I recently read an inspiring article written by an accountant. She is the founder of a progressive accounting practice established about 15 years ago in Englandshire.

On 1 April 2021, she almost died. While out walking her dog, her right leg suddenly cramped and stopped working due to multiple arterial blood clots that had lodged in her leg, almost entirely blocking her arteries, and preventing blood from travelling to her foot. If the clots had spread, this could easily have led to multiple organ failures on the spot.

Realising how close to death you have been, what do you do with that information?  She is an accountant so no amateur dramatics. She took a day off to make up for the weekend she spent in hospital and then went back to work.

As she says, the only thing that has been her constant throughout all this has been her work. Could that mean that she is really that person who is so defined by their work and that she has no other identity?

So what was in her mind then and what did the experience teach her.

She was itching to get back to work but that is because she actually loves what she does. She has grown a successful practice, built a good team and has a balanced life.  She is still excited by growth and the developments now and in the pipeline.

She says that her life is busy, unpredictable, and demanding. I certainly know that feeling. Yet it seems that she doesn’t want it any other way. I wholeheartedly agree. Nearly dying seems to have focused her mind on what she wants to achieve and what goals she still has to reach.

She has built a life that fulfils her and gives her purpose and happiness. And her business has been a huge part of that. What more can anybody want.

As for mental health, she says she has learned an incredible lesson and that is that anxiety is a liar!

Of all the things that have kept her anxious and worried over the years, the most serious thing she should have worried about didn’t even cross her mind. She was not anxious about dying at all and yet that was what almost stopped her in her tracks.

Her take on anxiety now is that it’s just the things that anxiety fabricates in your head that tend to floor you. Its all about perception.

As she says, deep down, we’re all a lot stronger than we think we are – there is nothing so far in life that you haven’t survived. Keep that in mind at all times.

She would not recommend almost dying as a tool to assess if your life is going the way you’d hoped. But if you were to almost die, would you keep things the same?

I have known a few people with similar experiences, and they are now stronger and more resilient for the experience.

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