Monthly Archives: June 2013

Jumping off the Hamster Wheel and Finding Your Sweet Spot

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Pet Hamster Holding A Blank SignWhy do we do the things we do? Is it because our parents did it that way? Is it because we are trying to impress our friends? Is it because everyone else does it? Or is it because we are just trying to pay the bills?

Since I was told that August 16th would be my last day at my corporate job, I have been asking myself many questions about why I do the things I do.

 

 

I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.

Lucille Ball

One of the biggest questions I have asked myself is why did I have a corporate job in the first place? Well, it was serving a purpose. My company paid me well to do work that they needed someone to do. As simple as that! And I am grateful for that opportunity as it allowed me save some money and begin to see clearly that I wanted to do more meaningful work.

I did not want to spend the rest of my working life answering to people that cared little for me. I was giving up my precious life energy and spending hours away from home so that I could receive a paycheck to buy groceries, pay the mortgage and take short vacations. This sounds simple enough…go to work, get paid, buy stuff and then do it over and over again. But I was starting to feel like a hamster on a wheel because my work was not a true reflection of me.

No offense to all those lovely hamsters out there but looking back, I was really just doing the same uncreative things over and over and over again.

Over time, I began to feel numb in my corporate job. I was going through the motions because I needed/wanted the paycheck. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Our entire Western culture is bent on the idea that we go and find a great job so that our parents can be proud of us and we can go buy nice things to enjoy life. It’s the American dream, right?

The only problem is that it’s pretty easy to get comfortable with this idea because almost everyone is doing it. It’s the reality that we know.

Well, I am questioning that idea. I know that everyone has a different situation and I would be the first to say that if you don’t have the money to take your loved one out to a nice dinner, then by all means go out and get a job and create some financial stability in your life.

The key is to not get too comfortable in the job trap (unless you truly love your job). But I do believe that it’s entirely possible to be an entrepreneur while working for someone else. The most successful employees at most companies are the ones that love their job and willingly take on new assignments and tasks to create more value.

Here’s the bottom line. If you are in a job that you don’t love or feel a deep purpose for, why would you keep doing it? For the status? For the money? To keep your spouse happy? Let me just say that these things never end well.

My advice: start a business on the side doing something you care deeply about and that others will pay you for. That way, if you get laid off like I did, you will have a foundation already in place to grow a business and an income.

And even if you don’t want to start a side business, please, please, please consider finding work that is meaningful to you. Life is just too damn short to get comfortable in a job that you don’t love.

So how would I go about starting a side business that’s meaningful?

Here’s what I did.

I started by finding the intersection of three different criteria:

1.      What you’re deeply passionate about

2.      What you’re the absolute best at

3.      What the market wants

It’s an easy enough concept.  But finding that intersection (what I call the sweet spot)… now, that’s the trick.

Finding Your Sweet Spot

sweet spot

To illustrate the sweet spot concept (the intersection where your passion + your skills + what the market wants = your ideal role), I will use an example of my own business model.

What am I Deeply Passionate About?

I am deeply passionate about: Liberating the true genius within.
My purpose is to inspire authenticity – freeing talent, ideas, voice, opinions, consciousness. I inspire people to be the best version of themselves and create a life of freedom through a business with Soul. I find that when I diverge from this path, the cost is dear. When I stay the course of my truth, and support others in doing the same, I prosper in every possible way.

What Can I Be The Best At?

I can be best in the world at: Helping others align with their brilliance and get paid to be themselves.

I resisted aligning with my own brilliance for so long that I experienced tremendous pain because of it. I now understand what it means to follow my heart and use my head.

note: the most important word in this sentence is *can*. It’s not what *are* you the best in the world at (maybe it’s not on purpose) or what do you *want* to be the best in the world at (could be unrealistic). Maybe you can only be the best in the world at making gluten free crackers for mom’s in Scandinavia, or offering yoga adventure bootcamps for thrill seeking adrenalin junkies, or wedding planning in the tri-state area for under $20,000. Or maybe it’s just one thing you sell, such as…

What Does The Market Want/What Can I Make Money Doing?

My market wants: To do work that matters. To turn their existing skills and interests into a predictable income doing work that they love.

I make money by packaging my experience and wisdom in as many forms as possible (ie. personal coaching/consulting, and soon to be online training programs and mentorship programs).

I do not say yes or make new stuff unless it’s in sync with my sweet spot. It’s pure, it’s powerful and it works.

