So, what REALLY matters? - Awesomely

Hot damn, do I have a doozy for ya. Pay attention, please.

Trevor Mauch here, and as a lifelong entrepreneur with years and years in the real estate investing industry, one thing that I’ve experienced and also seen from my REI colleagues is that we face each day with long to-do lists… all of them aimed squarely at our vision and goals we’ve set for ourselves.

All of that is important and exciting — but it can also make us lose sight all too easily of what really matters in life. And what really matters is often too apparent only when people are near death. Check out this powerful article… it was really moving, it helped remind me of what really matters in life.

So, yes, we are goal-driven. We love murdering our to-do lists, checking off boxes, achieving our goals. But there has never been anyone on their death bed who said: “I wish I’d have worked more; I regret that I didn’t have longer workdays.”

It’s not that work and goals are unimportant, but they so easily and so completely distract us from what is important. So, consider this post a sobering reminder about what truly matters in life. Your life.

My wife, our baby daughter, and I were at an Oregon beach for a little family vacation. There’s something about the beach (even our cold Oregon water) that just puts everything in perspective for me.

All weekend our little one was just drawn to our balcony overlooking the ocean. Over and over she kept wanting us to go outside with her… and over and over again she lit up with happiness and pure excitement the second the ocean breeze hit her fair little hair.

But, one thing all weekend hit me like a ton of bricks and really put things into massive perspective for me. (I get these helpful perspective and purpose shifts a few times a year)…

Kinley — that’s my daughter’s nickname — didn’t want to go to sleep. It was about 9:00pm, a bit past her bedtime. She just wouldn’t calm down… wouldn’t quietly hang out with us on the bed while we were reading… wouldn’t play with her toys… wouldn’t even think about going to bed.

She kept pointing to the balcony door — with the now chilly but insanely peaceful ocean outside.

So, I grabbed a blanket and wrapped Kinley in it. We went outside to soak in the moment. During that 35 minutes out there, she was quiet as she peacefully sat there wrapped up in our blanket on my chest. She simply kept looking back and forth between the ocean, the fully beaming moon and up at me with her big blue eyes smiling.

I couldn’t help but be in the moment — and in that moment, I was struck with what life is truly all about.

When you strip away all of the material things and everything else we mark as “important” in our everyday lives… it all becomes trivial compared to what really matters in our lives.

That night and the next day, McKinley woke up early and wanted to go outside to watch the sunrise too… so we did, it was just as magical.

I couldn’t help but think about how everything I do today — no matter if I feel it’s “productive” or not toward reaching my business goals — is a day I can’t relive twice. And, every day behind us is one day less that we have in front of us to truly live the lives that we want to live.

That’s so powerful when you really think about it.

When you think about our mortality… that no matter how hard we try to stop it… or how hard we try to forget it — we’re not going to be here forever, and there will be a time in our lives where we’ll be faced with the moment when we have to look back at our lives and really ask:

“Did I live? Did I love? Did I matter?”

I should thank my mentor for bringing those important questions to my attention.

Anyway, I’m not bringing up any of this to make you feel bad about what you’ve done (or not done) with your life up to this point. In fact, just the opposite… I hope that what you’re reading will actually help you live a much more full, fulfilling, rewarding, loving, fun, successful and prosperous life from here on out.

The top 5 regrets of the dying

Remember that article I mentioned above? Well, a friend of mine sent it to me. I strongly suggest you read it for yourself after you’re done with this email. It’ll give you a new perspective on life this year.

It’s called “The Top 5 Regrets of The Dying.” It was written by a gal who works in healthcare, caring for people through the final 3–12 weeks of their lives. Through conversations with her patients, she gathered some amazing insights. I’ll share some of them here, but first…

As you’re reading through these, visualize for yourself:

What do you want to see when you look back at your life when you’re in your final days?
What feeling do you want to feel?
What stories do you want to tell?
What legacy do you want to live? (That’s when it gets really powerful.)

Here are the 5:

“I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expect of me.”
“I wish I didn’t work so hard.”
“I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.”
“I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”
“I wish that I had let myself be happier.”

Wow, right?

So, the author sums up her article better than I ever could…

“When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying. Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.”

See, our goal with these emails and our training programs and blog posts isn’t really to help you to become the best real estate investor in the world. Yes, that’s one of the things we teach, and we’re proud to have helped thousands and thousands of people go from a life of struggle to a life of independence and freedom.

BUT, our #1 goal is truly to help you live a better, happier, more fulfilling and prosperous life.

Real estate investing can help you get there by becoming financially independent, so you can control your own time… but whatever path you choose (real estate or not), we’re here to help you find that direction, to find that happiness, to find that confidence, to find and reach your purpose.

We sincerely hope that this email, or any of our emails and posts have helped you, even just a little bit to live a better life in any way.

So…

When are you going to decide to live fully?
When are you going to decide to “play full out” in life and give your goals everything you’ve got?

No better time than now. Today. This minute. Take massive action, choose to truly live and go after what you want in life.

I’ll ask one final time: What really matters?