Free The Greatness Guide: One of the World's Most Successful Coaches Shares His Secrets for Personal and Business Mastery by Robin Sharma

Miller, sagely observed: “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you.”
    So today, take a moment and think about the people in your life who need to be cherished, appreciated and told that their support has been helpful. Offer a heartfelt and enthusiastic “thank you.” Those two magic words don’t cost anything. But they will make a world of difference.
    Today, take a moment and think about the people in your life who need to be cherished, appreciated and told
that their support has been helpful.
     
     

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The Value of Dying Daily
     
    I have no desire to be the richest person in the graveyard. To me, a life well lived is mostly about being surrounded by people I love, staying healthy and happy (no one’s happy all the time, except in the movies, by the way), stepping toward my highest potential each day, doing work I love and having an impact on the world around me. So how can you stay focused on the things that are most important to you amidst the daily pressures of life? Die daily.
    I wrote about this in
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari,
but the point of wisdom bears repeating: Connecting to the fact that life is short and no one knows when it will end is a great personal habit to stay centered on your highest priorities. Waking up each morning and asking yourself, “How would I show up today if this day was my last?” is not some cheesy motivational exercise. It’s a profound way to bring some urgency and commitment into your days. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said it far more powerfully than I ever could when he observed: “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life.”
    Most of us let life act on us—we are asleep at the wheel of our own lives. And the days really do slip into weeks, the weeks into months and the months into years. Before we know it, we are lying on our deathbeds, wondering where all the time went. I’ve talked to a lot of elderly people who express that very sentiment, with tears in their eyes. A participant in a recent seminar made the point beautifully, sharing the following quote from one of his family members with me: “When the sun shone and the shops were invitingly open—alas—I forgot my shopping. Now the night has fallen—and I remember my shopping.”
    Waking up each morning and asking yourself, “How would I show up today if this day was my last?” is not some cheesy motivational exercise. It’s a profound way to bring some urgency and commitment into your days.
     
     
    I have a gentle challenge for you: Die daily. Connect with your mortality each morning. Then give yourself over to life. Live like tomorrow will not come. Take some risks. Open your heart a little wider. Speak your truth. Show your respect for the gift of life that’s been given to you. Shine brightly today. Chase your dreams. It’s tragic that most people would rather cling to security than reach for their best. And then, wake up tomorrow and reach even higher. At the end, people will remember you as one of the great ones. And your funeral will be a celebration.

43
Client-Focused vs. Out to Lunch
     
    It’s Saturday morning as I write this chapter. I woke up nice and early to get a great start to this gift of a day. I spent an hour journaling, read and had an excellent conversation with my kids. I then set out to have a workout at the health club I exercise at, which opens at 8 a.m. When I arrived, I saw all these people standing in the parking lot. This particular club has a bridge going over a little river that leads from the parking lot to the main building and tennis courts. Yesterday, we had monsoonlike rains and the bridge collapsed. A few of the employees were checking out the damage.
    So I walked up. It was about 7:50 and I was ready for a