“Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drown your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”, Steve Jobs
This wisdom cuts to the heart of authentic living. Yet knowing this truth and living it are two different challenges entirely.
The Honest Assessment
Take a moment for genuine self-reflection with these foundational questions:
- How do you feel about your life today?
- Do you wake up with genuine excitement for what’s ahead?
- Are your relationships nourishing your growth and joy?
- Does your work energize rather than drain you?
- Are you living as your most authentic self?
If these questions create discomfort rather than satisfaction, you’re not alone. That discomfort is actually valuable data, it’s your inner wisdom signaling that something needs to shift.
You only have one life. You’re going to die. One day, you are going to look back and get to the bottom line of what you’ve done with your life. It will be either the final moment of internal regret or the moment of the deepest feelings of gratefulness that you ever experienced. In that moment, there will be no way of going back and changing things. Your decisions today and tomorrow are the only things that will lead to one of those two scenarios. Make sure it won’t be a regret. Life is a very precious thing. It’s time let go of anything that is not serving you & limiting you from achieving your dreams.
Do you know the top 5 Deathbed Regrets?
Hospice worker Bronnie Ware documented the most common deathbed regrets, creating a powerful framework for intentional living:
“I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” This speaks to the cost of external validation over internal alignment.
“I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.” The recognition that success without fulfillment is hollow achievement.
“I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.” Understanding that unexpressed truth creates internal prison walls.
“I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.” Relationships are the foundation of meaningful life, yet often the first sacrifice we make.
“I wish I had let myself be happier.” Perhaps the most profound, recognizing that happiness is often a choice we postpone.
These regrets reveal a pattern: most people don’t regret what they did, but what they didn’t do. They regret the risks not taken, the truth not spoken, the joy not embraced.
Don’t make these same mistakes! Start living your Life NOW! Express yourself authentically! Be Present in your relationships! Pursue your dreams! You only have one life, it’s time to live it NOW!
Moving Beyond Autopilot to Intentional Living
“Joy is our personal right. We each have this one amazing, but brief chance to build lives we love. If we don’t deeply believe we deserve happiness, that we deserve abundance, and to live unrestricted, we end up living lives of mediocrity. Happiness runs deeper than money. How we spend our time, where we spend our time, and who we spend our time with are the key ingredients to our happiness or our misery. Because we spend the majority of our time in life at work, it is imperative we love what we do. If we aren’t passionate about what we do, we may make money, but we will also live under clouds of dread, negative pressures and stress which defeat the joys money can bring.”, Sherry Campbell
To make the most of your life, you have to become intentional about how you live your life daily. Autopilot doesn’t help you create a life you love!
When was the last time you did something that made you feel happy, inspired, alive?
I don’t mean temporarily happy; I don’t mean that vacation you went on that was exciting for a second and than you sunken all your worries in booze. I mean the kind of happiness that goes beyond temporarily ego boost, the kind of happiness that you get from unconditional love, making a difference in someone’s life, or doing something you never thought was possible.
Too often we base our happiness on tangible objects, bigger house, new car, fancy clothes, and other materialistic things that give us a quick buzz of instant gratification. The kind of things that will make your Ego feel good for a moment, but never give you long-term satisfaction; leaving you constantly craving more and chasing the next thing. Real happiness comes from using our time in a way that feels authentic and meaningful to us. For some, that might mean making major life changes, But this also can mean spending more time with the people we love, or enjoying the little things that we might deprioritize when we’re focused on work and our goals.
Your Daily 86,400 Seconds: A Strategic Perspective
Life doesn’t guarantee much, but it does guarantee that there will be 24 hours, 1,440 minutes, or 86,400 seconds in a day. You are not entitled to those seconds and there is no guarantee that you will get them, but, with you or without you, they will tick by.
When you are going into your dreadful job every day, when you are in an unhappy relationship that is going nowhere, and when you are spending your time unsatisfied with the life you’ve created, I want you to remember that you have 86,400 seconds every day, and it’s your choice how you use them.
