My Gift For You
I was given a gift, and I’m going to do my best to share it with you:
In 2012 I was opening my first gym and during the renovations I did something really, really dumb.
Between the office space and the gym space there was a large “t-frame” window. (You can see it in the background here, while Lilly helps me stretch my lower back)
My plan was to take, what I thought was plexiglass, out of the frame and leave it open.
After I was done unscrewing the frame I thought the four pieces of plexiglass would come right out, and they did, except for one.
Being the genius that I am I walked around to the other side, the side I’m on with Lilly in that picture, and slapped my hands lightly on the glass to see where it was stuck.
As I made contact with it the first time my hands didn’t stop.
They went right through the glass, which was not plexiglass like I thought.
When I pulled them back out I instinctually looked down at them and in my right forearm I could see my radius.
Hopefully you never experience this but seeing the color of your own bones is a chilling moment, at least it was for me until the first arterial spray hit me in the face.
Working alone in the gym my first plan was to text my girlfriend at the time and tell her not to come (there was blood and glass everywhere) and then to drive myself to the hospital.
After the first time I passed out trying to find my phone I figured a better plan would be to call an ambulance and then try to text her.
I passed out 3 or 4 more times before finally dialling 911 and things worked out in the end but there was a moment I was laying in a pool of blood convinced it was the end. (The paramedics told me I had 45-60 more seconds when they got there)
I know this story doesn’t sound like much of a gift yet, but it was.
I haven’t been able to shake the feeling of dying since.
Every single day, all day long, it’s like I can feel the sand running through the hour glass… slipping through my fingers no matter how hard I try to catch it.
That feeling is the gift.
It’s January 10th 2024 as I’m writing this. Ten days of the year have passed and we only get 35 more “tries” at the amount of time we’ve already had this year.
Just 35 more and 2024 is over.
I understand that for most people the first 10 days doesn’t feel like much. It doesn’t feel like a big deal…
But assuming you get all of the remaining 35, which is not guaranteed for any of us, it’s a very small number - especially if you don’t take it seriously.
The gift I have, and the one I hope you’re ready to receive, is that our time is short and it moves FAST.
Nearly 3 percent of this year is already gone and I understand it’s hard to get a perspective on how massive that really is but I promise you it matters.
When I was laying in that puddle, staring down the barrel at the end of my life, I had so many regrets.
I felt like my life had been a waste.
All of the things I wanted to do, all of the dreams I had for myself, all of my aspirations…
Gone. Times up. Too bad.
It was a terrible feeling, the feeling of a wasted life.
The life you have, the things you accomplish or the things you regret - they’re decided by these 3% blocks that don’t seem like a big deal.
But they are a big deal.
You can’t put the grains of sand back in the top of the hour glass, but you can make them mean something… and it will be the darkest, emptiest feeling you’ve ever known if you get to the end and realize you didn’t make this life count.
