***Celebrate Life by Living it to the Fullest!

Today would have been Randy Pausch’s 48th birthday. We were fortunate enough to have Randy Pausch as one of our Inspirational Luminaries on InspireMeToday.com. Randy, known for his “Last Lecture”, passed away in July from cancer.

I know how special birthdays are, for I just celebrated my 50th three days ago, surrounded by family and friends. On my birthday, one of my good friends, who is only in her early 40’s, had surgery for cancer. All three of these things are reminders for me of just how short life really is.

I think we all live our lives just assuming we’ll be here forever. I can’t imagine having my life cut short- for I have so many things I still want to achieve and in many ways, I feel like I’m just starting! I’m finally doing what I love instead of what I have to do. I live my life each day and enjoy the moment, but I also spend a lot of time working and planning the future. I imagine it was the same for Randy and was that way for my friend dealing with cancer.

But what if I’m wrong and I don’t have another 75 years? Randy’s passing, my friend’s surgery and turning 50 have all given me a reason to pause and look at my life. If I knew tomorrow was my last day, what would I do? Would I be disappointed? From a very human perspective, I know I would be. I so enjoy living life and choose to be here to play for many more years. But what if? How differently would I live my life if I knew I had one month or one year? What important things would I do? And just as important, what things that I think are important now would I stop doing?

We think our life is determined by the things we choose to do. I think our life is determined even more by the things we choose NOT to do. For choosing to do or not to do anything is still a choice- with great ramifications in our personal world. Makes me ponder, what am I consciously choosing to do? What path am I precluding by saying “No” or “Not now” to other options?

Regardless of the amount of time I have remaining, I want to live my life fully. As our Luminary Kirsty Dunphy said just a few days ago, if you have to have regrets, I want to “regret the things I’ve done, not those I didn’t do!” In other words, GO FO IT! Live life fully, and if you make a mistake, it’s no big deal. It’s sure better than taking the safe path and missing the excitement and zest of this experience of being alive. I think I’ll go book sky diving or paragliding lessons today. I know I’ll regret it if I don’t do this! What will your regrets be if you don’t do them today? Celebrate life in every way that you can- today. Please share below something outrageous that you’re going to do today. Then go do it- go celebrate your life! Thanks for sharing.