Some time around 2006 or 2007 my father woke up feeling pretty bad, his heart was fluttering which would happen from time to time and he just felt like crap. Dad's always been hardcore about making it into work, but for whatever reason that day Mum convinced him to go get checked out.
Thank god Mum pushed the right buttons. It turns out that dad has Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome. Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome is where your heart has an extra electrical pathway which can cause irregular heart beats, and often enough it will just kill you.
The doctors were able to fix Dad (I have no idea how that works), but we learned from my Grandmother that its likely her father might have died from the same situation.
The event seemed to be a bit of a wake up call for Dad who has subsequently gotten his health into better shape... but the whole ordeal caused the lot of us, and myself specifically to be thoughtful about how valuable our time is... we really don't get much time, and even less if you are unlucky.
For me this was an important realization... it helps you prioritize whats important.
Its one thing to just be thoughtful about your time though and realizing its valuable... that can drive some meaningful changes. There's a related lesson that I learned way way after I should have. I have to credit Chris Swint for waking me up to it - one of those lessons thats so obvious that you miss it.
Maybe 3 or 4 years ago it occurred to me that I'm not going to be able to play sports forever. I'm 40 now but dealing with injuries even minor injuries is always an ordeal - and some day I will likely just not be able to come back to play at a competitive level. When I realized this I decided I'd like to put a little extra focus into getting good at sports, specifically basketball (beach volleyball too). If you are paying attention this is effectively the same concept as above- you only have so much time so you need to take advantage of what you have.
Chris Swint is a phenomenal athlete, he was a D1 corner back and a great hooper and almost certainly good at anything with a score. He's also a really cool guy. Chris plays on my basketball team Off in Public.
One day Chris missed a game, which is a big loss to our team but fortunately the team we were playing was pretty weak. They had one of the worst records in the division and we had them beat at all angles on paper. We went into that game thinking we were going to win, and boy were we wrong.
We had the talent, height, size and everything else you normally need to win a game... and yet we lost. We were slow to bring the ball up, we let rebounds slip, missed defensive possessions. Play after play we missed opportunities to win, and when the final buzzer went off, we were all sitting there dumbfounded because the other team didn't really beat us, we lost...
Chris watched the film the next day, and he called out, which I will never forget...
"You definitely were missing a sense of urgency..."
Making the most of your time on the planet is one thing... its important, but if you want to do great things, or just be the best that you can with the things you are doing, you need a sense of urgency in the things you do... you need to be focused and have intensity.
Having urgency and focus makes a big difference in everything you do -