What I'm about to say to you might very well make you angry, but it's the truth . . . and I know it. The reason I know that what I'm about to tell you is the truth, is that we're all so guilty of it.
What is the number one thing we can learn from the horrible tsunami and earthquake in Japan? Think for a second. It's a lesson that we don't seem to learn over and over again.
Planes crash. Car accidents happen. 9/11. War. Natural disasters like tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes happen. Think about Katrina. These are just a few of the things we see happen.
What lesson do we never seem to learn after these things happen? What changes do we fail to make every time?
We always are shocked by how awful they are, and we always feel badly for the people affected by them. We always think to ourselves, "Man that's horrible. Can you imagine that happening?!"
Then we do what we as human beings do best: we forget about it and forget it ever happened.
We don't make any changes to our lives at all. None. Zero. We keep going about our lives as if it could never happen to us.
We stay in bad marriages or, if we're single, we don't do anything to change the way we meet people. We stay in jobs we don't like. We don't take that vacation that we always wanted to take.
We don't make changes in our life that are important. It's so important to learn from disasters, because your disaster could be around the corner. You could get struck by a bus tomorrow.
There's a Tim McGraw song that talks about how you should 'live like you are dying.' This is so very true, yet most of us live our lives like we have forever to live -- and we don't.
How many things are on your "to do" list? I'm not talking about your work "to do" list. I'm talking about your life "to do" list.
How many of you are dying to go on vacation, but you keep putting it off? You don't put it off even because of money, but probably because it's not the right time or because you're waiting to meet the right person so you can have someone with whom to share the experience.
How many of you are staying in marriages that you're not happy in for the sake of the kids or because you're afraid to be alone? How many of you are single and and you do the same things over and over again to try to meet people even though they never work? Do you keep thinking to yourself, "Tonight's going to be different because my luck has got to change eventually?"
How many of you are staying in jobs that you just don't like, even when you know you are qualified for a better job? Maybe you have a business idea that you see other people using to start successful businesses, but you're afraid to pull the trigger so you stay in that job you hate.
Live life like you're dying. Learn something from the great people in Japan. Don't just forget about what happened.
It's an awful thing that has happened in Japan. It could happen to us. It's time all of us started living life like we were dying.