This is a story about the biggest life lesson I learned.
It was February 7th, 2013.
Vic was standing with this beautiful, tan young woman when I saw him. He had this huge smile on his face and I could see his blue eyes, glinting in the warm San Diego sun. He opened up his arms and he's like "Jake, what's up man?" He was walking out of a restaurant that was next door to a natural food store where I was heading to grab groceries.
I got out of my car and I walked the few hundred feet towards him.
He was standing on the sidewalk right outside of the restaurant.
His voice was filled with excitement.
"Congratulations on your book!"
This was right when my first book came out.
He says, "I can't wait to get a copy. You inspire me so much!"
He was so enthusiastic. His positive energy was so contagious. It made me feel so good that I responded, "Wait here for one second." I ran back over to my car, jogingg through the parking lot and grabbed a book out of my trunk.
I signed it for him.
I wrote, "Dear Vic, with love for what you do in your life and all the beautiful ways you live so fully alive. Jake."
We gave each other a little manly hug. I could just tell by his genuine excitement for the book that he was going to actually read it soon.
Five hours later I got a phone call from one of my best friends, Luke. He says, “Hey man, are you sitting down?”
His voice was heavy.
“Vic just passed away."
He said he was skateboarding without a helmet on.
He hit his head and passed away on impact.
Hours before, I had given him my book, “Into the Wind,” with the message that you can die at any time and thanking him for living such a fully alive life.
A few days later, 350 people showed up for his celebration of life.
I can still see his brother Charlie who I went to high school with. He was my age. Vic was younger.
I could see his tears in his eyes. This was five years ago; it still gives me the chills.
Vic was such a beautiful person and his passing showed us that you really must live your life now and you must live it the way that you want because, sometimes, your life can be over abruptly.
We live with this idea that life can go on forever.
When I saw his mom at the celebration of life, she told me that when she went into his room after he passed away. He had my book open on like page 14 or 15. He went home, read my book, and had passed away later that day.
The average human lifespan is approximately 72, 73 years. That's not very long.
Are you living your life fully?
Are you living it fully for you?
We choose the opinions of others. We choose being accepted by other people. We shrink ourselves. We limit our dreams.
We don't walk as confidently out into the world because we fear the judgment of others. We are hardwired to seek and desire acceptance from others.
In fact, all of human existence, we needed tribes to exist. That's how we lived. The only way we survived was through community and tribes. It's ingrained deeply in our brain to "do the right thing" to preserve our connection to the tribe because the worst thing that could happen was being exiled or excommunicated from the tribe. You could be left on your own and you could die.
Our brains evolve slowly; we havent fully evolved out of that programming. Your brain craves acceptance. You might choose fear, anxiety and acceptance over happiness, freedom and living your dream.
I want to challenge you to something.
Choose your dreams.
Choose love.
Choose freedom.
Think of one way that you might have not been living fully.
Then change it.
I want to challenge you because most people are gambling on the biggest risk of all - that you can buy back the time you sold, the time you wasted.
You can’t.
The biggest life lesson I learned is about life's frailty, about it's beauty, and about the importance of living every single moment to its fullest.
You need to live fully alive NOW.
Live fully.
Live your life in a beautiful and meaningful way today.
Live fully for your love, for your dreams and for freedom.
That's how my friend taught me the biggest life lesson I ever learned: by living his life fully and authentically and squeezing the juice out of every precious moment.
I wish the same for you.