How do you know which big ideas get the green light or the kibosh?

Only your intuition knows, and she has your best interests at heart. She will love you to the edge of your greatness, and snap her whip when you waffle. She wants you to stay on purpose, on target, and on fire. She wants you to say no to soul-draining work and time wasters. She wants you to keep it pointed to where you want to go.

Remember, your intuition actually works for you. When a new idea or opportunity comes into view, intuition leans over, surveying your potential choices, and whispers two words to you: Sweet Spot. And snap! You know just what to do. Every time. You know whether to take it or leave it!

Knowing whether something falls in your sweet spot is one mighty power tool for clarity and purpose-driving. It is deceptively simple. If it’s not in your sweet spot, you lose.

– Michael

P.S. Do me a favor and leave me a comment on what you believe is your sweet spot.

My BIG Change + Nine Reasons To Start Your Own Business On The Side (Part 2)

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sg15-10761

 

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced.
Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.

Cherokee Expression

This is a continuation of last week’s blog post, but with one important update!

I GOT LAID OFF!

Yep. You read that right. I was notified at 12:15 on Tuesday that my employer made the “tough decision” to downsize and eliminate all of the positions in our software division.

A representative from HR and a senior executive asked me to call in for a “business update” and then made a bunch of vague statements about the reorganization of the company (which made me want to vomit) and then they thanked me for my efforts for the past four and a half years and offered me a severance package.

An 11 minute phone call essentially ended my job and my six-figure corporate income. Just like that!

But you know what? It’s the lightest that I’ve felt for a long time. Because of starting this blog (and offering some coaching/consulting along with it), I have a side income already going.

And I have some savings (always a great thing) along with a severance package that lasts until mid-October. I can now pour all of my efforts into this business full time and I have never felt happier.

Am I a little afraid? Off course! But not the ‘freaking out’ kind of afraid. I’m mostly afraid of not making the most of the opportunity to go out and create what I’ve been blogging about for the past six months.

The truth is that I have simplified my life. I have zero debt, zero car payments and a manageable mortgage payment.

Everything that’s unfolding in my life right now is exactly what I’ve been preparing for and coaching others to do. Other than losing my job sooner than I would have chosen, I am trusting that all the steps I’ve taken recently have prepared me to fully launch my own project. A project that will have a lasting impact on others while allowing me to create a life of freedom through a business with Soul.

Coincidence?

Is it a coincidence that I decided to break this blog post into two sections? I honestly had zero clue that was going to be laid off when I wrote the full version of this post last week. And as you can see below, the leading reason for starting your own business on the side is exactly what happened to me. I couldn’t make this up if I tried!

Enjoy the rest of the blog post and I’ll return next week with some perspective on my recent life changes.

Things are about to get really interesting!

Reasons 5 through 9 for Starting Your Own Business on the Side

5) There is no such thing as job security. Many big companies are systematically firing their employees. And the majority of employees are concerned about their job…and if they are going to lose it.

The lucky ones are concerned about how they’re going to get a raise to keep up with inflation or get their full bonus at the end of the year. But there’s a huge swath of people who are mostly just trying to get by.

These people are just grinding it out and trying to make ends meet. They’re less concerned about where they’re going and much more concerned about not being let go from their jobs tomorrow.

Beyond that, there are many people who are unemployed and would welcome the kind of misery that those clock-watchers are enduring. If you look at the global job market, things are not pretty. In Thomas Friedman’s column on July 12, 2011, in the New York Times titled “The Start-Up of You”, he states that the job market is not going to get any better because the jobs of yesterday are simply gone. And the companies with the big valuations aren’t looking for the types of workers that companies have traditionally hired. They’re looking for people who treat their career like a start-up.

And there is also a secret in business today that few big corporations will readily admit: They can do a whole lot with very little. Many of today’s most successful technology companies are made up of less than a handful of employees. They are leveraging technology to accomplish what used to take an army of workers to accomplish.

The time has come for each of us to start thinking about our careers as start-ups and start creating a side income from something we know and care about. It can be hard for people who have had traditional jobs to think like entrepreneurs but now it’s more critical than ever.

6) Your job is not satisfying your needs. The only time I’ve had a job that did satisfy my needs was when I’ve had the flexibility and time to pursue something meaningful on the side. To either write, start a business, have fun, or spend time with friends. When I didn’t have time for those things, I was working too hard, dealing with people I didn’t like, getting my creativity crushed over and over, and so on. When you are in those situations, you need to either make a change or plot out your exit strategy.

