Dion, a carpenter foreman with a large Portland acoustics construction company, told Session 7B of the Leadership Development Lab:

“Approximately a year ago, I had a serious accident at work and injured my back pretty badly. After seeing all kinds of doctors and specialists, receiving cortisone shots, and having gone through almost twelve months of physical therapy. Nothing had worked; my back problem still wasn’t fixed. By the end of the day I had a lot of back pain, and I had become very sedentary as a result. Over the past year I have put on about thirty unwanted pounds, and at the same time lost all the tone and muscle I had worked so hard to develop. I definitely was not in the shape I used to be or wanted to be. After I receive my 5X red dot at session three of the Leadership Development LAB, I decided it was time to make some obviously need changes. Instead of lying around on the couch waiting for this injury to get better to just go away. I decided to clean up my diet. I quit chewing tobacco, which I’ve done for twenty years. I signed up for the light duty workout program at the health club. I have replaced my lunch pail full of cupcakes and Coke with fruits,

vegetables and juice.

I have replaced the chewing tobacco with sunflower seeds until my mouth bleeds, but that’s getting better. For the first time in over a year I’ve started my trips back to the Powerhouse Gym for light workouts. I have already started to feel better because of these changes. I have more stamina and energy when I get home from work. I don’t have to just drop onto the couch like I had been for the past several months. I have more energy for exercise, which gives me more energy for my wife and kids.

“The lesson I have learned from this experience is not to always rely on doctors and other experts for my answers. I learned to proactively prescribe my own cure, to take charge of my own destiny.

“The action I call you to take is to stop looking out into the distant future for the things you dream about, instead reach out and grab a hold of them today. Don’t play the victim. Take responsibility for where you are in your life and where you are going. The benefit you will gain is a kind of confidence in yourself that will shine out brightly to others. You will be an empowering leader.”