A wise man at a talk once recounted the first time he heard this quote from Braveheart:

“Every man dies, but how many truly lived?”

This quote had a profound impact on the speaker, which motivated him to take more risks in life, enjoy it while he can and embark on ventures that made him the success he is today, and of course, not forgetting to truly live and experience life.

HAVE YOU TRULY BEEN LIVING?

That got me thinking whether I was truly living my life to the fullest at that moment, and I realized that I could do much better.

In life, it is easy for us to be caught up by routine, by going to classes, rushing for assignments, deadlines, family commitments and work. But have we forgotten to truly live in the midst of all these busyness, commitments and routine?

Have we forgotten to see the world, experience the world for ourselves, spend quality time with the people you care about and so on?

OUR GREATEST REGRETS WILL BE THE THINGS WE DID NOT DO

I remember reading somewhere that a research has been done on what do people regret the most when they are old and near the end of their lives, and after surveying many old people who are in the last days of their lives, they’ve found that most people never really regretted the things that they’ve done, but instead, their biggest regrets are always the things that they did not do, the overseas trip that they did not go for, the business venture that they did not dare to start, the skill that they did not find time to pick up, the people they did not find enough time for before it’s too late, and so on.

As the old Cantonese saying goes:

“Long Life Kung Fu, Long Life Do” – Word for Word Translation of Cantonese Saying :p

The idiom is basically getting at the fact that there will always be work for us to do and that work will never end, so we should work diligently, but also make time to truly live out our lives, because work that is meant to be done over a lifetime should be evenly spread out over our lifetime without compromising our right to live life to the fullest.

DON’T LET LIFE PASS YOU BY IN A BLUR

If you have graduated and are currently in the workforce, you might realize that time flies much faster than you think it does.

In a blink of an eye, 5 years would have passed, your friends would have gotten married, you might have gotten married yourself, your kids would have grown up, but you would pretty much still be going through the same routine every day in your job and life, and everything would seem to have passed by in a blur.

While there is nothing wrong with that, have you ever wondered whether perhaps, you could have done a little more with your lives, or remove yourself from the routine and rush of life every once in a while, to pause in the right moments, to take it all in and enjoy the special moments of your life?

As the saying goes, “life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breath away”.

GO AFTER MOMENTS THAT TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY

Beautiful sunrise taken at Gunung Brinchang, Cameron Highlands 🙂

How many times have you experienced that thrilling, yet soothing feeling where everything around you seem to just pause, for you to fully absorb and take in the experience?

Such moments where that surge of happiness rushes through your heart, and just stays there, and leaves you completely and absolutely wowed, and dumbfounded? Moments that leaves a mark in your heart, that would stay in your memories forever, and shine like bright spots and highlights of your life when you look back at it?

TRAVEL, INDULGE & EXPERIENCE!

I don’t know about you, but for me, these moments come when I take random road trips, backpacking trips or food hunts with my friends, to explore new places, travel, see the world, meet new people and try new things to experience things I’ve never experienced before.

They could also come from simply making time to slow down my life, to spend quality time catching up with an old friend, over tea, or over coffee, especially in a cooling place like Genting or Cameron Highlands (Sorry :p I just really have this thing for mountains and temperate places hehe :p), making the most out of these simply pleasures of life.

MAKE TIME TO TRULY LIVE BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE

Recently, I also realized how short & fragile life can really be, for you never know what would happen next. I’ve had friends who had no history of medical complications pass away right after a regular jog, in their sleep or in an accident. I also know of a distant high school junior and his parents who happened to be on the fated flight MH370 which went missing over the Indian Ocean, leaving his two younger siblings behind.

Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what it has in store for us, but let’s put in the effort to try as many flavours as possible, for you never know when would be your last one; instead of being too busy caught up in routine or chasing deadlines that you forget to try your chocolates before it is too late.

MAKE SURE YOU HAD FUN

In the end, no matter what happens, I would like to be able to say that I lived, loved, tried and most importantly, that “I had fun”, as accomplished NBA clutch shooter Robert Horry would like to be remembered.

DON’T BE CAUGHT OUT BY ROUTINE

So, if you are being caught up in the busyness of work, life and routine, do put in the effort to make time to do the things you love, the things that would take your breath away, be it spending quality time with your close friends, family or taking that adventurous trip or giving that extreme sport a go.

LIVE FERVENTLY, HAVE NO REGRETS!

If you manage to do this, you will be able to go to sleep each night knowing that you will have no regrets even if you don’t make it through the night. You would have truly lived, and had fun.

So, live life to the fullest. Have no regrets.

Do it, and do it now, before it is too late.

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breath away”