I’m dying.

My last breath could be days or even hours away now.

Or perhaps any minute.

It’s hard to say, impossible to know. The doctors can’t be sure.

But there’s no getting around it, the end for me could come at any moment.

Before you click the “sad face” on Facebook and before my children start texting with, “Dad, WTF?!?!” …

I should let you off the hook and assure you that as I type this, I’m feeling fine.

I’m not struggling to breathe, I have no major aches and pains (other than the normal ‘getting old’ type,) and I have NOT been diagnosed with any illness, disease, or condition that might be considered “fatal.”

I’m reasonably healthy, doing pretty good for a man in his 60s, and I’m still buying green bananas.

But here’s the thing…

I AM dying.

And so are YOU.

The last time I looked at stats the mortality rate hovered right at 100%. Yeah, that’s all of us.

Sure, we CAN sometimes put off the inevitable, buy ourselves a few more months or even years perhaps, but YOU are not going to talk your way out of this one, Mister, I don’t care how good your BS skills are.

I don’t know how, I don’t know when, I don’t know if it’ll be painful and sudden or peaceful and serene…

What I DO know is somewhere, somehow, at some time in the future, near or distant…

You and I, ALL OF US, will take one more breath and pass away.

Sheesh! What a depressing thing to talk about, right?

By reminding readers that even THEY are mortal, that our days are numbered, that eventually…

YOU won’t be around anymore.

Makes you stop and think, doesn’t it?

It should.

I mean, if it all ended for you tomorrow, are you good with how things stand in your life today?

Is THIS where you want to leave things when it’s all said and done, when YOU’RE all done?

Seriously, so far, has life been everything you thought it would be?

Has it been what you hoped for?

Has it been as good as it should have or could have been?

When you close your eyes for the final time, will your last thoughts be…

“I wish I would have (fill in your own deathbed regrets here)” …

Or will you smile one more time at your loved ones, let your eyes peacefully rest, and think to yourself…

“Ah, so this is it! I had a great life! Thank you, Lord! Can’t wait to meet You!”

This book isn’t about dying; it’s about living...

Living, loving, laughing, and your legacy.

“But I’ve still got time to do the things I want to do! I’m only 63 and still healthy!”

The thing is, we usually have no idea about how much living we’ve got left to do.

Will you get T-boned on the drive home tonight?

Are you going to suffer a debilitating stroke getting dressed in the morning?

Is that spot on your back going to turn into something terminal next month?

Or will you grow happily older over the next 20 or 40 years and pass away in your sleep one night?

We don’t have a lot of say-so over when our lives end, but we do have EVERYTHING to say about how we live before the end; before we die.

That’s why this podcast is about living… today. It’s about loving… today. It’s about laughing… today. It’s about your legacy… after you’re gone.

Occasionally, usually, when you’re by yourself at the end of a rough day when there’s nothing between you and what’s churning between your ears, you let yourself “go there” for just a moment.

“What the hell? THIS is my life until I die?” No, it’s not. At least it doesn’t have to be.

Buddy, you’re not too old and it’s not too late to fix this, to make the kind of life for yourself and your loved ones that you really want.

If you’ve got a pulse, you can make a difference in how the rest of your days play out, whether it’s another week or another 40 years.

It is up to you. Yeah, it can be good, even great!

It’s going to take some changes though, a few small ones.

I know; I hate change too.

And at this point in our lives, maybe we deserve to be a little “settled in our ways.”

But if what’s going on now in your life isn’t cutting it for you…

If you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired…

If you’d like to laugh and live and be that older guy in the family others love to be around today…

The grandpa they’ll smile about years after you’re gone…

Look, we've determined that you're still alive.

So why not keep on living? You’ve got this.

You can do this. This is easy stuff.

It’s NEVER too late! “It’s not the things we do in life we regret on our death bed, it is the things we do not.” Dr. Randy Pausch - The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams