A CEO's story

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When I was 17,I read a quote that something like:If you live each day as if it was 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 lookde in the mirror every morning and ask myself:" If today were the last day of my life,would I want to do what I am 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. Remebering that I'll be dead soom is the most important too I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.Because almost everything --all external expectiongs,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 maked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer.I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed that a tumor on my pancreas.I didn't even know what pancreas was.The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to 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 prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you have hte next 10 years to tell them in just a few months.It means to make sure everything is buttoned up to that it will be as easy as possible for your family.It means to say your goodbyes. I live with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down to my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines,put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor.I was sedated,but my wife ,who was there, told me that when they review the cell under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turn out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery.I had the surgery and I'm fine now. No one want to die.Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there.And yet death is the destination we all share.No one has escapeed it.And that is as it should be,because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is Life's change angent. It clears out the old to make way of make for the new.Right now the new is you,but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be clearly away.Sorry to be dramatic,but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.Don't be trapped by dogma which is living whith 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 couryage to follow your heart and intuition.They somehow already know what you truly want to become.Everything else is secondary.