People in my classes and workshops are often taken aback by the way I encourage them to speak up: “I could be dead tomorrow, so please ask me any question while you can.”
There is usually dead silence (hah, the irony) and I explain further, “We cannot predict what is going to happen. In the next 24 hours, anything could happen. I might get into an accident, suffer a stroke, or be diagnosed with a deadly disease. We really have no idea!”
You too, know this to be true, but you probably don’t think about it regularly, or you don’t want to.
Before you think this is morbid, I assure you, embracing the unpredictable is about celebrating life and maximising your opportunities.
Steve Jobs said, “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?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
The apostle James said, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’ yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’”
I grew up quickly in my 20s while working as a journalist. I observed, I interviewed and I wrote the stories of many lives. They made the news because often, something unexpected happened to them.
But think about it, unexpected things happen to us every single day, we just don’t pay attention to them unless they affect our life and health, or our loved ones.
As a Christian, I believe death is a release from the pain and suffering on the mortal plane, and I can go be with Jesus for eternity (and perhaps regain my hair!). That’s why I do not fear death and my life is in God’s hand.
But while I’m alive today, I must make the most of each single day, doing meaningful things and helping others in my own little way… like writing this post to share my philosophy.
Thanks for reading and go make a dent in the universe today!