I am going to guess you probably want to live a fulfilling life. One of the key success strategies revealed through the interviews for my book Healing Happens: Stories of Healing Against All Odds is focusing on your reason to live, which has helped many overcome fatal pronouncements. As a scientist I like to think when the force of the reason to live is greater than the strength of a disease, the reason to live will win. In another sense, I believe every time we shy away from our true purpose a piece of us dies inside. It takes not only following the vision but also envisioning the full potential of your life. The more you can see that true vision, the better your life will become.

Mamie-Jean Lamley kept an attitude of “cancer does not equal death” to help herself stay positive and survive cancer because she was determined to raise her three kids.

Dr. Bernie Siegel has hundreds of stories of patients who survived terminal prognoses because they simply focused on...