Diagnosis vs. Prognosis

Believe one, but question the other!

I just finished reading Scott Adams’ (creator of the Dilbert cartoons) book, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. He was once diagnosed with an incurable hand condition that would have forced him to stop creating Dilbert cartoons.

Literally NO ONE had EVER cured themselves of this particular thing.

So what did Scott do? He decided to be the first one.

He said, “Realistically, what were the odds of being the first person on earth to beat a local dystonia? One in a million? One in ten million? I didn’t care. That person was going to be me. Thanks to my odd life experiences, and odder genes, I’m wired to think things will work out well for me no matter how unlikely it might seem.”

It was a surprisingly useful frame of mind. (He did it, of course!)

Don’t identify with the statistics; you are not limited by them.

Stephen Jay Gould, an influential author of popular science, was diagnosed with cancer and, according to the statistics, was supposed to die quickly. Only he wasn’t so sure.

As the author of Anti-Cancer: A New Way of Life, Servant-Schreiber said “He lived thirty times longer than the oncologists had predicted. The lesson this great biologist teaches us is simple: Statistics are information, not condemnation. The objective, when you have cancer and want to combat fatality, is to make sure you find yourself in the long tail of that curve.”

Applying these medical concepts to your daily life can be a life-changing activity. You don’t have to believe what may be presented as “most likely'” or as “factual” to your circumstance. You can choose to acknowledge the symptoms without buying into the belief that you are doomed by the prognosis.

Believe the diagnosis so you can choose what you will do. Doubt the prognosis so you aren’t bound by the statistics. And the power that gives you will enable you to change your outlook, your actions, and your results!