Two Years To Live

You have two years to live. Are you content with the life you have, or would you make changes?

I've been asking myself this question a lot lately. We assume that we are going to live long lives; we try to eat healthy and take good care of our bodies and brains so that we don't need our diapers changed when we're 80. We put off doing the things that really matter to us because we think we have all the time in the world. And maybe we do. We just don't know.

Recently, someone who I didn't know well at all, but who was a very beloved woman in town passed away. She didn't have much time from her diagnosis to her death, and I cannot begin to imagine what that might be like. Fortunately, for now, I don't have to know. Still, I don't want to take my life, or my time here on earth, for granted.

There are things that I want to do, places I'd like to visit. I have goals that matter to me, that I want to accomplish, and I've been putting them off for a long time. Change is hard, but not fulfilling the dreams that you want in life, isn't the right trade off.

I had no idea who Steve Jobs was, really, until he died. I hadn't heard his Stanford commencement address until it went viral that same day. But it really hit home. Beginning now, I am going to live my life in a way that won't have me looking back with regret.

And to remind you again of what Jobs said:

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living 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 other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."