“If you don’t ask yourself on occasion ‘What the hell am I actually doing?’ I’m not certain your actually living.” – Megan Dills

I found the quote above on Twitter tonight and it got me thinking. I was going to write an interesting post titled “When Your Life Hindenburg’s” this evening, but in light of what has gone in in the past few hours, I have changed my mind.

I watched the Heat win the NBA championship tonight. Im not a huge basketball fan but I do appreciate inspiring moments. And as always, my favorite part of the game is actually after it is over – listening to players talk. Who cares if many of them are not that eloquent. I feel like people use that as an excuse to put them down and almost dim the glow of their achievements. Anyways…I listened, and listened hard to what James said when the reporter asked him after the game -What do you have to say to all those people who talk about you or doubt you etc – and James responded perfectly, “I can’t worry about what everyone says about me.”

Everyone around me is talking about how great the game was and I was just sitting there thinking about those words. And the moment came – “It’s true” I said to myself…and went on into the other room to shower. As I stood there in the shower I thought more and more about what he had said and concepts along the lines of the quote above from Dills. “What the hell am I actually doing?” It dawned on me that there have been many times in my life that I have done, or not done, something because of what other people thought or would think. I don’t really think this is a way that I can run my life anymore. And that is when I came across the Schwarzenegger quote.

I truly believe that you have to make a plan and stick to (with positive modifications along the way) at all costs. Because if you never follow through all the way then you will never know what you could have actually been. Of course there will be criticism along the way but in the end you really do have to listen to yourself and the voice inside you. No one else is going to live your life. They may try…but at the end of the day you are the only one that peaces out when it’s your time to go. So make something memorable.

Tap into that voice inside and understand what it is trying to tell you. Often times you have to quiet down everything around you to hear it, but eventually it will become loud and clear. “I need to do this” becomes something that you can’t avoid or even sabotage anymore because your body is getting pulled, like a strong rip-tide, in the direction of where you want to go. So just release all the doubts and insecurities and go with it. It will be the ride of your life.

Evan Sanders
The Better Man Project