I want you to do me a favor. Right now, before you do anything else.
It won’t take long at all. Reach up. Dig a couple of fingers up into your neck and find your pulse.
Got it? Good.
Now I want you to count out exactly ten heartbeats. Ready? Go.
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Now… I know you felt those ten heartbeats, but did you really feel them? Did you pay attention to them?
Did you feel the blood force its way through your body?
Did you think about everything that had to go right in your body to make that happen?
Your heart had to pump, over and over to make that happen.
Your brain had to send a signal to your heart, telling it to pump.
So many moving parts had to go exactly right for you to have that experience.
With that in mind, I want you to do me a quick favor and do it again, but this time, I want you to really feel them. Count out ten more. Go.
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Good. Now I want you to think about what else had to go right for you to feel those heartbeats.
You had to wake up this morning. A lot of people didn’t get to.
In fact, you actually had to make a lifetime of right decisions to feel your heart beat in this moment, right now. Any number of different decisions and you wouldn’t have been able to experience that at all.
Now with that in mind, think about this…
Every person who is born, yourself included, had a first heartbeat.
And every person who is born, yourself included, will have a final heartbeat.
You don’t know how many you’ll have. You don’t know what your total number is going to be. Nobody does.
But, my friend… The moment your heart beat for the first time in your mother’s womb, you began a literal countdown to your final heartbeat.
Your heart has an exact number of beats that it gets to beat.
And when you just counted those heartbeats, you felt ten of them go by. They vanished. They’re gone forever and there is literally no way to get them back.
The truth is… You may only have a hundred heartbeats left. You don’t know. You can’t know. You may have hundreds of millions still to go. But there is going to be a moment where your heart beats for the very last time.
So why waste even a single heartbeat on that which does not matter?
Why waste them surrounded by chaos you could just walk away from?
Why waste them in a relationship you know is not going to work?
Why waste them worrying about things you can’t control?
Why waste them stressing about how people have hurt or wronged you? Haven’t you given them enough of your heartbeats already?
Why waste your heartbeats stuck doing a job that makes you miserable?
Why waste them thinking of the fun things you’d like to one day do?
Why waste them pretending to be someone who at your core you are not?
Why waste them with friends or people who constantly bring you down?
Why waste them pretending to believe something you actually don’t?
Why waste them doing the things and being around the people who fill you with anxiety?
Why waste them wallowing in self-pity?
Why waste them watching movies that fail to captivate you, or finishing books that don’t hook you, or eating food that doesn’t bring you joy?
Why waste them worrying whether people like your clothes, or your hair, or your personality?
And for the love of God… Why waste your limited number of heartbeats worrying what other people are doing with their own heartbeats?
You have a very specific number of heartbeats, my friend, so stop giving them away. The world is full of people who will happily take every single heartbeat you are willing to let go of.
They’re your heartbeats. Never forget that.
And be sure to reach up and count out ten every once in a while to remind yourself of that.
Dan Pearce | Dan Pearce Knows Nothing
By the way, I recorded this blog post as a video to share on social media...
