Don’t Let Someone Else Drive Your Life

During our family Thanksgiving feast two Sunday’s ago, pops (my dad)
brought it to our attention that he had went to the doctor…hmmm, initially I thought.

What was this about?

He proceeded to let us know that he had been having some groin pains and that on occasion it was very uncomfortable.

Now, lemme tell ya, my dad is one of those old school 65 year old Colombian hard heads that vehemently opposes going to the doctor, but I believe that my wife has done a number on him, meaning she has influenced him to now go and take that part of his life a bit more seriously. I also think with him having not ONE, but TWO grandkids as of almost a month ago has changed his perspective there.

I’ve also been pounding it into his head that health is EVERYTHING and that our best is yet to come so take care of yourself. He’s getting the memo.

Anywho, he let’s us know, he shows us the papers and makes mention that the signs of what has happened is that there might be a hernia. My aunt stepped in, she said her husband had one and the surgery to go with it, simple. One hour in and out.

Some reassurance there. Meanwhile pops has to wait until Friday to go to the surgery center to confirm by the specialist that it is in fact that hernia. Look no matter who you are, waiting on a diagnosis when they’re unfamiliar to you can shake ya up.

I could see he was being tough but fractionally worried without an answer.

That night I had to head over to the JW Marriot here in Vegas and I called him privately.

I said, “you strong?” I said, “focus on already being better.” I said, “this should be a good thing for you to again understand the importance of taking care of yourself.” I told him, “look you have a few years left of work, and that job is what got you here because you’re lifting all this heavy machinery as an engineer at work.” I said, “when we learn what’s going on and you have it taken care of for whatever reasons work gives you a hard time for anything, dont you worry, I got you, money, support, etc. Do not worry about that.” To which he understood and said that his people, bosses, supervisors at work were being good to him.

We wrapped the call and I told him to see the best outcome and that you’ve got two young grandkids that love you and want to keep playing with you so let’s go get this thing taken care of…

That was Sunday night, we still had until Friday before he had to go in.

Pops thought it could be his prostate but recently had other work done so there wasn’t a big concern there.

I checked in regularly with him throughout the weeks to see his mindset, how he was feeling, and so forth.

Friday comes, I leave for Dallas, call him that afternoon after I land and get to my hotel in Addison.

“What’s the word?”

“Doc, said I have a hernia. Bout an hour surgery, and they’re going to call me to schedule.” “Right on,” I said. “Now we know what it is.”

Now, I’ve been to enough doctors appts lately with the birth of our new son and I guess I have a bias towards scheduling next appts now, not later, so this one, a surgery for my dad.. who I want to have the pain relieved for him, ticked me a tiny bit.

“Alright pops, let’s wait until Monday see what’s up, they should call.”

Weekend goes by, yesterday, I’m sitting in the airport in Dallas, I call him, good spirits - ”what’s up pops?” Small talk.

“You hear from the doctor?”

“No, not yet. My friends here at work told me it can take a few weeks to hear from them…”

“A few weeks???”

Man, I damn near dropped my phone.

I said, “Pops… listen to me, let me explain something…why are you letting someone ELSE drive something that literally has to do with YOUR body? YOUR health? YOUR life?”

He’s listening. No Colombian hot head, defensiveness…thinking.

And I told him, “Dad, listen. I’m sure your work friends are buds, but stop taking medical timelines from dudes hanging out on break at work. This ain’t Uber. The doctor isn’t gonna magically pull up to your driveway with a confirmation text.”

I said, “YOU call them. YOU follow up. YOU take the wheel.”

Because here’s what I know, when you wait, you start to worry. When you wait, you start to drift in wonder. When you keep waiting your mind begins to invent stories that cause all kinds of other problems, it’s real.

Now, when you follow up, you take control. Get clarity. You’re moving the process forward. You eliminate the uncertainty.

Here’s the follow up lesson this week.

If you don’t follow up, life will drag on longer than it needs to.

People wait for things they could have solved in 3 minutes. People sit on pain they could have relieved weeks ago. People delay progress because they assume “someone will handle it.”

No!

Someone already did. That someone is YOU! You’re the someone. Follow-up isn't only for deals. It’s not only for sales. It’s not only about the moneyyy. Bring it to you. Go get it. Go make it happen.

Follow-up is how you take responsibility for the things that matter, how you take the wheel, how you move your life forward.

Don’t sit on the curb waiting for the call. Pick up the phone. Drive the damn car! Passengers wait. Drivers drive and get answers faster. You’re in control.

And your life, your business, your health, your relationships are waaaayyyyy too important to be sitting back and waiting, nooo way! Let’s get it.

See you next week Follow Up Fam.

Manny “That Follow Up Guy” Vargas