I spent decades pleasing everyone. Then cancer changed the equation.

The author, pictured with her husband, said she has been a lifelong people pleaser. A cancer diagnosis gave her a crash course in setting boundaries. Courtesy of Lynn Shattuck. As a firstborn Gen-X daughter, people-pleasing was like a second skin to me. Discovering I had chronic lymphoma forced me to set boundaries and maintain boundaries. I've found that setting boundaries gets easier with practice, but requires vigilance. The summer I turned 50, I was diagnosed with lymphoma. While the ty...