Your Two Lives

“We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.”

- Confucius

We often wait for a close call, a medical diagnosis, or the loss of a loved one to be reminded of how precious life is to begin focusing on actually living, or as Confucius says, living our second life.

Depending on when this “wake-up call” occurs, you may have missed a significant part of your time on this earth living your first life, which for most, is not the life they actually want to live. Instead, it’s the life they are encouraged or even told to live. This is why so many people make drastic changes when they are on the other side of their wake-up.

The trouble is that most wake-up calls are painful and traumatic events.

It seems silly to wait for these moments to send your Self on your second life—the one you’d rather be living anyway. There is no guarantee that the circumstances you find your Self in once you’ve begun your second life will match the life before your wake-up call. Perhaps the lost loved one who pushed you to start living is no longer with you, and you missed out on experiencing this new life with them. Perhaps it was a physical ailment that pushed you to start living, and you can no longer move the way you once did, and you missed out on experiencing locations you no longer can.

Or, what if you never start your second life and YOU become someone else’s wake-up call?

Don’t wait.

If you are still living your first life, let this be your wake-up call to begin living.—it’s time to move on from the first life Confucius refers to and to start your second.

See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,

JC