Epic Moments

#16 The moment you truly understand how lucky you are to be alive

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EPIC MOMENT #16

I’m going to quote Neil Pasricha on this one, the guy who inspired the epic moments list.

“You used to be a sperm. Check out the period at the end of this sentence. That tiny little dot is around 600 microns wide. When you were a sperm you were about 40 microns wide. You had a great life as a sperm but always felt incomplete. The truth is you weren’t whole until you met an egg. And then you two began a nine month project to make a cool new version of you. It took a while but you grew arms and legs and eyeballs and lungs.

For a sperm to meet an egg it means your mom met your dad. But it’s not just them. Think about how many people had to meet, fall in love, and make love for you to be here. Here’s the answer: A lot. Like a lot a lot.

Before they had you, none of your ancestors drowned in a pond, got strangled by a python, or skied into a tree. None of your ancestors choked on a peach pit, were trampled by buffalo, or got their tie stuck in an assembly line. None of your ancestors was a virgin.

You are the most modern, brightest spark of years and years and years of survivors who all had to meet each other in order to eventually make you.

You’re pretty lucky all those people met, fell in love, made love, had babies, and raised them into other people who did it all over again. This happened over and over and over again for you to be here. Look around the plane, coffee shop, or park right now. Look at your husband snoring in bed, your girlfriend watching TV, or your sister playing in the backyard. You are surrounded by lucky people. They are all the result of long lines of survivors.

So you’re a survivor, too. You’re the latest and greatest. You’re the top of the line. You’re the very best nature has to offer.

But there’s more...

Of the millions of places we’ve ever seen in the universe it appears as though Earth is the only place that can support life. The only place! On this planet Earth, the only one in the giant dark blackness where anything can live, we ended up being humans.

We are the only species on the only life-giving rock capable of love and magic, architecture and agriculture, bicycles and democracy, airplanes and highway lanes. We got surf boards, buffets and roller coaster rides, guitar solos, bubble wrap and blockbuster movies.

We got all that. But we only get a hundred years to enjoy it.  Every single person you know will be dead in a hundred years.  Life is so great that we only get a tiny moment to enjoy everything we see. And that moment is right now.”

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Photo by Francesca Ruberto

#15 Breaking a self-imposed limitation

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EPIC MOMENT #15

I have run into many versions of limitation in my life but they were usually self-imposed.  This is a result of allowing irrational fears and doubt to overthrow my confidence and belief.  I began to change after the first time I heard a well known analogy:  

To keep an elephant in place, handlers use small ropes tied to the ground with tiny sticks.  The elephant can easily break away from the rope but it does not.  That's because when the elephant was younger and smaller the same size rope was used to tie them and, at that age it’s enough to hold them.  They try to escape for a while and eventually give up.  When they are older and stronger they still obey the limitation, even though it no longer exists.

These days instead of accepting that I’m tied down; I’m never afraid to tug on the rope a little.  I often find that my limitations are not real, just a baby-elephant-like conditioning.  

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Photo by Keith Ladzinski

#12 Embracing your inner child

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Epic Moment #12

An important part of being an adult is holding onto your inner child. There was a time when your mind had no limits. Your thoughts were wild and your ideas were always within reach. That childish optimism gets damaged by life’s failures, injuries, disappointments and defeats.  But deep down inside it’s still there, waiting for you to stop being so damn realistic all the time.

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Photo by Damien LeRoyDamien LeRoy

#10 When someday becomes today

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Epic Moment #10

You plan, you cancel, you re-plan, you doubt, you cancel again. The notion that postponing is okay because you got all the time in the world can be dangerous.  It’s a shame that the saying “tomorrow is not promised” has become a cliche because in the process it’s lost its impact. To really internalize that truth is the cure to procrastination. 

Just because it’s raining doesn’t mean you have to take a rain check.

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#9 Reaching the peak of a mountain you struggled to climb

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Epic Moment #9

We all make choices in life which mountains we climb and which we pass up. Once in a while there comes a mountain that might be beyond our physical capabilities but not our psychological strength.

You get hit with a rush of excitement when you make the decision to reach for this potentially unreachable peak. But the feeling doesn’t compare to the moment you’re standing on the summit with your legs shaking uncontrollably knowing that anything is possible.

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#6 Buying a one way plane ticket

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Epic Moment #6

Ever feel like you live on a one-way street that’s also a dead end? 

You’ve contemplated leaving it all behind for a fresh start, a chance to create the life you should have been working towards all along.  Every bone in your body tells you to do it but you just can’t commit. Until one day you realize that you’ll never really be ready and decide to just do it right now.   

You hit that purchase button and all of a sudden the world is full of possibilities.

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Photo by Joana Kruse

#5 Right After You Did Something You Were Terrified Of

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Epic Moment #5

Whether it’s jumping off a cliff, asking someone out or starting a new career; the act of doing something you’re afraid of is invigorating.  

Fear does a great job of creating what appears to be a death gap between where you stand and where you want to be.  If you can muster up the courage to take the leap and allow your cherished desires to be in line with your actions, you’ll be rewarded with an incomparable satisfaction.

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Photo by Noell S. Oszvald

Photo by Noell S. Oszvald



#2 Finding Out That You’re More Capable Than You Thought

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Epic Moment #2 

Once in a while we try doing something that we’re not sure we can pull off.  It’s risky, it’s wild, it’s a bit foolish and the outcome is uncertain.  But something tells us, “I think I got this” and we run with that optimistic notion, well aware that it’s short lived.  

We somehow manage to make it happen and walk away unharmed, holding our heads a little higher than before. There is no better feeling than finding a big chunk of hidden potential.  

Comment below to suggest an epic moment!

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Photo by Stu Gibson