it struck me. My chances for a long, relatively painless, life weren’t that much (if at all) different from anyone else’s. No one is 100% no matter who you are. Like the commercial says, “Life comes at you hard!”
Gaining this perspective hit me two ways. First, I could stop obsessing over myself because EVERYONE has challenges in their lives. It was liberating to focus on other people I care about, to help them bridge their gaps, to make them laugh.
Second, it became clear that I, all of us, ought to live life the way we want TODAY.
We live in a three bedroom home in a wonderful neighborhood. The house is not small, but by no means large. Recovering from surgery meant being at home for two straight weeks. I had never done that before. I looked around at what we had accumulated as the family grew (and continues to grow). It was piled around us. We viewed the situation as temporary. It would all go away after we made more money, remodeled the house, and/or when the kids got a little older and we could discard the “baby stuff”.
I came to the troubling realization that this was really how we live. “Someday” is not going to get here…for any of us.
In the past three weeks I emptied a big truckload of junk at the dump, dropped off two carloads of donations to the Goodwill, filled our garbage can beyond capacity every week, and helped my wife package up items she sold on E-bay and Craig’s List. I created more storage space in the kitchen. I added extra shelves in the garage cabinets and even swept out the entire garage to the point where you could practically eat off the floor. Two cars are parked comfortably in there as I write this. There is still a bit to do yet but the house is organized and uncluttered. This is how I want my home to be. This has brought me good health and energy.
In this changing market, are we so pre-occupied with our own (potentially unhealthy) business that we stopped supporting those around us? Have we tabled our ambitions to buy an investment property or accumulate wealth “until the market gets better”? How much “clutter” is in our minds, bodies, offices, homes, cars, etc.?
If there is one thing that sticks out from my experience these past three months, it’s this: The world is full of good people who care and wish to support you. My spirits are lifted daily by an amazing number of people. Evidently, I had to contract a life-threatening disease to fully recognize this.
So I will leave you with this while you are healthy: Dream big TODAY. Reach out and support each other TODAY. Have the life you want TODAY!
There is no “someday”.
Happy New Year,
“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” Lance Armstrong
Tom Tognoli
COO, Founder
Intero Real Estate Services
Direct: 650.622.1225 or 408.342.3001
Email: TTognoli@InteroRealEstate.com
Website: www.InteroRealEstate.com
