“Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion. What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now. That is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time — past and future — the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.” ― Eckhart Tolle

I am not the type of person who likes to tell people what to do. I am also a person who doesn’t like being told what to do. As I sit here after my early morning visit to the gym, I always spend some time reflecting on what got me to the position I am now in.

Please understand, I am grateful to be alive after my heart attack, and I have made changes to my entire lifestyle that will hopefully give me some more quality years than if I hadn’t. If I had listened to my doctors and family when I was in my early thirties, I truly believe that maybe I would not have gotten CHF and diabetes.

The truth of the matter is that death is not on our radar when we are younger. The grim reaper does not concern us. Our careers, families, and everything associated with them eats at our time and our souls. By the time we realize that the reaper is rapidly gaining on us, it is often too late.

In my case, the years of a strictly American diet combined with the stress of everyday living and a spotty exercise routine had taken their toll.

So mine is a cautionary tale. Unfortunately, I know that most people will react the same way I did every time my doctors told me to change sooner rather than later. Tomorrow was always my favorite word, and in my mind, the future was just that, the future.

But as we all know, life has a way of flying by without us even realizing it.

When we are young, it is easy to believe that getting older and the afflictions associated with it are a long way off, but all of us are only on this earth for a very brief period of time, and we should all make the most of that time.

So who should heed my tale of caution? If you still think that tomorrow either will never come or that you can escape the Grim Reaper, you are sadly mistaken.

Why not make the changes to your life now, so you are around for a good long time. You know if you need to change. You know that if your diet is crap, you need to change.

Please do it now before it is too late.

And that’s all I have to say about that…