Have you ever had a life changing experience? Something that made you stop and take a long hard look at your life and see if it was going as you planned? I did. I had an experience that changed my life.

I woke up one morning last December to feel my heart pounding incredibly hard and fast. I didn’t know what to do, so I went to the doctor. When he gave me an EKG, the printout resembled a Geiger counter during an earthquake. I was then rushed to Methodist Hospital where they clocked my heart at 192 beats-per-minute (a normal heart beats anywhere from 60 to 80 times a minute).

Needless to say, I was terrified. I didn’t know what was happening, or what was going to happen to me. “Is this it?” I thought. “Am I going to die?” I asked? I started to cry. I couldn’t believe it.

As they were pumping me full of medication to slow my heart, I began to think about all the things I have not done, all the people I haven’t met, and all the places I’ve never been. “So much to do, so much to still be done.” I told myself. “I’m only 26 years old, not yet, not yet...”

Obviously, by me writing this column, I made it through that experience.

What brought it on was a variety of things: stress, the wrong diet, and the fact that my father had a heart attack at age 38. I guess I now have one more thing in common with my dad. I am telling you all of this not for sympathy, but as a warning. Have you taken a look at your life lately? Is it going as you planned?

Look, I’m 26, I have many years ahead of me. But it took this experience to show that to me. Since my “heart attack,” I have totally changed my life. I have tied up many loose ends that have been lingering in my life for some time. If our lives were a library, and each event in our lives were a book, I’m sure there are some “books” that remain open, due to a lack of closure. So I looked at all of my open “books,” and closed them. (I suggest you do the same). I have also made some great new friends, redecorated my apartment and, most importantly, gotten rid of most of the things in my life that caused me stress.

If I can offer you any advice, it is this: if today is the first day of the rest of your life, don’t wait until the eleventh hour to look at your life and realize there is so much you have left to do – just do it. Remember, not many of us get a second chance. I did, and I’m not putting it to waste.

It’s your life, make the best of it...I plan to.