Dear Dad,
The tensest time of any trial is the 15 seconds of silence when the foreperson of the jury hands the verdict sheet to the clerk of the court.
With the verdict sheet in-hand, the clerk inquires from the foreperson the jury’s verdict on each charge. The courtroom is silent. The tension is thick. And the coming words are life changing. Where will the defendant live for the next (x) years. It’s a wonder that defendant’s don’t have heart attacks in this moment, as I sometimes feel that I might.
Hopefully you never find yourself standing to face a jury verdict. But there are plenty of moments in our lives that have relatable life changing drama. For you, after first buying your business wondering if the last check would come in at the end of the month to keep the lights on. For me, opening the email to learn if I passed the bar exam. For any of us, listening to a doctor interpret a necessary medical test.
In such moments it’s so easy to be fixated focus on the pending result and forget to analyze what decisions dictated the coming results in the first place. The obvious reality that our minds tend to glaze over is that our prior decisions determined the results we received in each situation. Your company paid the bills because a proper work flow was established not because a check was received. I passed the bar because I studied appropriately not because an email told me so. And last week’s defendant was found guilty because he committed egregious acts and it was time to be accountable not because the verdict sheet had checked guilty.
In the same way, your health isn’t manifested by a doctor interpreting a test, it’s formed from the decisions you made yesterday and will make today and tomorrow. The good news about health, as long as you’re still breathing while reading, is that it’s not too late to make a change…unlike our defendant…
Chose wisely and stand to face the consequences, good or bad.
With Love,
JSR
