Tumor There are not many, if any, postive contexts in which you can use that word. But I would suggest to you that a tumor can be a catalyst to help you develop a laser like focus on those things about which you are passionate.

In December I hurt my back and received an initial diagnosis of a herniated disk. Not good. That could potentially end my hobby of distance running. "Oh well," I thought to myself. I will rehab and see what happens. Then a few weeks later, after the holidays, I received the complete diagnosis. I had a bulging disk on the left side of my spine, a floating bone fragment on the right side of my spine, and a potential meningioma at L4-L5.

Now if you don't know what a meningioma is, like I didn't; and you haven't had a chance to be debriefed by your physician, like I hadn't; I do not recommend "googling the term. When you google the word meningioma, the first thing that comes up is a paid listing about brain cancer. HELLO!!

Now if one reads the body of information about mengiomas available on the web, you find out that most mengioma's are benign. However, I can tell you after reading the first Google listing about brain cancer and knowing that I wasn't scheduled to talk to my physician for another week, I develped a very clear image of those things that are important in my life.

Three MRI's and multiple doctor visits later, I learned that my tumor is very small and benign. Also, according to my neurosurgeon these types of tumors often grow very slowly; perhaps 1-2 millimeters per year. At that rate it is possible that I will never have a problem with the tumor during my lifetime. That is great news relative to the info that I read in that very first Google listing.

But a funny thing happened during those weeks when there was some uncertainty about what all this would mean for me. I have a great job with a great company. However, I have spent the last 15 years making the world a safer place for accountants via the software that they purchase from my employer. Suddenly, I began to question, "Is that really what I am passionate about?" Awhile back I asked several professional colleagues to write reference letters for me. The consistent theme in all of those references was my ability to build great teams and help others reach their goals in part by leveraging my vast network of business associates. There was little mention of my contributions to the evolution of tax and accounting software.

The intersection of my diagnosis and those references made me realize that I spend the bulk of my waking hours working on things that I am not in fact passionate about. Even though I have been quite successful (my last project was mentioned in both Time and BusinessWeek), the meetings that I formerly took for granted now became like a water torture. I subsequently would leave these meetings thinking to myself, "I can't believe that I just traded two hours of my life to decide whether a particular enhancement was a Level 1 or Level 2 Feature."

Folks, it is time for the WAYPA guy to put his money where his mouth is. Stay tuned for more information. But in the meantime, let me ask you a question. What are you truly passionate about? Is that where you are spending the bulk of your time? If not, don't wait for a potential life threatening diagnosis to align your time commitments with your passion. Life is too short. God created you for a specifc purpose. You may not completely understand what that is today. But if you make a specific effort to understand your purpose, it will become apparent. And it will be at the intersection of your talents, your passions, and the needs of others.