Treat each day as the end of life

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like this: "If you live each day as if it were your last, you'll most certainly be able to control everything." Those words had a profound impact on me from the moment I read them: For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I should be doing today?" When the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know it's time to make a change.

About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. At 7:30 a.m., I had a scan that clearly showed a tumor in my pancreas. The doctors told me it was almost certainly an incurable disease, with a maximum of three to six months to live. The doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is standard doctor language for dying patients. It means trying to tell my children what I will tell them for the next 10 years in a few months. This means making sure that you have everything in place to minimize the burden on your family behind you. It also means it's time to say goodbye to everyone.

I lived with that diagnosis all day until one morning the doctor gave me a biopsy. When the doctors examined the tissue under a microscope, they screamed in surprise: it was a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that can be treated surgically.

This is the closest I've ever been to death. I can tell you with more certainty that no one wants to die. Even those who want to go to heaven want to get there alive. Death is the end of life for all of us, no one can be an exception. This is life because death is quite possibly life's best creation. It is life's agent of change, sending away the old to make way for the new.

Now you are the new generation, but not too long from now you will be the old and sent out of the stage; I'm sorry to be so dramatic, but that's life.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be stuck in a box, or you'll be living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other people's opinions drown out your own inner voice. Most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They probably already know what you really want to become -- everything else is secondary.

When I was young, I saw a photograph on the back cover of a magazine of an early morning country road. Below the photo was a line of words: Lack of things, wisdom. I always reflect on it. Now, I send this sentence to you, and I hope that we can always think of it.

Thank you very much.