Life is short.

 

It is sudden.

 

It is abrupt.

 

It is a gift.

 

And yet, we live it as though we have an eternity.

 

We live as though bad news only happens to other people.

 

We live as though there is always a tomorrow.

 

Some day and one day, tomorrow will not come. And we lie in our deathbeds thinking, saying, wishing ‘I should have’, ‘I wished I had’, ‘If only I could’.

 

I watched a beautiful show called ‘My Life Without Me’ by Isabel Coixet. It is about a young woman named Ann who is diagnosed with terminal cancer and has only two months to live. She creates a ‘Things To-Do Before I Die’ list and most of the movie shows Ann tape recording messages for the people she loved, saying things that she’ll never say, saying things she’d always wanted to say.

 

There is a line in the movie that says “Now you feel like you wanna take all the drugs in the world, but all the drugs in the world aren't gonna change the feeling that your whole life's been a dream and it's only now that you're waking up.”

 

It’s only when death is close to you that you’d realize how precious life is.

 

I nearly lost my mom to cancer two years ago. I was 24. I worked as a journalist in a magazine house and I spent a lot of my time at work. I worked nights and I worked weekends. For two years, my work was my life.

 

But when dad broke down in tears in front of me and my sister saying that the doctor gave my mom only six months to live, my life was never the same again.

 

I quit my job. Partly because I wanted to spend time with my parents but mainly because after working for two years and being given a new role, when I asked for a raise, my boss told me to, ‘work for the experience and not for the money’.

 

I’d decided in that moment that I was never going to give up my time and my freedom for a job ever again. I was never going to let my life slip away and take me from my loved ones and my dreams.

 

That year I detoxed my life. I stopped a toxic six-year relationship. I stopped seeing friends who didn’t care about me. I stopped eating food that was bad for me. I stopped smoking. And I spent my time learning about my mother; knowing her as a friend, and knowing her as a person.

 

I started making new priorities in my life before I, too, am robbed of Time.

This is Why I am on this journey. This is Why I am passionate about financial freedom. This is Why even though things get tough, I get up again and again and again.

 

Life is too short to be doing something I don’t like.

 

Life is too precious to be missing out on the moments I can spend with the people I love.

 

This is my WHY.

 

Ask yourselves:

What is my Why in life?

What do I Want in life?

 

Because it is when you know your WHYs that your life begins to have a purpose.

 

With Love,

Mable