The Upside of Being Down with a Cold

Boy, it has been a very sickly month for me.  I don't usually get sick or when I do, I can stop the cold after a few days.  So it was a surprise to be laid up with a sinus infection and cough for over a month.  It knocked me so hard that I could barely get out of bed several days and most days, could only function for a few hours.

As I laid there, day after day, I wondered what this was telling me.  Am I not eating healthy enough?  Am I stressed?  Is there something in my environment compromising my immune system?

Being a spiritual person, I had to look at what I am supposed to learn from this experience.  I realized, as I spent so much time in bed, that I was giving my self time to make some important decisions.  Most of these were financial and have to do with inherited money.  

I am very decisive with my own money and investments but the inherited money was different for me.  I don't want to use the money for myself, except perhaps any interest or dividends, and I want to keep the money safe for now.
With the current market, safe is easy enough but the low interest rates make me cringe.  

So here I am, laying in bed, day after day, feeling miserable but realizing that I need to make some decisions on what to do.  Being a fan of Tony Robbins, I ordered the audio version of his latest book, Money - Master the Game.  I own two copies of the book but I really wanted to review over and over the asset allocation strategies of some of the wealthiest individuals in our country.

When I finally decided on my own strategy for how to invest the inherited money, I got better.  OK, this is what I needed to do.  I started putting together my new strategy but as I felt better, I also got distracted with catching up on the day-to-day that had been neglected while I was ill.  

Then a funny thing happened. I started to relapse.  It was a wake up call to get my money decisions finalized and in process.  No more delays.  And you know what?  When I finished what I had started, my health improved   I finally feel better and actually feel that I will get completely well. 

Lesson: Sometimes we don't take time to really get in touch with what is a priority in our lives.  We allow ourselves to ignore those issues that we don't want to deal with at the moment.  In my case, being ill gave my mind a chance to look at my life from a different perspective and to focus on that area that I had been avoiding.