(C)
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 am about to do today "
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.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that was incurable, and that I would live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for preparing yourself to die.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. I was completely in despair. Later that evening I had another biopsy and my wife told me that tumor turned out to be curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.
This was the closest I’v been to facing death. To tell the truth, no one wants to die. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. It clears out the old to make room for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away.
Your time is so limited that you shouldn’t waste it repeating someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma-which is living with the results of other people’ s thinking. Don’ t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart. It somehow already knows what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.