It is not death most people are afraid of, it is getting to the end of life only to realize that you never truly lived. There was a hospital study done, 100 elderly people facing death close to their last breath. They were asked to reflect on their life’s biggest regrets and nearly all of them said that they regretted not the things they did, but the things they didn't do. The risks they never took. The dreams they didn’t pursue.
Why do you exist? Life is not meant to simply work, wait for the weekend, and pay rent. I don’t know much, but I know this - every person on this earth has a gift. I apologize to the black community, but I can no longer pretend that Martin Luther King had a dream that dream had. See people don’t choose dreams, dreams choose them. So the question that I am getting to is do you have the courage to grab the dream that picked you? That befits you and grips you. Or would you let it get away and slip through?
You know I learned a fact about airplanes the other day. Now this was so surprising I was talking to a pilot and he told me that many of his passengers think that planes are dangerous to fly in. But he said actually, it is a lot more dangerous for a plane to stay on the ground - because on the ground the plane starts to rust, malfunction, and wear much faster than it ever would if it was in the air. As I walked away I thought, that makes total sense because planes were built to live in the skies and every person was built to live out the dream they have inside. So it is perhaps the saddest loss to live a life on the ground without ever taking off.
Most of us are afraid of the thief that comes in the night to steal all of our things, but there is a thief in your mind who is after your dreams - his name is doubt. If you see him, call the cops. Keep him away from the kids because he is wanted for murder, for he has killed more dreams than failure ever did. He wears many disguises, and like a virus that will leave you blinded, divided, and turn you into a "kinda." Kinda is lethal. Say you "kinda" want a career change, or you "kinda" want to get straight A’s, or you "kinda" want to get into shape. No numbers to crunch - if you "kinda" want something, then you will "kinda" get the results that you want.
What is your dream? What ignites that spark? You can’t "kinda" want that. You have to want it with every part of your whole heart. Will you struggle? Yes, you will struggle, there is no way around it. You will fall many times, but who's counting? Just remember there is no such thing as a smooth mountain. If you want to make it to the top, then there are sharp ridges that must be stepped over. There will be times that you get stressed and things you get depressed over, but let me tell you something Steven Spielberg was rejected from film school three times, but he kept going. The television execs fired Oprah, they said that she was not fit for TV, but she kept going. Critics told Beyonce that she couldn’t sing, she went through depression, but she kept going.
Struggle and criticism are prerequisites for greatness that is the law of this universe and no one escapes it. Pain is life, but you can choose what type - either the pain on the road to success or the pain of being haunted by regret. Do you want my advice? Don’t think twice. We have been given a gift that we call life, so don’t blow it. You are not defined by your past. Instead, you are born anew in each moment, so own it. Sometimes you have to leap and grow your wings on the way down. You better get the shot off before the clock runs out because there isn’t any overtime in life. There aren’t any do-overs. I know that it sounds like I am preaching on speaking with force, but if you don’t use your gift, then you sell not only yourself but the whole world short. So what invention do you have buried in your mind? What idea? What cure? What skill do you have to bring out to this universe? Uni means one, verse means song. You have a part to play in this song. So grab that microphone and be brave. Sing your heart out on life’s stage. You cannot go back and make a brand-new beginning, but you can start now and make a brand-new ending.