Your hands are not made to type emails all day long. Or go to boring meetings that you don’t really care about. Or hold a phone up while you talk to people you dislike. You have to make wonderful use of those hands now. Kiss your hands so they can make magic.

One can argue, “Not everyone is entitled to have all of those needs satisfied at a job.” That’s true. But since we already know that the salary of a job won’t make you happy, you can easily modify lifestyle and work to at least satisfy more of your needs. And the more these needs are satisfied, the more you will create the conditions for true abundance to come into your life.

7) You are trading your time for money. If you quit, the money flow stops.

If you woke up today and said “How freaking cool, I already made $500 today and I’ve only been awake for five minutes” congratulations, time is your friend, not your enemy.

The fact is, many business owners buy time though legacy creation while the rest of us sell our time through a job.

If you ever want to lead a rich life (having both time and money on your side) you must not only own your own business, it must be the right kind of business where time becomes your ally.

For example, the digital internet course that Chris Guillebeau just created called Adventure Capital, doesn’t require much of his ongoing time after he created it. People can access the course 24/7 whenever he makes it available to the public. He makes income from the value he created one time.

That is legacy.

And legacy makes money and puts time on your side, instead of against you.

This is crucially important because most businesses are just poor disguises for a job. If you have a business where you trade time for dollars, quit fooling yourself: you have a job. Your business simply employs you instead of someone else. If your clients disappear, so does your job and your income. That’s NOT legacy.

A legacy exists when you are checked out and the income continues to flow. Go for legacy baby!

8) You were lied to about college. More than 50% of graduating seniors can’t get jobs right now. And for the first time ever there is over a trillion dollars in student loan debt. The government was really nice to back that debt.

But they forgot to tell you: you can’t get rid of that debt. Not even in bankruptcy. Hmm, so jobs are going down, income is going down, debt is going up.

You’re a slave. Now that you’re stuck underneath a pile of inescapable debt, you have to do whatever they say and live with it.

9) There is a way out. You have to hustle. It’s hard. But there’s nothing else. You have to choose between the path of working a job or being an entrepreneur. This may sound funny but you have to stay physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually healthy. What avenue is going to allow you to do this?

Decide now and begin moving forward.

– Michael

P.S. If you’ve ever experienced an unexpected job loss, how did you react and move forward?

9 Reasons To Start Your Own Business On The Side (Part 1)

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fundamentals-of-success

WARNING: This is one of my more opinionated posts. Dare I say there is even a rant or two. You can’t say I didn’t warn you!

Today I will challenge ideas about some of the most established institutions in our Western culture. Specifically, the institutions of finance, higher education, employment and government.

One thing is for certain and that is change. Change happens whether we like it or not. And it’s how well we adapt to change that often determines our level of success and happiness. Today, I am going to discuss changes that are happening and why it makes sense to simplify and start a side business that may eventually replace your job as your primary source of income and stability.

While society tells us that we’re supposed to borrow money to go to school and buy a house, student loan and mortgage debt can bind you to a biweekly paycheck to remain afloat financially. When you’re paying $2,500 per month combined on your mortgage and student loans, it often makes it hard to take some time off to explore a passion or build a business. You have to keep running on the hamster wheel.

Which begs the question, is college even a good option anymore? As Michael Ellsberg points out in his book, ‘The Education of Millionaires’, why not take the money and time you would have spent on school and build a business? This comes from an Ivy League graduate and author that interviewed some of the most successful entrepreneurs around.

Ditto for buying a house, which anchors you to a specific geographic location, limiting your employment opportunities to that area. You probably won’t hear this from anyone else, but the primary factor in how much you spend every month is the house and neighborhood you live in. That’s because your neighborhood creates the financial culture that presents the spending choices you make.

I know people that live in $400,000 homes in beautiful neighborhoods, drive new BMW’s and Audi’s, buy giant flat screen TV’s and $6,000 sofas, and are essentially broke. They don’t fully realize how much money they are spending because everyone around them is doing the same thing.

If your dream is to really live rich (i.e. decrease your workload and have more time to pursue your passions) why not consider moving to a less expensive house in a less expensive neighborhood and drastically reduce expenses?

