Sheryl Sandberg gave a knock-out commencement speech at UC Berkeley over the weekend. You can watch or read the full speech through one of those links. It's 25 minutes that will enrich your life and nourish your soul.
In it she shared what she learned from the sudden death of her husband that is now helping her to live as her best self. This included the three p's for building resilience and overcoming hardship; personalization, pervasiveness and permanence and she encouraged us to choose joy when all seems dark.
The part that resonated for me was when she was telling the story of crying with her friend that this time a year ago her husband had 11 days left to live and all the things she would have done differently if she had known that. She committed then to act as if she always only had 11 days to live. To commit to living all days with purpose, meaning, love and joy.
I'm going to try to use it as a helpful reminder for myself. When I get bogged down in things or I have a silly argument with someone, I wonder if I can flip my thoughts on the conversation if I thought that this was part of my last 11 days. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of clarity and focus I can find from that.
Being a Force for Good 