I have never been in more uncomfortable seats in my life, and that’s saying something since I’ve flown
on dozens of cramped, small planes with no leg room unless you’re under four feet tall. But these seats
were the absolute worst. I was sitting in the Schubert Theater in New York watching Hell’s Kitchen, a
Broadway musical that was astounding in its talent, energy and powerful music. The song that brought
down the house, however, was “Perfect Way to Die,” sung by Kecia Lewis. It is an extraordinary song
about brutality and dying young, but in the process, it made me think of the opposite, what would a
perfect way to live look like.
In New York for a weekend, I also wandered down to the World Trade Center memorial and read some
of the hundreds of names of those who died that awful day back in 2011, and remembered reading
about the phone calls people made to their loved ones, sure they would never get out of the building
alive.
What would they have given to spend a little more time perfecting their lives. And since we have the
blessing and luxury to do just that, where would we start?
Let’s look at our values/priorities. It may be focusing all your extra time on your music, or spending 15
uninterrupted minutes with your spouse/partner/kids. Whatever it looks like, are you making it a
priority, aligning your values not with what pays the bills, but with what touches your soul? Yes, you
might have an additional 40 years to focus in that direction once you retire, but what about right now?
I ask that question because I jumped on yet another plane to speak in yet another city, and realized
what I was doing was no longer aligned with my values, that there were other things which really meant
much more to me. Perhaps, I thought, it was a wise time to have the courage to reset the order of what
was really important to me, to ensure I had time, right now, for what matters most.
Is there anything you need to reset? The clock is always ticking, and to me waiting or procrastinating
seems a terrible waste of your time and your peace of mind.
