If someone that you trusted, approached you and offered you a bet and then guaranteed you a 100% chance of winning, would you take the bet?
As human beings, there is a 100% you will die, you don’t get better odds than that!
However, most of us live our lives thinking that we are never going to die.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama said it best when asked what surprised him most about mankind:
“Man surprised me most about humanity because he sacrifices his health in order to make money.
Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”
We overlook and take so much for granted in our life, only missing things when they’re gone. Sometimes we require a wake-up call – normally an illness or the death of someone close to us.
When that happens, all of a sudden you become a patient in a world of waiting rooms, sometimes waiting hours for a result; attending appointment after appointment and spending too much time in cold, clinical machines like MRIs & CTs; kneeling at the base of a hospital bed, praying for miracles; and dealing with the frustration of tests and examinations.
Then you look at the healthy people skipping down the street like you once did, you realize you took it all for granted, and you wish you could do it all again and have your time over.
So, what are you waiting for? It is time to stop taking life for granted and start living a little.
Youth and spontaneity go hand in hand. When we are younger, we don’t give a second thought to being impulsive and very rarely think of “Will this work?” or “Will I land on my feet?”
When was the last time you’ve done something completely spontaneous? Something that wasn’t planned, that didn’t fit into your five-year plan, that took you outside of your comfort zone?
This week, I want you to live your life like the final quote at the end of my book.
Carpe Diem. (Seize the Day). For this moment may not come again.
Ritch