Life lessons from a friend I’m yet to meet

Well, each one of us is in the process of making this year better than the last. I am here to encourage you to do it. You see, “The first purpose of life is to work your way to your best self. The second is to leave the world better than you found it.” This is not my quote. It’s from a friend called Robin Sharma. I am yet to meet Robin, but I refer to him as a friend because he has enriched me with his books and motivational videos from the day I chanced on him in the Internet.

Now that you know Robin too (I know some of you are familiar with him already), I want to bless your year with five more quotes from him that I believe are going to shape your life. They are simple, but powerful. If you work on them, I believe your life, and that of people and the environment around you will never be the same again – for the better. Here we go!

“Today – this day – could be the first day of a whole new life. It all depends on what you do with your power to choose.” Isn’t that powerful? You see, everything boils down to choice. What you choose to do or not to do; what time you choose to rise in the morning, the people you choose to interact with – do they add value or are they just energy sappers? What material do you fill your mind with in your free time – do you spend the whole evening watching useless soaps on TV, watching porn, reading pathetic blogs or Facebooking? Or do you exercise, read good books, watch motivational or self-development videos, talk to your children? Robin is simply saying that your choices determine who you become. The chap who said choices have consequences was spot on.

“Make what will be important to you on your last day what’s important to you on this day.” Put another way, live today as if it were your last day on earth. Imagine for a moment that today is your last day on earth that you will never read Men Only again, you will never do whatever you are doing today. In a few days you will not only be dead, but also buried six feet under. Now, how do you spend the rest of the day? Would you call your loved ones to let them know that you care? Would you still go straight to the bar after work or would you first go to your wife and children,

play with the kids, talk to the bigger ones and take dinner together as family… then maybe excuse yourself to go see a few friends? What would your priorities be? Now, simply do every day what you would do on your last day. One day you will find that it is actually your last day.

Close all your escape routes, burn all your plan Bs and get busy doing that dream that only you were built to do”. Yes! You were born for a purpose…

“Life’s like working out. There’s no pain in the comfort zone. But is that really where you want to live?” So, no pain no gain. Those difficult things you have been avoiding are the things between your mediocre self and world-class self. Do them. Don’t procrastinate. Start NOW.

“If you’re the smartest person you know, it’s time to know new people.” Fact is you are not the smartest person on earth, but may be everyone around you is so intellectually lazy that you beat them hands down with your intelligence. But who wouldn’t want to be the person? The problem with being the smartest among your friends is that you stop learning. They may learn from you and boost your ego, but as the smartest, you learn nothing from your circle. And men begin to die the moment they stop learning. Evaluate your relationships. If you haven’t learnt anything challenging from them yet, don’t be fooled that you will this year. Look for people who challenge you.

Finally we come to this: “Close all your escape routes, burn all your Plan Bs and get busy doing that dream that only you were built to do”. Yes! You were born for a purpose. Find it and pursue it. Look beyond your immediate family. Where can you contribute? What can you do to help other people live fully? What is your purpose for living? Certainly, it must be something bigger than your current job, your salary or your two beautiful kids. Could be some child who needs school fees, some kids who need mentoring or women or men who need hope and the reawakening of their passion for life. Just forget the excuses. Do it.

That’s all. I will leave you with a bonus quote from another thinker called George Eliot. He says: “It is never too late to become what you might have been.”