Five years ago, in the middle of Melbourne’s COVID lockdown, I heard the words: “You have Stage 3 melanoma, and it’s aggressive.”
At the time, I didn’t know whether I would make it to this five-year milestone.
Now I’m here. And I want to stop and acknowledge it.
This is a very personal episode of Leading You about what these five years have really looked like: surgery, treatment, scans, side effects, hospital stays, fatigue and an enormous amount of waiting.
But there has also been so much life.
I’ve worked. Travelled within Australia. Spoken on stages. Written a book. Hosted this podcast. Laughed a lot. And some of these past five years have been among the best years of my life.
One of the biggest things I’ve learnt is this:
You don’t need a crisis to change how you live.
In this episode, I explore:
- Reaching the five-year milestone after my Stage 3 melanoma diagnosis
- Why I’m choosing to celebrate rather than immediately move the goalposts
- How serious illness changed my relationship with waiting
- Why resilience is often much more ordinary than we imagine
- Letting go of who I was before cancer and creating a life I love now
- Who gets the best of our energy, and who gets the leftovers
- Three questions to help you think differently about your next five years
- What self-leadership looks like when so much is outside your control
I’m not going to pretend cancer suddenly made me enlightened. I still worry. I still work too much sometimes. I still get annoyed by things that don’t matter.
But I understand time differently now.
So I’ll leave you with one of the questions I ask in this episode:
If the next five years went incredibly quickly, what would you be disappointed you hadn’t done?
You don’t need something dramatic to happen before you build a life you genuinely want to be living.
Don’t wait for the crisis to give yourself permission.
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to Leading You
00:23 Five Years Since Diagnosis
02:42 Googling Prognosis and Resolve
04:04 Living With Ongoing Treatment
06:04 Hope and Celebrating Milestones
09:58 Stop Waiting to Live
13:09 You Are Stronger Than You Think
14:58 Lead Her Collective Invitation
15:54 Three Questions for Your Life
20:32 Choose How You Lead Yourself
22:09 Gratitude and Final Goodbye
Links:
Learn more about my group coaching program here
Join the Lead.Her Collective Dinner on 28th October. Reserve your seat here
Get the Clarity Compass here
Connect with Julie:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-hyde/
Instagram:@juliehydeleads
Website: https://juliehyde.com.au
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
