Find your passion. Live life to the fullest. Live today as if it were your last.
The message was never heard more clearly than on the day Dr. Lee Lipsenthal was diagnosed with cancer. The cancer was in his lower esophagus, had spread to his lymph nodes, and left Lipsenthal with only a 10% chance of survival.
Many people would give up at that point. And many people thought that giving up was exactly what Dr. Lipsenthal was doing in the months after his diagnosis. But he wasn’t giving up. Instead, he was giving in—giving in to a since of freedom, to letting go of control, to being in charge of his own choices.
One of the most horrible and destructive mental tendencies we have is that of focusing on what we want instead of what we have. The notion “I’ll be happier when I reach this goal,” or “When I get this job, I will be much more secured”. The truth is that as we grow and become successful, our wants expand, despite the fact that our needs are probably met. The funny thing is that even when we get that job or when we reach that goal, our dissatisfied mentality continues to grow, and we go on longing for what we want instead of appreciating what we have.
Dr. Lipsenthal had spent his life defined by the work he loved. He was an integrative medicine physician and Medical Director of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, specializing in heart disease prevention. His work inspired many and took him around the world, teaching and collaborating. It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate what he had—he did—but he thought he had time. His diagnosis reminded him that he didn’t.
As a culture, we are always striving for more. We live in a society that promotes continual growth and advancement. We focus on what is next. This can be a good ideal, but not when it causes us to lose sight of progress. What we have achieved is as important as what we will achieve. I remember a friend of mine who’d just bought a new car. He had the car for two or three days before he was talking about his next car, boasting that it would be even bigger and faster. This is an example of our tendency to focus on what is next, losing sight of what is now. This state of mind simply doesn’t allow us to enjoy the moment and be happy with what we have.
Once Dr. Lipsenthal learned that he was dying, he stopped focusing on what was next. There was only now to consider—to cherish and appreciate. He spent time with his family, sat in silence and stared up at the sky through the trees, and wrote about what he was feeling. In his blog, he wrote about gratitude and acceptance: “Gratitude for the people, things, memories, emotions, and events of your life and acceptance that you really have no control over most of it.”
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Dr. Lipsenthal battled cancer for two years before it finally took him. Before he passed, he wrote Enjoy Every Sandwich, a book that would tell his story and carry on his wisdom about life and death. His message was to create meaning in every moment—to “enjoy every sandwich”, to appreciate what we have, and to live each day as if it were our last.
Dr. Lipsenthal’s hope was that we wouldn’t wait for a terminal diagnosis. That we would enjoy every breath, enjoy every second, now. We are here for a short time, and we can never be sure when that time will come to an end. Be grateful for life, no matter how messy or uncertain it may be. Know in your heart what is truly important and do it every day.
“Making today a good day to die also makes today a great day to live.”
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