If you read my publisher’s note on page 14, I alluded to this article being a spin off, which is a first. As you know, I went to the hospital for an excruciating, out-of-character headache recently. I worried I was having a stroke or an aneurism. I don’t get headaches; I’ve never had a migraine, and strokes run in my family. I was scared.

Before deciding to go to the hospital, I toiled with the debilitating pain for almost two hours. I took ibuprofen, put a cold rag on my forehead, closed my eyes, and tried deep-breathing techniques, all with no relief. The pressure pushing against my skull was insurmountable and radiated into my neck. The pain went from zero to agonizing, instantly. And yet, I questioned going to the hospital.

From the bitterness of disease,
man learns the sweetness of health.  —Catalan Proverb

I have a friend who was “pre-diagnosed,” with cancer, meaning the doctor was fairly certain, but tests were needed to confirm. After weeks of waiting and then a full day of pokes, blood draws, and scans, the results were clear—no cancer! News can hardly get any better than this. It’s like a windfall filled with a second chance at life.

I’m in a hurry. I have to get this written because I have much more to do. Plus, I’m running behind. In fact, I’m always running behind, and I’m usually in a hurry, too. It’s OK, so is everyone else. What’s the big deal?

I’ll tell you what the big deal is: Hurrying is detrimental to your health. In fact, there is something now dubbed Hurry Sickness, where people hurry out of the mere habit of hurrying. In addition, they demand people around them to hurry, too, including their children, spouses, elderly parents, co-workers and cashiers. The problem is all this unnecessary hurrying manifests itself in the form of heart disease, high blood pressure, anxiety/panic and depression of immune function, which can lead to cancer. In other words, we are literally hurrying ourselves to the grave.

We are on this planet but once, and to spend it holding back our gushing appreciation of the things that light us up is a shameful waste. —Jen Sincereo, Author of You are a Badass

I have a lot to say about being a badass, which come to find out, really has nothing to do with being bad, or being an ass. In fact, I believe those who live the “loudest” are not “loud” at all; the most impactful “badasses” are those who are kind, humble, loving, giving and understanding, even when others are not kind, humble, loving, giving or understanding to them.

Stop. drop and be reasonable. Before you leave that scathing review about how your server didn’t bring your ketchup timely, or rush to get your child their fourth Coke, please employee reason before you tear down and damage someone’s hard-earned business with intolerance and unreasonable expectations.

I am not a reviewer. Why? Probably because I have no desire to be the authority on everything, but more importantly, I am a business owner, and I understand and respect the incredible amount of dedication and hard work that goes into making a company run.