The Power Of Mortality™ Blog

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Here's a great story about a professor who is giving his last lecture because he has pancreatic cancer and has been given only weeks to live.

His message is wonderful! But don't wait until you have weeks to live to start putting it into practice!

I have a question for you.

If you are not living "in the moment", just when are you living? This is not a trick question, nor is it a rhetorical question. Think about your answer carefully.

As I see it, there are three times: past, present and future. I believe that while it is important to think about the past and the future, it is very dangerous to LIVE in either of these times.

So far, scientists have said that time travel is impossible. Yet I know someone who does it on a regular basis! She is able to instantly return to a past time, in the blink of an eye. If the wrong name is mentioned or a painful subject is raised, this person is able to instantly transport herself back to the moment when the pain and anger were fresh. Her entire demeanor changes and it is as though she is back reliving the entire event. She can instantly ruin a great mood in the present just by thinking of some issues that are long past.

If you want to live a life that is fearless, I urge you to learn the lessons that your past has to teach and then move beyond them into the present! Keep the lessons (because you can use those in the present), but leave the circumstances that brought you those lessons - they are relics of the past and can serve no useful purpose in the present.

So what about the future? Living in the future has its own dangers. I'd like to point to three of them.

1. We might never start living. In my book, I wrote about "The Once Trap". Too often we are waiting for something to happen before we allow ourselves to start living.
"Once I get the promotion..."
"Once I finish MBA..."
"Once I weigh a certain amount..."

We can get caught up in "the once trap" and forget that ONCE is exactly how many times today comes around! We need to be mindful of this and make the most of every moment that we have.

2. We can be so goal-oriented that we don't take time to appreciate what we've already achieved. Consider a dieter who obsesses so much over losing the last five pounds that they forget to rejoice over how much they've already lost.

3. What happens to you when you achieve your goals? In his autobiography, astronaut Buzz Aldrin said that after walking on the moon, everything else in life seemed insignificant. This is clearly a person who was so focused on one goal for so long, that he forgot that simply walking on THIS planet each day is a tremendously significant achievement.

You're here now. So BE NOW!

Labels: fears, goals, motivational speaker, once trap, past, Power of Mortality™, Power of Now, time travel

Have you ever had it happen that you find yourself in need of something and suddenly... someone comes into your life with exactly what you require?

That's called Synchronicity. And it happens to me all of the time. In fact, I work to cultivate it!

But lately, I've found that more and more, I'm the someone who shows up in people's lives, rather than the person who is in need.

Case in point: Earlier this week, I was a guest on an Internet Radio program called The Coaching Show. We were discussing how my concept of the Power of Mortality™ can be used by coaches to help their clients get to the heart of any issue. {You can listen to the interview (there are three segments) here.}

It just so happened that Jodi Larson, a Master Certified Coach and co-host of the show, was calling in from a hospital in Chicago because her mother was in the Intensive Care Unit. During the course of the interview, she said:
"This is a great conversation to be in! Its energizing. Motivating. And its so absolutely, perfectly timely for me." Then she went on to share with me and the entire audience that it has been just over two years since the unexpected death of her husband. "Patrick, I would probably be a perfect client for you."

I find it incredibly gratifying that I am able to take my personal story and the lessons that I've learned from it and help others by sharing it with them! It always makes my day when someone says: "It's amazing that I'm meeting you right now at this stage in my life! You won't believe it, but I'm going through...."


I LOVE being an agent of Synchronicity!

Labels: coach, Coaching Show, Jodi Larson, motivational speaker, Power of Mortality™

I received an e-mail today from someone I used to work with nearly 10 years ago. As he was updating me on his life, he told me that he recently took a year off in order to establish some work/life balance. He said that it had been about 13 stress-filled years since his last real vacation!

What about you?

How do you find proper work/life balance?

Labels: motivational speaker, Power of Mortality™, work-related stress, work/life balance

How big are your dreams?

In my Mortality Manifesto, I encourage you to be constantly moving in the direction of your dreams. But how big are those dreams and what limits have you placed on them?

I read a news item last week and between the story and the associated photos, I haven't been able to stop smiling. It's a story about dreaming BIG and I want to tell you about it.

Have you ever thought about becoming an astronaut? What about simply a space tourist? Now let's think about this for a moment... when you travel as a tourist, what are you left with when your journey is over? Yes, you have memories that last a lifetime. Yes, you have fun travel stories to tell. But for many people, the real legacy of a trip are the photos they take along the way. Imagine being able to amaze and amuse your friends with the photos that you took on your trip to outer space!

Well, that's the kind of big dreams I'm talking about!

On August 11, 2007, a group of regular guys from Canada (southern Alberta, to be exact) launched a high altitude helium balloon from one of their backyards. Attached to the balloon was a box containing an ordinary digital camera which was set to take photos every 60 seconds. The box also contained a special tracking device to allow them to follow the balloon's progress and retrieve it when it landed. Just above the box was a parachute (to slow down the descent when the balloon burst at high altitude) and just below the box was an antenna for the tracking device.

Sound crazy? I thought so. After all - how far up would something like that realistically go?

But guess what? This homemade contraption rose to an incredible 117,597 feet above the earth before the balloon burst! When it did burst, the parachute worked perfectly, ensuring the safe return of the camera. And the tracker enabled the men to chart the balloon's progress and safely retrieve it.

So what does Alberta, Canada look like from space? (or at least 117,597 feet above ground)


For me, this incredible photo is many things. Of course it is a beautiful and awe-inspiring piece of photography. But more than that, it is a testament to the fact that we all need to dream bigger and reach higher. The fact that this was the third attempt by these men to accomplish this feat, serves to remind us that we need to persevere in the face of setbacks and learn from what didn't work in order to improve for the next time. Ultimately, it proves that any one of us can have a photo album from "space" if we want it enough and are willing to work for it!

Ever since I saw this photo and read the story, I have been using this image as my background for both my notebook and my BlackBerry. And every time I see it - I smile and I dream a little bigger!

(Read all about the story and see more photos at: http://www.sbszoo.com/bear/sable/sable3.htm)

Labels: dream big, Mortality Manifesto, motivational speaker, Power of Mortality™, SABLE-3, think big