Discovery Your Destiny with the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

My Greatest regret is not listening to myself. I knew I could do great thing in my life. I was a very good writer when I was younger, I had even won some literary prizes during my university days. But my mother wanted me to be an accountant. She said that if I didn't listen to her, it would be the mistake of a lifetime. Actually, the mistake of my lifetime was not being true to myself and doing what I felt I was meant to do. So now - and you should know that the doctors in here tell me that I probably only have a few weeks left - I am so sad at the choice I made. I feel I've wasted my whole life. Eighty-seven years have gone by in a flash. It feels like it was just yesterday that I got married to my bride, Margaret. It feels like just yesterday that I watched my children being born. Now Margaret's dead and my children have gone off to lead lives of their own. Your life will whiz by quicker than you could ever imagine. The days will slip into weeks, the weeks into months and the months in years. You look pretty young now, but watch out - you'll look like me before you know it. Life's like that. So live the life that you are meant to live. Your life is far too important to wait until you are just about to die to wake up. I lived my mother's life when I should have had the wisdom to live my own. I spent my life trying to please others. But where are they now? All those people I lived to please are no longer around. On your deathbed, the only person you'll have to answer to is the person you look at in the mirrow every morning. You'd better be true to him. I committed 'the crime of self-betrayal,'. That's what's really going to kill me. Not the cancer."

The room fell completely feeling silent. Peter's friends looked down, each apparently feeling sadness on not only hearing the tale of another man's deepest regret in life, but on being reminded that he would soon no longer be with them. Life is such a fragile thing. I never truly knew that until now. It is a priceless treasure that we are given to guard and make use of to the best of our ability. That is will not come again in what makes it so scared. And yet, most people who live among the crowd never press the pause button in their lives and stop for even sixty seconds to reflect on why they are here and what they are meant to do.

- by Robin Sharma (The 7 Stage of Self Awakening)