Professor Randy Pausch passed away with the Last Lecture impact to the world. He said “I often see life is a game. It’s all depends how you choose to play it”. At the age of 47, being a dad of 3 young children, he chose to have fun with the days left when doctor said he only had a short time to live.

We often live life as if life is not going to end. We complain we can’t lose weight when we don’t want to exercise more and eat less.  We don’t enjoy our work and don’t want to find another one. We are not satisfied with our relationships and don’t feel like create something new. We love our children and we don’t have time to get into their world. We want to wait until retirement to do things we love to do.  We want to live safely and envy the ones who live life freely.  What if we know we only have 3 months left to live? Will we live life differently? Why won’t we live life as if we don’t have much time left? Now, what’s the first thing you want to do differently?

I went to my friend Alan’s birthday party yesterday. He called it “Celebration for Life” party. Most of his family and friends got together in this beautify place "The Canal" next to Ballard Locks near Seattle. Locks provide a link for boats between the saltwater of the Puget Sound and the fresh water of the  Lake Union and Lake Washington. We tasted great wine and delicious south sea food while chatting, watching the boats passing by in sunset and watching beautiful south-sea dance. Alan just came back from South Sea and loved there. Then, we took turn to share stories about Alan, who usually had walls around him; yet a kind and generous gentleman. While teasing him, we laughed with tears in our eyes. Alan passed away on April 30^th  at the age of 59. We really wished he was there to share the moments with us. I wished I had talked to him more often than I did.  “Celebration of Life” reminded me to be alive, be present with the power of now and enjoy life while my family and friends are around. It also reminded me the tenderness shining through the walls of Alan while we were together. Alan will always be a dear friend.

Last year, I had a profound coaching experience as a client. My coach asked me what I wanted to do and I hadn’t done yet. I named a few coaching business related tasks and then, I shared that I wanted to sell my house and moved closer to my parents’. My dad was recovering from cancer treatment and thought I lived too far for him to visit. My coach reflected back to me – “sounds like you have a lot of passion towards your coaching business. And I also wonder how important it was for you to move since you showed very little energy about it.” I was shocked to hear the reflection. She was right. I didn’t believe that I could organize enough to show my house for sale. I didn’t mean what I said about moving. After the shock, I decided to honor my words. I got my action together and put my house on the market. Three months later, I sold my house and moved closer to my parents. I did what I needed to do to make it happen even there was a lot of work. I am glad I had the coach!