Live Each Day

Are you living a life of quiet desperation?  It’s more of an awareness thing rather than calling you out.  Okay, how about: Are you living the life that you want?  Be honest now.  Would you do what you do every day even if you were not being paid for it?  Answering yes to that would tell me that you are living life the way you want to.  You are in your bliss…living your dharma…and that is freaking awesome…I am happy for you.  If you aren’t, join the club, but don’t make excuses for it.  Instead, choose to do something about it…before it is too late!

Ever since I watched Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement speech, I have a new awareness…a new perspective that I try very hard to maintain.  The words that changed how I think about the decisions that I make now:

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like, “If you live each day as if it were your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.”  It made an impression on me… and since then, for the past 33 years I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today.”  And whenever the answer has been, “no” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.  Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything: all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure… these things just fall away in the face of death… leaving only what is truly important.  Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked; there is no reason not to follow your heart.

Look in the mirror every morning and ask myself:  IF TODAY WERE THE LAST DAY OF MY LIFE, WOULD I WANT TO DO WHAT I’M ABOUT TO DO TODAY?

Your playing small does not serve the world, there is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you!

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