Then you wouldn’t have as much financial pressure to keep that demanding corporate job that sucks all your time and energy away from the things you really want to be doing.

At the same time you could also be starting a business on the side and increasing your income. By significantly cutting your biggest expense by 30% to 50% and at the same time, taking immediate steps to increase your income 20% – 50%, you can escape financial slavery and have more room to pursue all the things that really matter to you.

These burdens of lifestyle expenses prevent most people from reaching one of the most rewarding positions in life: working for yourself, where your earning power can be a direct result of your ideas, drive, and effort, rather than your boss’ estimation of how much your time is worth.

I don’t know about you, but I want to be free from the shackles of a 9-5 prison and someone else determining my worth. And I want to be in more control of my own destiny. I’m tired of being fed lies about what I’m supposed to do and how I’m supposed to live. The government and the media have mastered the craft of telling us how we should be living and what we should be buying in order to ‘fit in’ and be successful.

Enough!

Nine Reasons To Start Your Own Business On The Side

1) The average cubicle dweller is becoming impoverished. Let’s start by taking a look at a simple graphic: your income is going down. Simple as that! Median U.S. household income is near its lowest point over the last 13 years.

This is a disturbing trend (read change) that likely won’t change anytime soon. So what are you going to do about it?

graph

Source: Sentier Research analysis of Labor Department data.

2) The middle class is being squeezed. Population is going up, but high-quality jobs are being outsourced, globalized and mobilized.

I work for a company that has constantly been downsizing their workforce since I’ve been here. What they do every quarter is replace some of the full time workers with temporary staff so that they don’t have to pay benefits to full time employees. It started with IT, then Software Development, then Marketing. What’s next?

And that’s why temp staffing is an industry that’s going through the roof. The big companies don’t want employees. Why not? They don’t want to deal with rising health insurance costs and Obamacare. They don’t want to pay the high salaries that aging baby boomers demand. With temp staffers, they don’t have to deal with all of the issues.

The workers that are left (that’s me) are asked to do more for the same amount of pay. And we’re told that we are the lucky ones because we still have a ‘good job’.

And taxes keep going up. I don’t mind paying my fair share to support our clean water, infrastructure and other things that make life easier. But I’m not too keen on paying higher taxes to a degenerate government that has to borrow more money simply to pay interest on the money they’ve already borrowed.

And just in case you hadn’t connected the dots, having your own business means that you can deduct legitimate business expenses pre-tax.

3) You’ve sold out. Unless you are completely satisfied with your job and it gives you every aspect of happiness and success, you are selling your Soul in exchange for some temporary level of comfort.

Your unwillingness to do something that really matters is nothing more than simple bribery. It’s an illusion of comfort and security. The steady paycheck, the cool BMW 3-series, the rocking 2-bedroom loft in the cool part of town…these things are holding you hostage.

If material accoutrements are all you need to give up on your dreams, you don’t have a chance at your best life because your dreams are not your biggest priority – your immediate comfort and security are.

In other words, you’ve sold out!                                     

And I get it. I’m still working in a corporate job. But I’m leveraging it to build a business on the side that will allow me to step away and not have to put my Soul through the corporate meat grinder five days a week.

4) Your retirement plan is a joke. First off, everybody under the age of 50 should just say goodbye to eventual Social Security. Don’t count on it. Never mind that you have been paying into it your entire adult working life.

And for those age 65 and above, a promise has been made to them all of their lives. Well, unfortunately the promise is a lie. Social Security gets adjusted according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which excludes food and energy. Guess what: food and energy are going up faster than the CPI… which is why current retirees have about ten years left before their basic needs can no longer be met by the money promised them all of their lives.

Nobody can retire anymore on their retirement plan. It’s sad but true: humans are just living longer. 401ks, IRAs, and the other little plans your corporate masters and bank liars have put together for you are built on lies and ways for them to earn fees on their mutual funds. They use fancy phrases like “laddering” and “the stock market has never had a sustained down period.” All of these things are lies.

Here’s the truth: you will never become wealthy and free investing a small portion of your income in your 401k and mutual funds. It’s just not going to happen. All of the people that I know who make significant income through investments have created their initial wealth by starting and growing their own businesses.

There are multitudes of research that indicate the the most common way to generate a combination of personal satisfaction and wealth is to start a business and create real value for people. Don’t believe the lie you’ve been told about becoming wealthy by scrimping and saving for 40 years and maxing out your 401k plan. Ask many of the baby boomers how that worked out in 2000, 2007, 2008 and 2010 when many people had their 401k’s demolished by market crashes.

