A cosmic hourglass was flipped over the instant you were born. Every breath you take moves you inexorably closer to the moment when those last grains of sand fall and your time as a living, breathing occupant of planet Earth ends.

It’s not a secret that this is the way things work, and yet I wonder if the knowledge that your time here is finite influences your choices on a regular basis.

If you are anything like me, your sense of urgency about making every single day count has been dulled by the fact that new ones keep showing up. You and I wake up every day to a world full of possibility, but it’s easy to miss out on how spectacular that is because it just keeps happening.

Until one day, perhaps quite suddenly, it stops.

This post is a call to stop taking your life for granted and start kicking ass at being alive. Right now. Today.

I don’t subscribe to the idea that you need to live every day like it’s your last, because then you would never get any work done and you have important work to do. What I am proposing is that you start living every single day like it’s one you’ll never get back, because you won’t, and you don’t have any to waste.

Consider what truly matters to you and the legacy you are crafting through your actions. What will you leave behind when you are gone? Will you have lived a life worth celebrating? Will people stand up at your funeral and say that you made them better? I hope so.

I want to leave you with a quote from a friend of mine who is suffering at this very moment from the incredibly sudden and unexpected loss of someone she loved very much. This post isn’t theoretical to her.

“I’d encourage all of you to start living like he did: Be kind. Learn everything. Connect people. Read a ton. Be curious. Don’t judge. Be passionate. Do things that matter. Be bold. Make friends with everyone. Love.”