A penny for my thoughts, oh, no, I’ll sell ’em for a dollar
They’re worth so much more after I’m a goner
And maybe then you’ll hear the words I been singin’
Funny when you’re dead how people start listenin’

If I Die Young – The Band Perry

My friend died today. They found his body in a river in Slovania. Cause of death unknown, but irrelevant.

He was a prominent figure in my industry. When news of the event was confirmed the media, the fans, and his colleagues all put out the compulsory sympathetic tweet saying how much they’ll miss him, how good of a person he was, and how touched they were by his kindness.

It’s safe to say those things now.

But how many people had the courage to say it to him when he was alive?

And if he were still alive, most of us would let a year go by without calling him. But, what’s important is that when we’d bump into each other we’d gasp, smile and exchange about how “it’s been so long… I miss you…and  that we need to catch up.”

We never call. I was one of them.

I think it’s not the people that causes such outcry, it’s the reminder, the awareness of the fragility of our existence. One’s death is just the catalyst.

While reading the book The Gift of Imperfection, we came a cross an interesting exercise to understand if your goals and priorities are aligned with what ultimately makes you happy.

First we wrote down the list of things that give us true moments of joy, that make our face smile and give us excitement.

Then we wrote down the goals we are trying to work towards.

The good news is that they pretty much match.

What we need to work on is to make them a constant reality, a routine that sweeps away those bad days wasted running behind things that are not important neither for our happiness nor for reaching our goals.

These are our lists. What makes us happy & what our goals are:

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I watched a hockey game (or any sports game for that matter) for the first time in a long time tonight. It happened to be game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals, double over time.

I forgot how mesmerizing it is to watch it. What these guys can do on ice is more than I could do on foot. Impressive.

Hockey is quite ruthless with scoring, which of course adds to the excitement. One goal and game over. For the LA Kings that meant a Stanley Cup Championship, for the NY Rangers, another chance tomorrow.

Then, fast as lightening, the Kings scored. Blink, and you’d have missed it. Game over.

The announcer surmised the scene best: “complete elation for one team, complete agony for the other.”

I am completely impartial to who wins, but I couldn’t help but feel more sorry for the Rangers than excitement for the Kings.

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