Knowing you are dying, that today could be, may be, will be the last day of your life is the GREATEST tool to living a healthy happy life ever conceived.

When death is imminent, does it matter what people think of you?  The answer is only yes if you happen to care about those people.  The rest?

When death is imminent, will you wish you had more time with family? or friends?

When death is imminent, will you worry about what your crappy boss thinks about your work?  Will you wish you would have made a move sooner in your job?

When death is imminent, will you wish you hadn’t lingered so long in a crappy relationship?  Will you wish you would have done more in your own life? Got that pilot’s license? Climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro? Written a screenplay?

Resident pimp-daddy, Steve Jobs once said, “If today is the day I will die, would I go and do what I am about to do?”  If that answer is “no” it’s obvious you need to make a change.

Make no mistake about it . . . You.Are.Dying.  You will not live forever.

In Zen Buddhism, teachers use kōans to challenge students minds and open their world up to questions and answers not previously thought.  I have one for you:

Imagine a cliff.  And on the edge of that cliff is a tree, with branches pouring over the side.  You are hanging from a branch right over the crevasse by your teeth, with your hands and feet tied behind you.  There is a man underneath the tree asking a simple question,

“What is 2 + 2?”

If you do not answer, the man below is prepared to kill you in a most horrible way.  However if you do answer, you will surely plummet to your death.

How do you stay alive?