More than a Coin Flip:
Five techniques for navigating life’s obstacles, By Josh Martin
Introduction
I flipped a coin. Heads I live. Tails I die.
It was February, 2008. I had just returned home after seeing my doctor. He had told me I had a forty to fifty percent chance of beating the leukemia diagnoses that I had recently received. The blood test I had taken had been startling to say the least. Somewhere between 4 and 11 marks the normal range for white blood cells in a healthy man. Mine? 584.
Yeesh.
Standing alone in my basement office, still numb from the news, I grabbed a quarter from the desk and tossed it in the air. Heads. Phew.
Though thrilled to have Lady Luck on my side, I quickly second-guessed the wisdom of putting my life entirely in the fate of a coin flip. I knew that in the end this was my fight. I couldn’t do it alone but I also couldn’t simply be a passive recipient of care. I needed to lead the charge in my recovery and be my own champion.
Thankfully I had some life experience to draw from as I embarked on this race against time and my own body. I had learned some valuable lessons from a race of another sort; lessons in attitude, team-building, preparation, adaptation and balance that would serve me well in the long journey ahead.
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