Alarm. Snooze. Alarm. Laptop. Email. Cereal. Coffee. More laptop. Email. Insert sandwich into mouth. Coffee. Email. Facebook. Email. Half-hearted work out (slow-crawl elliptical machine while absent-mindedly flipping through a magazine). Facebook. Email. Dinner. Sex? Not tonight. Netflix. Bed.

There’s an expression that goes:

“Most people don’t live 75 years. They live the same year 75 times.”

This statement makes me want to cry because I know it’s abso-goddamn-lutely true.

I spent nearly a decade of my life living the same half-awake, unfulfilling, unsatisfying year over and over. The job I hated. The body I didn’t take care of. Low energy. Ass dragging. Hiding from my potential. Faking out and pretending to be someone I wasn’t.

Like so many people, I allowed myself to become lulled into a cycle of inertia (definition: “the resistance of any physical object to any change in its state of motion […] the tendency of objects to keep moving in a straight line at constant speed.”)

It took a major wake up call to shake me out of my inertia. Several wake up calls, actually. (Apparently I hit the snooze button the first couple of times.)

One of the most dramatic wake up calls came from my brother in law, Shawn.

Shortly after his 38th birthday, Shawn fell asleep and did not wake up. Doctors later reported that he’d had a massive stroke. He was a strong, active man. A runner. A father of three. Out. Unresponsive.

They gave him 100 days to live.

This story has a miraculously happy ending. Shawn woke up. He’s beat the odds with his recovery. He is very much alive. He’s not the same person and neither am I.

His brush with death was the inertia-shattering wake up call that I needed. It provided the jolt that I needed to start living like today matters, like my work matters, like my life matters. Like time is precious. Because it is.

But here’s the thing.

I don’t want you to wait until “disaster” strikes to start making your happiness and health a priority.

I don’t want you to wait until a “crisis” descends to start pursuing the business or career that you love.

I don’t want you to have to watch a loved one get flown away in a helicopter, half dead, before you decide: “It’s time for me to really live.”

I want you to break out of the cycle of inertia NOW.

I want this — these words — to be your wake up call.

I’m not saying you need to quit your job today, or blow through your savings on a wild trip to Vegas. I’m not saying you ought to be careless and reckless or drink yourself into a margarita stupor.

I’m not saying: “Live like you are dying.”

I’m saying: “Live like you are living.”

I’m saying… WAKE UP.

What does “waking up” mean to you? It’s a personal call.

It might mean that you change your afternoon plans, that you cancel your phone calls and go home to spend time with your family instead. Or it might mean that keep your plans but choose to show up with a different level of commitment and intensity. Whatever “awake” and “alive” means for you: do it and be it.

This is it. Your life. The one & only. How will you live it?

It’s your choice: Wide awake or mostly asleep. Full potential or half. Big or small.

No matter your income, upbringing or circumstances: it is always your choice.

This is your wake up call.

Susan

• I am taking a small, intimate group of adventurous women to Ireland this summer. Life coaching. Field trips. Gorgeous hikes. Sublime conversations. A personal chef. Princess-caliber accommodations… in a manor! Life is short and precious and if Ireland is on your personal bucket list… it’s all here, girlfriend. Join us: https://susanhyatt.co/travel/