Why do I keep hearing the same message from all different sources?

I recently read the book “Chasing Daylight” by Eugene O’Kelly. The book was written by the CEO of a large accounting firm. He was diagnosed with brain cancer and found that he had several large brain tumors. By the time that the cancer was discovered, it was already so far advanced that nothing could be done about it. He was told that he had three months to live. He decided to write this book about what he was going through in the few months before his death.

Normally, this type of book would not appeal to me, but it was recommended by a friend. I read several reviews also, and the book seemed interesting. The book was inspirational in the sense that it made me realize that there is no “someday” and no “tomorrow”. We must live our lives, instead of working ourselves to death and hoping that “someday” we may be able to retire and do what we really want. Gene O’Kelly realized that he would not live long enough to experience the “retirement” that he had planned for. After quickly finding a replacement for his job, he left to spend his time with friends and family. He said that these were the best three months of his life.

I am writing this in Italy, and I am on a train from Pescara to Venice. I love to travel. I had put off traveling for so long, thinking that “someday” I would finally have the time to travel. We all get caught up in the day-to-day, the status quo. I was caught up in it and I kept making excuses for why I was not able to take a trip like this. I need to make $X, I need to work on Y for so-and-so hours. At least for me, these are arbitrary things, as soon as they are achieved, then I change the goals and push them further out.

My eyes have been opened a lot on this trip, the first of this type that I have taken in quite a number of years. Life is more about experiencing things, seeing things and meeting people. It is not about working yourself into the ground, owning nice things, pride, or having others envy you. I am so thankful that I am learning these things at such a relatively young age.

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Tags: book review, reality check, travel

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 6:52 pm and is filed under Reality Check. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.