Nationwide Insurance wasn’t kidding, life really does come at you fast. It could be much worse; at least I didn’t go to sleep and wake up as a card carrying member of the AARP with a condo in Florida and a plastic hip. For now time is still on my side but for how long...life is so unpredictable and I spend far too much time on the things that in the final equation don’t really measure up to very much.

I had the privilege a few years ago to work for a very successful business man. He had built a company from the ground up and made a name for himself and a fortune over the course of almost 50 years. When I met him he was elderly and still going strong in business and in life. He ate right and worked out every day, I caught on quickly that he was very afraid to die. Sad part is that he was often depressed despite his wealth and worldly success and his relationships were luke warm at best.

Unfortunately, a small piece of plaque in his artery broke free one morning in 2008 and took his life. I remember that day like it was yesterday, sitting at my desk waiting for his morning conference call. Instead I got a call from his newly widowed wife just hours after the tragic event had taken place. I was not really able to process all that was happening so I went into auto-pilot for the next couple weeks talking to estate lawyers and finishing up open ended business for the company. The next 9 months of my life would be spent dissolving all 50 years of his life, closing up and shutting down the legacy that he had spent a lifetime building.

It made me ask questions like, if I died tomorrow can what would I leave behind? Would it be something worth keeping for anybody still here? Did I make the world a better place and did I love without expecting a return? Things like this make you really ask yourself, what is my definition of success and what would it take to really make me happy?

So I challenge you today to do what the country song says (all good advice in life comes from music ya know) and 'live like you were dying'. Don’t wait for another day to do what you can do today. Don’t settle for living but be fully alive! Take risks, love without limits and never settle for less than you can have! After all you only get to do this once (unless your a Hindu, in which case you better still follow this advice because you might come back as something without opposable thumbs. Which would make opening up a jar of peanut butter virtually impossible, and we all know peanut butter is the way to true enlightenment and Nirvana...wait that’s Buddist...well you get the point.)

Live out loud! Let your light shine for all to see and never apologize for being who you are. Don’t play small to make someone else feel big because it’s only when you are who God created you to be that you can help others see the way to their greatness. We are all in this together but at the end in the final exam what will your answer be to the question, “Did I make the most of everything I have been given?” My answer will be “Hell Yeah!”