How would you cope if you woke up one morning and your life had changed forever? One day I woke up and whilst I was in the shower I felt a lump in my left breast, I felt it again, and just to make sure I felt it one more time. I dried myself with a soft towel and continued to feel for the lump I had just discovered, told my husband about it and he suggested going to see my family doctor. I did just that, and my family doctor sent me to a surgeon. Evidently my lump was a harmless cyst, but over the next 3 years I had mammograms regularly to keep an eye on it.

3 years later after a small car crash that caused no damage to me personally, other than to scare me, my lump started to change. It became slightly larger and was tender to touch, my instincts kicked in so I asked my surgeon what his thoughts were. He told me in no uncertain terms that he was 99% that the lump was not malignant. I told him in no uncertain terms that I wanted a biopsy, and that my instincts were very strong.

A biopsy was performed and on Devils night, 30th October, 1997 I returned to the surgeons office with my 10 year old daughter for my results.

Hey, here I am again, LindaOJ. Life, well we all have one, hopefully, but it is what we make it! Joking aside, I truly believe we can achieve anything we want in this life we are given. One of the reasons I became a professional speaker was because I love helping people and I knew I could encourage anyone who heard my story to know that they could get through their challenges, if I did it so could they.

Obviously, there are certain types of people who believe that whatever happens they have no control over and that their life is rubbish because they are unlucky. No! That is so not true. When challenges enter our lives, whatever they may be, we can use them as a learning experience. We take those challenges and we turn them around. How do we do that?

Let’s use me as an example: After arriving in Canada with husband and children it became clear I needed a job to earn money and I felt I had no skill set. I scoured the newspapers thus helping myself find a job I could do. I then attended an interview, filled out a form, and accepted a job as a salesperson. At one point I felt I could not do the job and almost turned it down. A friend passed on so me words of wisdom: How do you know you can’t do something, unless you try?

I stayed at the job for 5 years, I helped myself, I earned money which helped in a small way the massive financial challenges I was experiencing.  I turned my challenge around and moved on with my life. Obviously there is more to the story but my point is, when a challenge enters our life there is always something we can do to move on, if we want to. Taking some simple steps to help ourselves is a choice we all have.