Have Your Say
Hi I’m Patrick Nolan the Formula For Life Anchor. You might recognise my voice from the audio narrative of the ChapterKey releases of Decode Your Diagnosis in 2025. Paul will dive into Jenny Peterson’s Cipherline review shortly, but for a moment we would like your opinion.
As part of the staging plan for Formula For Life (the umbrella organisation of which Decode Your Diagnosis is one content stream), it’s time to introduce a slight evolution to the weekly Cipherline newsletter format.
But the choice of what that evolution becomes is not ours, it’s yours.
What would you like to see included?
Please read the following concepts and vote in the poll and add comments onto this post if you would like to elaborate, because this community is about the shared experience of decoding a diagnosis.
Option 1 — The Guided Path
A single focused insight explored in three short sections:
Decode: What’s really going on
Align: How to work with it this week
Thrive: What this opens up longer-term
Best for readers who want clarity, rhythm, and a sense of progression.
Option 2 — The Field Note
Short, sharp weekly insight from lived experience
A tighter, more personal CipherLine:
One real observation, moment, or pattern
One practical takeaway
One reflective question
Best for readers who want brevity, honesty, and something they can sit with.
Option 3 — The Tool Drop
One practical tool or framework per week
Each CipherLine introduces or revisits a tool from the Decode Your Diagnosis book :
Compass, Rings, Influence Matrix, Alignment Fitness, etc.
When to use it
How to apply it this week
Best for readers who want hands-on support and repeatable structure.
Option 4 - Guest Contribution
A short article or guest post written by the Session From The Edge Guest featured in the week in question.
Thanks for taking the time to have your say, now it’s over to Paul to review his Session From The Edge With Jenny Peterson.
Dying To Live With Jenny Peterson
Introduction
There’s a quiet strength in how Jenny Peterson speaks about illness. There are no slogans, no fighting metaphors or inspirational performance.
Just a steady refusal to let a diagnosis swallow her identity.
Jenny lives with stage four metastatic breast cancer and she knows exactly what that means. She understands the scans, the treatments, the side effects and the risks. But she draws a firm line between knowing her reality and building her life around it.
“I accept the diagnosis,” she says.
“I do not accept the prognosis.”
That distinction matters more than most people realise.
Decode
A diagnosis is information, and information sets a plan of action into place but it is not an identity.
What breaks people isn’t always the condition itself, it’s the meaning they attach to it. Jenny learned to notice that moment closely:
What am I making this mean?
Fear fills in blanks fast when prognosis becomes destiny and labels become excuses or cages. Then, slowly, but surely, life shrinks.
Jenny refuses that contraction and it would help if you did too.
Align
Instead of bracing herself every morning for what might go wrong, she starts her days with curiosity.
How does my body feel today?
What’s present right now?
What’s possible inside these limits?
Curiosity softens resistance and replaces dread with attentiveness. It keeps her from rehearsing suffering before it arrives.
In her interview I got the distinct impression she also sets clear emotional boundaries:
No pity
No constant symptom-talk
No living in hush-tones or whispered fear
Support is welcome. Drama is not and that is an important perspective to take when you are looking at a life with a diagnosis of incurable or irreversible.
Thrive
Times can be tough and dynamic harmony with it’s ups and downs definitely plays it’s part, but Jenny doesn’t chase happiness. She looks for joy, beauty, humour, and purpose, even when they’re bittersweet.
While she loves writing and does it quite a lot, her purpose isn’t writing. Writing is the expression of something deeper: showing up with honesty, love, and presence in the world she still inhabits.
“We’re all dying,” she says.
“I’m just a little more aware of it.”
That awareness sharpens life, it doesn’t end it.
Titan Reflection
What part of your life has quietly become organised around your diagnosis, rather than your values?
Closing Note
Thanks for joining us and we hope you enjoy watching the session with Jenny.
Well, that’s your Cipherline for this week. Don’t forget to watch the Susbtack Live recording which you’ll find in another post this week. Also be sure to join us live for the next recording of Sessions From The Edge.
Until next week, try to reduce your burden and enjoy life.
Sincerely,
The Formula For Life Team
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