Life is filled with moments that change you forever. Two in particular involve birth and death. Witnessing the birth of child is unbelievably amazing. And mourning the death of a friend or family member is an immensely difficult moment.
Recently I was a victim of of piece of chicken stuck in the wrong place. I tried hard to get it dislodged on my own but I was running out of oxygen and needed someone else to help. Enter my father-in-law who happened to be at the table. I motioned what I needed help with and he began to perform the life-saving Heimlich manuever on me the very day that Henry Heimlich passed away.
It took several times before it worked and in those moments everything slowed down, noise faded into the distance, and I found my mind flashing my family before my eyes and asking Jesus to not let me go this way.
Truly a scary moment. But one that I am determined has changed my life for the better.
What are some moments that have defined you or changed your life? Hopefully nothing as traumatic as this.
It’s so easy to quickly give up when you experience challenges or obstacles. But I fought to stay alive and he fought to keep me alive. The moral to the story is the one we’ve been sharing inside our business for the past four years: Never Give Up.
An estimated 100,000+ people around the globe have been saved thanks to Henry Heimlich, who oddly enough only performed the manuever on a person in a real setting just a few months before his death. But I’m in a much larger company of people who have been given a second chance at life. And I refuse to take that chance for granted.
Too many of you waste time focusing on your feelings instead of giving in to life, love, opportunity, creativity, and an amazingly rich, vibrant life. People I love are shackled by their own selves and not being willing to give up, be humble, and find that life can be so much better. So many of my friends talk all day about leaving their company, starting a business, and being an entpreneur but have never taken the risk. Many companies I work with spend all their time trying to slow down a process and think through strategy and are leaving millions of dollars on the table.
Never give up. Keep the hustle pursuit on all day, every day. Love hard. Focus harder. Let the experiences that shape you drive you to become better, accomplish more, and have a deeper sense of humility by appreciating everything you do and experience, even breathing.
JOY is the focus of the Christmas season. But so much of it gets robbed by a complete lack of focus on what really matters in life. You are alive. You are breathing. You aren’t done yet. And you can fulfill all the dreams God has placed inside of you.
So as we inch to the end of 2016 and progress forward in 2017, let this serve as inspiration that God is not done, the best is yet to come, and you can work harder to accomplish more and create the future you’ve always dreamed.
Cheers,
Joshua
