There was a time I was taking two extra-strength Excedrin at four-hour intervals during the night, just to cope with relentless, piercing headaches.
This sudden onset of pain couldn’t have come at a worse time. My precious teenage daughter was going through a rebellious stage. Can you relate?
I aspired to be a great dad. I read parenting books. I loved her and my three other kids the best I could. I prayed for them continually.
Sure, I worked late most nights building my business, but I thought I gave my children enough time and attention.
Why couldn’t I fix this?
Two weeks of headaches sent me to the doctor, who happened to be the head of neurosurgery at the hospital. Based on my symptoms, he warned that an MRI and CAT scan would likely reveal a tumor… More on that in a moment.
Living the dream?
On the outside, my life looked downright enviable.
I owned and led a prestigious business. I was educated at Georgia Tech and Harvard Business School. I had strong spiritual values and I’d been an elder in my church for 20 years.
Despite my busy life, I found time to fly my own airplane, travel the world and work into my schedule some public speaking engagements. My wife was in charge of our home life, and I assumed all was well…
But the tumor changed everything. It’s as though blinders fell off my eyes and I saw that — beyond the fancy bio, glowing media coverage in the business pages and my Sunday morning self — things were not so great.
A Shocking Discovery
It turned out that my physician could find no evidence of a tumor in the test results. All he could do was prescribe pain management.
I drove back to my office in a wrestling match with a brand-new thought that I didn’t like one bit: If there is no physical cause for my pain, then I must be creating it myself somehow. But how?
What happened next took a LOT of humility — stepping away from all my leadership responsibilities at work, on community boards and the church in order to spend time getting the real help I needed.
What I needed was a sabbatical. I hired a coach/counselor for myself who specialized in helping CEOs. I simply wasn’t up to what life was requiring of me, and I didn’t know why. But mostly what I didn’t know, or I should say, who I didn’t know was … myself.
If this rings true for you, I want you to ask yourself these questions:
- Where do you most tend to overlook or ignore pain in your day-to-day life — physical, emotional or mental?
- How well do you feel your life is working right now? How might your spouse, children or closest friend answer that question about you?
- Do you feel the need for a meaningful sabbatical experience? What would you want it to look like and what’s stopping you from making it happen?
I hope you will give those questions some real consideration because, answering them did wonders for me! My journey, chronicled in my book, All In, led me to some incredible discoveries and the life I’d always wanted, and — yes — the headaches are no more.
Whatever fears that may creep in as you contemplate my story, I want to assure you what’s waiting on the other side is more than worth the risks!