LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST

You see, God doesn’t promise us tomorrow. Every day, men, women and children die. Some after lengthy illness, others suddenly. We just don’t know when our number is up, when our time has come, when life here on earth is no more. So, in the meantime, live life to the fullest.

So, are you living life to the fullest? What would you do differently if you knew that you only had one year to live? How about one month? What if today were to be your last?

I ask these questions not to be morbid, or negative, or to burden you with the responsibility of having to think about your response. I ask them because we have the wonderful opportunity to think about “how we would life our lives if…,” and to begin living that life today. We have the opportunity to make adjustments in the way we live our lives, so that we are doing the things that are important to us. So that we are indeed “living life to the fullest”.

Fortunately, we are alive and well, not lying on our deathbed, longing for “another chance”. People who have come close to

you’re constantly asking “what if this happens?”, “and if this happens, what if that happens?”

Fear is living in uncertainty instead of now. Fear is a timid approach to life. When you live in fear, you hold back, denying yourself and others a world of possibilities.

You trade your life for guilt and sorrow, examining every decision until your second-guessing becomes paralysis and you stop moving forward.

Here’s the good news: Today is the first day of the rest of your life. You get to choose to live life to the fullest. Here are some things to think about as you make that choice:

1. What kind of person do you want to be?

Do you want to listen more and talk less? Do you want to smile more? Worry less? Be more relaxed, with less stress? Do you want to be more spontaneous, to have more fun? Do you want to be more curious? Decide what kind of person you want to be. Then start living that way.

2. What do you want to be doing?

Do you want to read more and watch less TV? Do you want to listen to more classical music? Learn a hobby, or a foreign language? Do you want to enrol in an aerobics class, or learn yoga?

3. What kind of parent / child / friend do you want to be?

Do you want to hug more, and yell less? Do you want to keep in touch with friends, especially the ones who have moved away? Do you want to say more “I love you’s,” more “I’m sorry’s” and more “thank you’s?”

You are where you are. You cannot change what was, you can only build on what is. You did the best you could with all of your resources at that moment. It’s what you will do NOW that matters.

When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did. Carpe diem. Seize the day. Life live NOW, and live life to the fullest.

ARE you living all you can? If so, you are one of the few lucky souls that either was born with an incredible spirit or one of us who had to learn it the hard way. You can learn to live life to the fullest. It takes practice to defeat the habits that hold you back.

Dr Vizayer Raj held several positions in the corporate sector. He has also lectured in Business Administration in a number of Universities in Malaysia and abroad, before moving on to manage his own business in Education. Currently he is the Director of Programmes in Asian Management Development Academy. He can be reached at vizayer@ gmail.com or 016-2093156