To speak publicly after many, many years I’m going to say since at least doing the dreaded speech forced to do in Grade eight, so you can do the math. I’m 49 was well… nerve-racking. Going into it I was unsure whether to make notes on cue cards or just open up and hope my story would just flow out organically. It ended up being a split of both, I started to watch a recording of the event and noticed my hands wandering and I guess you’d call in a nervous tick scratching my neck and just looking what I thought awkward. I know everyone is their own worst critic, but I felt a little uncomfortable so I just grabbed my cue cards from my back pockets to keep my hands busy and it worked! As my talk moved along I began to feel more comfortable, at home in front of an audience of say 25 in house, 81 more watching online (thank god I didn’t know there was that many). The talk was about an hour long and as time rolled on I scanned the crowd to see reactions, one positive is that no one was taking to their phones and all eyes seemed to be on me. A few times I noticed some were moved to tears, my story was getting through to people I thought. An important thing to do and to keep an audience engaged on what can at times a tough topic to speak on a skill on its own. And this guy has never taken any type of formal training in public speaking.
You never Fail as Long as You Tried, Failing is Sitting on the Couch quitting before Trying
Think I just made that up?
For my first attempt at this it went very well, no stumbles, no feelings of freezing up and quickly finding the closest exit. Which was my biggest worry, funny thing is though I really had no fear, once again one of the positive aspects of having cancer. Who knows if I’ll ever get the chance to do this again, so who cares what people think, go tell your story…no fear, no regrets that I didn’t at least try.
It wasn’t long after I got home that I received an email from Terry with some of the feed back from those in attendance. To say I’m blown away and humbled is an understatement, all very positive and many saying they got much more out of it then just some guy talking about his unfortunate diagnosis. Touching people in a way that when they go home and are still thinking about what I said is quite the feeling, job well done. I never once would have thought myself as a public speaker and that just goes to show you that one day you’ll never know what life has to throw at you.
This was all made possible because of a short documentary done about my type of Cancer, the video wasn’t shared to my blog (because I didn’t upgrade to the premium package on WordPress), but I think I will now. Showing this story can not only hopefully help someone find that early Diagnosis, but also almost more importantly show other Cancer patients no matter the outlook there is always a positive, there is someone out there you can touch. All it takes sometimes is a fresh mindset, not one that’s coached, but one’s that’s found by someone who understands, by going through that pain and finding new purpose on life.
https://www.livingwithnets.com/patient-stories/steve/
This link will bring you to my story, be sure to click watch full video. The production crew did a very good job
The first year of my battle was a roller coaster ride, to say the least. Finding the right people to talk too, learning new skills and a joy in life, a hobby or a complete lifestyle change is what is needed in order to deal with this disease. Please just don’t sit around letting it consume your every thought controlling your life, that’s sometimes very tough not to do. I do my best to get back to every comment, if you need someone to talk to just reach out…please. Taking joy and finding meaning in this thing we call life will only strengthen your resolve to fight this awful disease. I’ll leave this post with a quote, not mine but a friends and it also ends the video as you’ll see, it still always leaves me with that lump in my throat.
We’re not Dieing from Cancer, We’re learning to Live With It!!!
I added some exclamation points for good measure. If you like what your reading please consider subscribing, give it a Like and Comment, it all helps reach more people.
Cheers
Steve
Cancer Won't Run My Life 