Embrace Your Life

The first step in choosing the life you want is to begin by embracing your life.  Now I’m not talking about embracing your current circumstances.  After all, if you were completely satisfied with your current circumstances, you probably wouldn’t be visiting a site called Choose The Life You Want.

No, I’m talking about something much more fundamental.  I’m talking about embracing the very fact that you’re alive at all!  Stop and ask yourself:

“Why did I get up today?  Why was I granted another day of life on this earth?”

When you get right down to it, there’s no good reason that any of us woke up this morning.  Statistically speaking, we all have a certain life expectancy, but unless you are a professional actuary, I would strongly advise you to put zero faith in those numbers.  We’re not talking about statistics – we’re talking about your life!

In my experience, the best way to truly value and appreciate your life is to acknowledge the fact that it will come to an end one day.  I know what my “expiry date” is… do you know yours?  That was the main theme of my first book: What’s Your Expiry Date? Embrace Your Mortality – Live WIth Vitality.  Once you come face to face with your mortality, you can truly choose the life you want to live.

Now for most people, the idea of coming face to face with your own mortality is the second most frightening thing in the world (the first is public speaking).  But that’s because those people imagine facing their mortality on death’s terms.  You know, the doctor puts your x-ray up on the screen and then closes the door before starting to talk to you – or a cement truck drifts across the centre line of the highway and heads directly for you – or you feel a strange lump one day during your morning shower.  All of those scenarios are terrifying for two reasons:

1. You are virtually powerless.  You have very limited options and it looks like a good deal of the outcome hinges on “luck” (or “fate” or “karma”, depending on your beliefs).

2. You weren’t expecting this.  Intellectually, you know that you are a mortal and that your life will not go on forever.  However, most of us seem to think that somehow we’ll be given some sort of “early warning” that will give us enough time to process the fact of our mortality and to respond accordingly.  A cement truck coming straight for you doesn’t provide that sort of luxury.

I advocate that each of us voluntarily face our own mortality as early as possible.  This puts the power in our hands.  Over the years, I’ve written extensively about The Power of Mortality™.  This is the power that comes from not just facing your mortality, but actually embracing it!

So then, the best way to choose the life you want is to start by embracing your life and the best way to embrace your life is to embrace your mortality.  How eactly does one get started with this?  That’s why I wrote the Mortality Manifesto!

The Mortality Manifesto is a daily tool to help you get in touch with the very essence of your life.  Get your own copy at http://www.MortalityManifesto.com.