The path of pursuing meaningful work is not easy. It’s going to take a lot of courage, diligence, sacrifice and patience. You will have to be around positive people who love you. You will have to be grateful for the abundance in your life and look for creative ways to have more of it. This is not economics. This is the real world and how to survive in it. Not the fantasy land of cubicles and fluorescent lights.

Remember, nothing great happens all at once. Permanent change occurs through process – hundreds of decisions made over time that engineer a lifestyle.

I will begin interviewing remarkable entrepreneurs next month on how to engineer success on your terms while keeping your sanity (mostly) intact. 🙂

And I will return next week with the other five reasons to start your own business on the side.

Until then, start thinking about the kind of life that you really want to have and start taking steps to make it a reality.

Best,

Michael

P.S. Do me a favor and let me know what you think in the comments.

 

 

 

A Life of No Regrets: How to Avoid the Top Five Regrets of the Dying

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sunset-surferI wrestled with the title for this blog post. My nature is to keep things light and leaning in a positive direction. But then I decided to go for impact.

Early on I made a pledge to myself and to my readers that I will write from the heart in order for you to wake up inspired and fall asleep fulfilled because you’re fearlessly giving your gifts to the world.

And sometimes that means taking a serious look at where you are in the process of becoming the best version of yourself.

So on with today’s topic…

When we are no longer young, what will we be most proud of?

When we are in the latter part of our life, what will we wish we would have accomplished?

Right before we take our last breath, will we be at peace knowing that we lived a full life with few regrets?

These are big questions, no doubt. But these are the types questions that I encourage everyone to ask themselves as often as possible.

Most of us spend at least some time trying to figure out how best to live, so that when the time comes to die we can do so without regrets.

I love the following quote from Wayne Dyer’s movie, The Shift.

“Do not die with your music still inside you”

This quote came from a scene in the movie where Wayne has a powerful realization and literally writes a note to himself that says “Dear Wayne, Do not die with your music sill inside you”.

You can view the one-and-a-half minute scene here.

What is the music inside of you that yearns to be expressed?

If you are not living your life exactly the way you want, why not? I realize that there is a ‘waking up’ phase for many people. I was one of them.

I spent many years after college just going through the motions and doing what I thought was expected of me. This involved many years of sitting in a cube and selling computer systems and software to companies that I didn’t really care about.

After while I began to wonder if this was really all there was to life.

I began to wonder if my deepest purpose was spending my most productive hours doing ‘meaningless’ things for other people.

I began to wonder if life was just about buying a house and filling it with stuff. And then buying two cars. And then buying a two week vacation to escape the insanity of it all.

I began to wonder if there wasn’t something else.

Something better.

Something more meaningful.

And that is what led me to the very deliberate act of getting a job that was a better fit for my lifestyle, so that I could begin pursuing things that I wanted to do outside of my day job.

And that is what led me to starting this blog.

And to begin exploring the things I really love to do.

And to begin experimenting with ways that I can earn a living doing something that matters. Something that excites me. Something that I can’t not do.

The only time it makes sense to do a job for the money.

I loved a recent blog post from Danielle LaPorte that stated there’s only one good time that working only for money makes sense.  And this is when you have a light at the end of the tunnel and an unwavering commitment to yourself to transition into doing work that lets you be more of who you truly are.

Amen!

Doing a job for the money is a lot easier when your Soul can see the bigger picture.

But isn’t the money important?

Of course money is important. But don’t let it drive you to do work that you don’t enjoy. That will eventually lead to an unhappy ending.

There is real scientific and medical proof that doing work you don’t enjoy will actually shorten your lifespan.

Lissa Rankin M.D. just stated in her newly published book that “It’s not just early death that work stress can cause. A recent study found that disenchanted, burned out employees developed heart disease at a 79% higher rate than those who liked their job”.

The entire focus and direction of this blog is about creating both money and meaning in your life. It’s one of the most debated subjects out there right now. Should I get a job even if I don’t fully enjoy it or should I do what I love?

Why not have both? It’s completely possible by taking steps towards creating a life you desire and having the persistence and patience to make it happen.

Into the Wind

I’m reading a fantastic book right now called ‘Into the Wind’. It’s a true story about a guy that begins questioning the status quo and decides to do something about it. He opts out of a college basketball scholarship and leaves behind his previous life to wander the world and prove that we can find our dreams by following our heart.

