Megalomania may be keeping you sick.
Megalomania is a word that is not used often in our society but has implications for cancer survival. Wikipedia defines the word as being derived from the Greek: megalo-, meaning large or great, and : mania, meaning madness, frenzy. In common everyday application, we often won’t do things that are “beneath” us, seemingly unimportant, below our pay grade. The often quoted “Go Big or Go Home,” sounds good, you might even get a standing ovation at a Rotary convention with that, but it may be keeping people sick. Here’s how:
Megalomania will keep you from doing the small things that add up to big results later.
Attention to detail in health recovery is everything. You may consider grocery shopping or cooking as work for someone other than you. If you rely on others to provide these things, often they will not exercise the care in food selection or cooking techniques on which your very life may depend. We associate activities like this with minimum wage people, not important highly comped executives. If you die, having been a highly comped executive will matter very little, huh? I’ve done most of my grocery shopping for the last 39 years, because as I learned new things about nutrition, I was able to make better food selections. Someone who does not have their finger on the pulse of new nutritional information, cannot be expected to know how to maximize their choices. Juicing, for example, is a lot of work. Juicing involves shopping for the right raw products, prep time, actual juicing, and then the discipline to actually drink the stuff. Not sexy, it’s repetitious, but could be a key to detoxing your future. Colonics are so far down on the chart of “interesting things to do today,” that for most, it is not even a consideration. Consider it.
Megalomania may be robbing you of your daily satisfaction.
Many people lose their job when they go through a huge health crisis. They had to be away from work for so long that they were ultimately replaced. When they try to reenter the work force, they find people tend to view them differently. After their cobra health insurance expires, they find they can no longer afford the rates extended to “someone who had cancer.” Often these people wind up taking jobs that require very little of the talent they applied to their former key positions. They do not have the “benies” they had before and people actually treat them differently now. Where before they may have seen themselves as a mover and a shaker, now they are treated like a worker instead of a leader. The result? Lower self-esteem that may lead to a lowered immune system response. Depression sets in and they find they become sick again. Is the key to avoid Megalomania? Give the same attention to detail at this lesser post that you did to the VP job you had before. Work the same number of hours you would if you owned the place. Offer creative suggestions and EXECUTE, EXECUTE, EXECUTE yourself to distinction. Most employees have neat ideas, few if any, actually do anything about it. If you can make up your mind that the importance of any task is nothing more than the significance you place on it, all ground becomes holy ground and all tasks are equal. Your attitude improves markedly because you don’t feel like a penny waiting for change. You see yourself as a key player in every situation. You didn’t change, only the environment changed and environments tend to mold around our attitudes. The “all or nothing” philosophy sounds good, but it may be keeping you from satisfaction in your daily routine. Is it the Little Foxes that spoil the vines?
Megalomania can kill you.
My father was a VP of Sales for Dodge when he was in his twenties. He moved to Detroit and got the nod from Dodge based on his performance as a used car salesman in Tyler, Texas from the Holley Motor Company. He rose through the ranks until the Wall Street Journal was reporting on his innovation in the Auto Shows being held at Cobo Hall in the Motor City. He had use of the executive dining room, a company car, and even the company plane for travel. Then, he made a critical mistake and was fired. Because he had been “at the top,” nothing ever looked important enough for him. Richard Nixon once said, “once you’ve done the top, nothing seems interesting anymore…” My father died shortly after that but it took 40 more years and unlimited bottles of vodka to actually bury him. But alcohol didn’t kill him, Megalomania did. Had he applied his unusual charisma to whatever work he could get, he would have once again risen to the top in that organization. However, the time period between starting something new and achieving any kind of recognition seems like FOREVER. We might lose our way on that trek and are often never heard from again. So you had the world by the tail but you got sick and everything changed after that. You lost your key job, your savings got drained, you lost your house and a few cars in the process. Can you rebuild and if so, how?
If Megalomania applies to everything, you’ll be OK.
Tomorrow, when you get up, start where you are, no matter where and what that is, and apply the same level of importance to every task. If you need to juice some carrot and apple juice before going to work, do it with flair. Pour the juice in a champagne glass and savor the color and flavor. At work, show the owner three ways to cut costs and improve his bottom line. Treat every person you meet like they hold in their hands everything you want, because they do. Above all, show appreciation for every minute of every day because maybe you came awfully close to losing every minute of every day. Employ time to multiply your efforts and you will once again feel like “the old you.” I close with an interesting mouse pad sold at www.zazzle.com.
