What Is Most Important?

I heard of a situation that a friend of mine is confronted with. I will begin by saying that I do not have all the details since I heard this second handed but I feel the lesson is still the same. It really helps to put things in perspective.

Death is something that we are all confronted with. In the duration of our lives, we only are granted so much time on this planet. How we choose to utilize that time is a decision we are each allotted. Nevertheless, we only get one chance at this thing. In the end, we all pass away.

This week, a friend of mine got the results back from a biopsy he had done on his liver. From what I hear, the results are not good. He talked with someone about his situation. The facts of that conversation were relayed to me.

The death, or impending death, of someone close to me always makes me look at things in a different light. When someone is given a "death sentence", there is actually a release for them. They have the luxury of knowing exactly how much time they have left. There is no mystery as to how long they will live. They waste no energy worrying about their retirement since there is none. The option of best using those last remaining days is in front of them.

What about the rest of us? Well, it is my experience that we take a different approach. We have the limitation of believing that our time is unlimited. A sense of urgency is absent from our lives. We feel that there are decades left to live. Often, the only time we exit this state of hypnosis is when we are confronted with something like my friend did.

The fact that our time is limited is the reason why we need to determine what is important. If life is nothing more than a series of moments, what are we doing with these moments? How often do we waste that time by fretting about something that is truly unimportant? take the way people drive for example. There are stupid, senseless, selfish drivers everywhere in the world. Yet, most of us manage to allow ourselves to get upset when someone cuts us off. At those times, we are giving those moments away.

Most people spend the majority of their waking hours doing a job they detest. They do this in the hopes of getting a few weeks vacation and, ultimately, working towards retirement. That is the belief system we are taught. Work hard and save up for retirement. While this is a valid method, as we see, retirement is not always ensured. Many pass away long before that.

I like the old lesson which talks about no man, when reflecting over his life, wished he spent more time in the office. We all need to choose what is important to us. What type of life do you want to lead? I see so many who start on a particular path and stick with it because they invested so much time into their training. Sadly, they learn that they do not even like that field.

Rest assured, my friend's perspective is different at the moment. What was a pressing need two weeks ago is probably not even on his radar. Through is story, my life is different now also. I once again see how I allow time to get wasted. How much more can I pack into the time I have left? That is something we all can ask ourselves. Bet the ranch my friend is doing the same with the few months he has left.

Perhaps it is time to get off the merry-go-round. Stepping back to determine what we want in our life is a healthy practice. Maybe, this is something that you should consider doing on a daily basis. Someday, the end will be there for you also. How did you choose to spend you time.
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