Checkpoint: Death??

If you're sitting here reading this email and the next breath you take is your last, how would that make you feel???

How do you think the people around you would feel?

It is said that when you go to the “pearly gates” after you die, your final test is to face the version of yourself you could have been.

Do you measure up to this person?

Death is a reminder that life is fragile and precious and it could be snatched away from us in an instant.

Walking down the street and getting hit by a car.

Choking on an olive.??

Stroke.

Sitting in a theater and some wacko decides he doesn't like your political beliefs then yells “Sic semper tyrannis!” (bonus points if you figured it out)

There have been situations where there's a guy waiting for a train and somebody pushes him in front of it. But he didn't die, just broke his leg.

However, the guy who reached down to help got hit. ??

He wasn’t ready.

Neither of them were.

None of us are.

When it’s your turn, it’s your turn.

And when it’s not…well it’s not.

My grandfather worked for IBM for like, a hundred years.

He was forced to retire because they were paying him way too much and he had no college degree.

But he didn’t want to retire: he LOVED his job.

The problem was… his job was his LIFE. It defined him.

He basically died the day he retired. It took him 20 years though.

Dementia slowly withered him away.

In 2012, I got one of the scariest calls I’ve ever gotten. It was my uncle Tom and he was talking about my grandpa.

“Josh you need to get up here today, like, right now.”

It was intense. I lived over 1,000 miles away and was super broke at the time. Someone anonymously bought my plane ticket (thanks Tom) and got me there that afternoon.

When I arrived I could tell he wasn’t all there. And it was bad. He had some moments of clarity though and we all had a few laughs here and there.

But for the most part, you could tell this was the end.

The time came and went for our visit.

He was sitting on a chair, wearing his hospital gown, slumped over looking like a shadow of the once invincible giant I saw him as.

He looks up at me…

“Pa, I need to go now. It was great to see you.”

And he replies, “I'm sorry for the way things turned out.”

As I'm standing over my grandfather I put my hand on his shoulder, and look him in the eye…

”You don't have anything at all to be sorry for. You have done so much more for me than I'll ever be able to express, and I want to tell you thank you for all of it. I love you.”

His only words back to me….”ok.”

I gave him a hug and walked out of the room. That was the last thing I ever said to him and the last time I saw him alive.

How many chances do we get in life to look somebody in the eye and just say, “thank you” before they take their last breath?

Not very many.

If you haven't been able to say that to the people in your life who are important, go say it right now.

Don't wait.

Make sure the people who matter know they matter.

Your next breath could be your last.

Pick up the phone and call your mom or dad if they're still around. Call your children and significant other if you have them.

Thank them.

Share with the world how much of an impact they have on you and that you appreciate them.

I appreciate you!

And I want you to know that because if my next breath is my last, we'll both be able to move forward in peace.

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I am Factor One for my own success. If you want to know more, go to www.iamfactorone.com