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Is What We Do After We Get Bad News Ours to Choose?
We all get bad news sometimes. But what we do after we receive it is up to each of us to choose.
One of my best friends wrecked an ankle long ago. Like, thoroughly destroyed it. They repaired it with pins and plates, and it served him for nearly 2 decades.
But over time, the pain levels associated with that ankle became unbearable. For several years he’s been fighting the constant pain, and it was negatively impacting his life.
At long last, they had an idea to get him some relief — and they did a surgical procedure to remove most of the plates and pins, hoping it would alleviate the pain.
At first, it seemed to work. But then, during recovery and rehab, the pain returned. This led to the bad news. His best option is to have the ankle replaced. FYI — he’s under 50.
That’s bad news. But you know what? He took it in stride. It was not unexpected — this surgery was not necessarily going to truly fix his ankle. At least now he knows what to expect and is planning accordingly.
This perfectly illustrates something we all experience at one time or another. We get bad news. And when that happens — we choose what to do next.
