I found
a great quote last year and I’m not sure when it was said but that really isn’t
important. The meaning of the quote is
totally relevant. It is one of my
favorite quotes and I find myself amazed that he worded his response so
well. The Dalai Lama was asked a
question and his response is the quote I am referring to. The question was “What surprised him most
about humanity?” His amazing response
was this:
“Man. 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.”
There
is a lot there if you take a second to appreciate what he said. How many of us work fifty plus hours a
week? Some work sixty or worse even more? How many times have you said I don’t have
time to ____________? How many times
have you said you’ll do something next week when you have more time? Do you think that you enjoy the present? Do you feel that you are living life to its
maximum potential? When was the last
time you took a vacation? Do you ever
stop and realize that another year just flew by and it seems like time is going
faster and faster? I’ll give you a big
hint, time isn’t going faster! I’d
venture to say that most of the people I meet do not get the Dalai Lama’s
response and might not even get this paragraph.
Those are the folks who go through life on cruise control. They don’t accomplish much in their lifetime
and are surprised by their ending (in whatever form it comes). I DO NOT want to be that person.
However
I didn’t really need The Dalai Lama’s quote to change my life or my behavior. I had a much more personal experience about
twelve years ago. Every year I go for my
annual physical, with my doctor, just to make sure my body is doing ok. Twelve years ago I had some blood work come
back that didn’t paint a pretty picture.
It looked as though my liver was failing and when I asked the doctor what
the worst case scenarios would be he replied that I might just have weeks to
live. I was twenty eight when this
happened. I had two wonderful children
and now had to look at my short life and write the ending. It wasn’t complete. I had so much that I wanted to do. I, just like most, thought I would have more
time. I’d get to it next week, etc. It was a very dark moment in my life as I
came face to face with my own mortality.
I realized I had been on cruise control for most of my adult life. As you can already deduce, I didn’t die but
that event changed me forever.
I now
realized that I was going to do die and while it wasn’t just weeks away it was
inevitable. This time though I was going
to be ready or should I say as ready as you can be. When
you have weeks to live, you realize just how NOT important work is. Sure, it is a necessity to get money but for
most of us it takes us a way from our families and the things we love to do for
long stretches of time. The really smart
and lucky ones love our work so it’s more tolerable. I basically, at a fundamental level,
re-invented myself way back then. I
changed my diet. I started exercising. I changed my life. Those who know me well enough will draw the
lines that I got divorced not to long after that event. Because of that experience I cherished life
in a totally different way than those around me. I work hard but I play hard. I strive to be the best at whatever I am
doing. I tried to embody living consciously. I live in the moment and when I’m focused on
something it has my complete attention. When
I’m not working I am doing what I want to be doing and it usually is not what I’d
call wasted time. I never have a moment
where I thought what happened to that month?
What happened to that year? I am
living in the present and experiencing life!
It wasn’t too long after the bad
blood work event that I found the story 1,000 marbles written by Jeffrey
Davis. It resonated with me because of
my experience. If you aren’t familiar
with it I highly recommend reading it, at least once (it is very short). It’s a parable about appreciating life’s
finite nature. You can read it here: http://www.landofmarbles.com/marbles-1000marbles.html
or buy his book. You can count the
marbles you have left as they go by. It’s
a great way of keeping you focused on what is really important and it makes you
consciously aware of just how little time you have left.
Oddly, and this sounds bad, but I
wish all those who read this could experience the event that I had with that
bad blood work. I don’t want anyone to actually die but the experience alone
would touch and change your life just as it did to me. Just
think about it for a second. What if you
had two weeks to live? Would you do
anything different? Would you have any
regrets? If the answer to either of those questions
is yes then you may have been cruising through life like I did in my
twenties. Stop! Don’t do that. Join me in my re-invention if you have
to. Do whatever it takes to start living
consciously. DO NOT put off the things
that are important to you. If you have a
friend you haven’t spoken to recently, call them. If you have always wanted to go see the Great
Barrier Reef then put it on your list. Start
saving now and begin making plans to do it.
I never really thought I’d make it to forty! Now, at forty, I’m making sure that if I do
get to fifty or beyond that my list of things that I have to get done will be
done.
This is one of the large driving
forces behind my re-invention. I’m going
to die. Unlike those on cruise control
though, I’m very aware of this fact. It's not a bad thing and it is a big motivator! I’m
actively working on my list of things I must get done before that occurs.
There is another dimension to my re-invention that I just touched on in my first blog posting. Ask yourself this, how many lives
simply extinguish each and every day that you don’t know or hear about? Roughly ~150,000 people die every day on this
planet. You might hear about a small
handful of those each year (unfortunately it’s mostly celebrities). Worse you may have known one or more of those who
passed. I don’t need to become a
celebrity to be relevant but right now, if I passed, outside of my family and
close friends I’d be one of those nameless 150,000. The second part of my re-invention is to make
sure that I leave some measurable fingerprint on this planet. I am going to make a difference before I go. This second dimension to my re-invention is me trying to find HOW I am
going to make that difference.
In my
next blog entry, I’ll go more into how I am approaching some of the things I want
to change that I mentioned in my first blog posting. But before I shared my approach on change I
wanted you to understand two of the driving forces behind my re-invention. I am dying and I haven’t left my fingerprint
on the planet yet. I can't stop the first one but I can most definitely work on the second! Embrace your mortality and live
each day to its fullest. I’ll end this
blog with another quote…
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” –Mahatma
Gandhi