Our culture would generally classify this guy as irresponsible and say that he’s throwing away a great opportunity in return of an uncertain future. But what he ends up finding is his true self. He literally has to remove himself from his familiar surroundings to understand that his true destiny can be reached by looking deep within himself.

The biggest gamble of all.

One of the important realizations of Jake Ducey, the author of ‘Into the Wind’, is that many of us are expected to take a huge gamble.

“Most of us are busy gambling on the most dangerous risk of all – living our whole life not doing what we want on the bet that we can buy the freedom to do it later”.

How many times have you been told that all you need to do is to go get a good job, make a lot of money, put it into a 401K and then everything will work out. And after 40 years of doing this, then you can go and do what you want.

Um…is it just me or does this seem like a really flawed idea?

We will all get old (hopefully!)

As we grow older, we gain not just wrinkles and grey hair but knowledge and wisdom gained from experience. You can’t log several decades on this little blue ball without seeing a lot, hearing a lot, and picking up plenty of emotional scar tissue. Along the way you develop not just perspective but understanding.

A life fully lived is one that has had its fair share of triumphs and failures, temptations, traumas, disappointments, false friends, and broken hearts. Once we reach a certain age we have discovered – usually through trial and error – what works and what doesn’t. We have a better sense of what’s valuable and enduring – and what isn’t. We may even have a few thoughts on how to grow older gracefully.

As we grow older, we gain a frame of reference unavailable to our younger selves.

Bronnie Ware, an Australian nurse, worked several years in palliative care, and routinely spent the last three to 12 weeks of her patients’ lives with them. She listened to their stories and recorded their dying epiphanies in a blog called Inspiration and Chai, which she later compiled into a book call ‘The Top Five Regrets of the Dying’. According to her, these were her patients’ greatest regrets:

  1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. Wow, a biggie and, as it turns out, the single most common regret. Ware found that many folks get caught up in what well-meaning parents, children, spouses, mentors or bosses want for them. Consequently, they found it impossible – as Joseph Campbell put it – to follow their bliss. Little is more important than finding your own path – and accepting the responsibilities and obligations that come with it. However, it can take courage and determination to overcome the expectations of family, co-workers or “society.” The dying remind us that our time here is shorter than we think. Health grants us the freedom to pursue our dreams. Once it’s gone, we lose the ability to live the life that we’ve imagined.
  2. I wish I didn’t work so hard. I know what Ware is saying here but I wish she’d phrased it differently. Many people find meaning, purpose and even a sense of identity in their work. It often leads to a feeling of earned success. Hard work can be one of life’s great satisfactions, especially if it provides you with an opportunity to express your talents. So I would venture that working hard is not what the dying regret but rather working too much and losing balance in their lives. Workaholics often sacrifice so much for so little. A simpler, less materialistic lifestyle, for instance, enables shorter working hours, greater freedom and more leisure.
  3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings. This isn’t the case with everyone, of course. I’ve known people who have never had an unspoken thought. But others go through life with their opinions and emotions bottled up inside, often just to keep the peace. This is not only frustrating, it makes the individual feel like he or she is living a lie. Ware points out that, while you can’t control the reactions of others, speaking honestly either raises a healthy relationship to a higher level or eliminates an unhealthy one. Either way, you win.
  4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. As we go through life, we never stop making new acquaintances. But, in my experience, true friends are irreplaceable. These are the men and women who have known us longer and better than anyone… yet choose to hang out with us anyway. However, even lifelong friendships fade with inattention or neglect. And near the end of our lives, it may not be possible to find them.
  5. I wish I had let myself be happier. It’s sad how many people only realize at the end of their lives that happiness is an inside job – an attitude – not a particular set of circumstances or what we own. Worry and regret can poison a life and diminish the only time you have to be happy: right now. For it is always the present moment.

Why listen to the elderly or the dying? Because it is an excellent way of getting the wisdom of experience in advance.

We don’t hesitate to listen to a CPA about advice on our taxes. Doesn’t it make sense to listen to the wisdom of people that are at the end of their lives?

With each day – each passing hour – our future grows shorter. That’s why it’s essential to determine who and what are most important to us.

Life is short. Let’s make the most of it!

– Michael

P.S. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Leave a comment if you feel inspired.