Are you wasting your time? Are you wasting your life?
If you are, because you think you have it to waste, or you think that the seconds aren’t as important as the hours and days, if you are constantly telling yourself that you will do it tomorrow, remember this: in the time it took you to read this article…
Someone died in a car accident, someone else was rescued, someone just found hope, someone was shot, someone was married, someone had a baby, someone was reunited with a loved one, someone lost a loved one, someone was wrongfully convicted, someone was vindicated, someone beat cancer, someone died of cancer, someone cheated on their spouse, someone found love, and someone discovered their purpose.
All that and more has happened while you read this article. There are challenging things happening in this world, and there are beautiful things happening in this world. You never know what’s coming, so why waste the little time you may have?
What’s Stealing Your Precious Life Energy
Life is short! So, don’t waste it on:
- Worrying about everything that might never happen
- Comparing your journey to everyone else’s highlight reel
- Seeking other people’s validation instead of your own approval
- Pretending to be someone you are not
- Dwelling on the past that cannot be changed
- Hanging with toxic people who drain your energy
- Letting others make decisions for you
- Getting jealous about other people’s successes
- Making excuses for yourself and blaming others
- Valuing material possessions over life experiences
- Believing narratives about yourself that are limiting you
- Denying love and kindness to yourself and others
- Living by the “I will be happy when _____” principle
Your Past Doesn’t Define Your Destiny
Life is a very precious thing. It’s time to take responsibility for your actions and choices, let go of the past and anything that is not serving you and limiting you from achieving your dreams. It’s time to go after the life and relationships you always wanted! The clock is ticking. What are you waiting for?
The life you are living right now resulted from the choices you made before now, and yet they are no longer the most important thing, only the choices you make right now matter.
Right now you are free from the past and you have a choice to create the life you love, the relationships that you care about.
So often we look outward and feel trapped by things that aren’t real. For me it was my past, other people’s opinions, my own fears of failure and rejection, and those suffocating “shoulds” that I was religiously following. Or we think that we’re slaves to the choices we made in the past. But the beauty of life is you always have a choice.
I understand that some things in life we literally can’t change, maybe you’re a parent or caregiver or have other responsibilities that limit you, but you still have a choice.
You can choose to resist reality and focus on the negative, the struggle, or you can choose to see things differently, create opportunities for change, and ask for help. No matter what your life looks like right now, you can still create a life you love.
The Path to Authentic Living
Find what makes you happy and do it! Don’t wait for the right moment; it may never come. Don’t make up excuses because there is always a way. You might not be able to make major changes instantly, but you can make tiny shifts in your daily life and take tiny steps toward the life you want to create.
Too many people waste their precious time worrying about what might be, could have been, and will never happen. Be the kind of person that spends their time loving, living, and letting go of what is unimportant. It’s time to go after the life and relationships you always wanted! The clock is ticking…what are you waiting for?
Unleashing Your Untapped Potential
I believe that everyone deserves love, happiness, and prosperity. Everyone has untapped potential waiting to be unleashed. Everyone can dig deep to find out what feels right for them, be honest with themselves and others, and align their life with that place of authenticity. Perhaps you’re wondering, how on earth do I go about creating this authentic life and relationships that I love? Where do I start? The answer lies in getting the support you need to see clearly, think strategically and act consistently.
As Atul Gawande, brilliant surgeon and health researcher, said: “If you want to get great at something, get a coach.” No matter who your coach is, their role is to be “your external eyes and ears, providing a more accurate picture of your reality.”
Coaching is a powerful tool to help you look within, identify any roadblocks that are preventing you from living the life you love, envision a compelling future, and create a roadmap to help you strategically move forward. As your coach, I will provide a confidential and supportive environment where you can successfully craft and bring your ideas to light, develop positive new behaviors, unlock your true potential and reach new levels of success.