I recently read a high school seniors college essay and learned so much about the FEARLESS SOUL inside each of us. She wove a story of hummingbirds not wasting their two million heartbeats waiting for an adventure to come to them, but rather to fly faster and farther in hopes of living before it’s too late. Hummingbirds create the life they want because, unlike humans, the small creatures don’t have eighty years ahead of them. Wow! The young writer went on to talk about skydiving, getting her pilots license, traveling and even swimming with sharks – that’s her in the picture.

This really tied in quite well to my last article on Living & Breathing FEARLESSLY; but pushes the concept even further. It’s one thing to live and breathe fearlessly, it is quite another to take advantage of every moment on the planet. Or as the student suggested, to not waste every single heartbeat we are blessed with.

What would you do with only two million heartbeats? Or what wouldn’t you do? Are you really living your fullest life? I’ve been spending my morning workouts over the past few weeks thinking about my heartbeats and reflecting on my use of them. I started off saying “yeah, I’m doing a great job”. And before too long, came to the conclusion I personally have a lot of work to do.

I am a planner by nature, and this has been a great asset in my life. But I am learning now, it also has held me back at times from “living in the moment” I’m not suggesting I’m not spontaneous, or don’t do fun things, but generally speaking I plan stuff out. I also thought about how at the office, I do a pretty good job of taking calculated risks and challenging myself and others to try new things. And guess what? I’m not so risk-taking in my personal life, and I should probably be more willing to try new things too.

This conclusion has forced me to take some action. Normally I only take a few days off at Thanksgiving, but I booked myself out the entire week. I am working extra hard right now so I can truly slowdown that week and invest real quality time how I can live in the moment more and squeeze more juice out of life! I know exactly what you are thinking right now, and please don’t make fun of me for developing a plan to live more in the moment. I know, I can’t fully escape myself, I am more looking for tweaks than an overhaul. I sincerely believe that I live & breathe fearlessly. I also truly believe, I need to live more for the day, seize the sun when it is out, say yes more to a number of things and no to others. What are all the “things”? I don’t know yet, that is part of my personal discovery during Thanksgiving week. But I can tell you one thing that is pretty cool that I AM GOING TO DO. I am going to swim with sharks with that young author who just happens to be my daughter Kaylie. Yes, I am a tad scared, but a hummingbird must spread it’s wings and fly faster and further. And remember, my little hummingbird is applying to college now which means every day together counts more than I knew before reading her essay.

We all have a FEARLESS SOUL, we all are on the clock and sometimes we just need a YOUNG FEARLESS WARRIOR to wake us up a bit to help us live in the moment.

 b FEARLESS