Today I experienced a kind of awakening that I cannot fully describe or understand… just yet. It happened at work while I was in a business meeting with 3 older gentlemen. I always pride myself on being young and successful (about 85% of the people I do business with on a daily basis are 5-20 years older than me). So for the past 5 years it’s only natural that this is how I have defined my success with statements such as “well I am only 23 and I am already doing this” or “I am only 27 and already have 5 years of management experience.” I have made a beautiful life for myself and I have worked my ass off in the process, but today as I sat in this meeting listening to these men talk about their “life experience” I quickly realized that none of it had to do with how long they had been working in their careers. Quite the contrary actually, it was all about what watering hole they sat at and enjoyed the best music of their lives, what moments most influenced their passions, what countries they had traveled to, what events and experiences had shaped their lives. It was in that moment that my client said “If you aren’t out experiencing life, it is just passing you by…”

Suddenly the longing of freedom washed over me. We are so young and although we have experienced a life full of so many blessings and adventures we are still so YOUNG in our experiences. I longed for us to live without an agenda, whisking away with no plans for tomorrow while dancing in the moonlight. I couldn’t help but wonder what I had been doing for the last 5 years? Working 10 hour days, 50+ hour weeks with 2 days off a week and an additional 10 of vacation? Living for the weekend so only then I could feel alive? I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to live simply with Colt and Kai and do more living and less working. To focus on being rich & successful in love, life, relationships and passion rather than work, years invested and experience. Had we missed the boat and got it all wrong?

I can’t shake questioning the last 5 years of my thought process. Not because I haven’t been happy or successful but because I’ve been doing what I thought I was “suppose” to do. People tell you everyday “you go to school, you get an education, you get a GOOD job, you get married, you have kids, you work your life away and this makes you successful.” I say REALLY?… The moments that have made me who I am are moments with family and friends where I created memories I will never forget, when I packed my bags at 18 years old and moved across the United States (literally) and just figured it out (and continue to just figure it out 9 years later day by day), jumping out of planes and off of cliffs (and shitting my pants the whole way down), getting on a surfboard, sailing the high seas, meeting and falling in love with Colt, having Kailea come into my life, swimming with fish, dolphins, turtles, whales & sharks, having the man of my dreams ask me to marry him, planning our wedding and soon our life together. OUR LIFE TOGETHER, not our life working and seeing each other 1 day a week, in passing or at night when we are so tired we can barely enjoy each other and all the love we share. The moments in which success has happened aren’t in client meetings or sitting behind a desk, they are when we are embracing life.

EMBRACING LIFE. It’s funny how that keeps coming up; to embrace life. I am as of today wearing a bracelet to remind me of this statement all day every day. This bracelet reminds me that all things are possible. It reminds me to have strength and courage. It reminds me to love the people that love me without limits and forget the ones that don’t. It reminds me that life is too short.

My old general manager at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., & his family just recently found out that their 11 month old son is dying. Dying and they can’t do anything about it. So you know what they are doing? They are LIVING. They are taking every moment and not letting it pass them by. They are spending every second entangled in life and love and happiness. With broken hearts they carry on, it’s inspiration that can change the world if you take the time to pay attention. It’s inspiration that has changed me already. It has me more driven, determined and inspired than I have ever been in my life (and if you know me at all you know that is a very bold statement) because for once it’s not about dying, it’s about living. It’s about LIFE and I want more.