I’m choosing to assume this quote by Rudy Francisco gives you the same flutter in your stomach that it does for me: “The human heart beats approximately 4,000 times per hour and each pulse, each throb, each palpitation is a trophy engraved with the words ‘you are still alive.’ You are still alive. Act like it.”

Marvel at the miracle of your life—how your heart has been thumping at 35 million beats a year and will continue to do so until you keel over. (I’m at 1.71 billion so far, and with a mom who died prematurely of a bad ticker, I’m grateful for every 100,000-ish beats my heart agrees to eke out each day.)

You are here—despite all the bullshit you’ve surely forged your way through in your spectacle of a lifetime so far—and isn’t it fabulous to still have a pulse?

We are fortunate to be alive, with all of our potential years ripe and ready, like a red carpet waiting to be rolled out in front of us. Let’s do this life justice. Let’s live like we have something to lose.

(Yes! This was an excerpt from page 50 in my book, You Only Die Once: How to Make It to the End with No Regrets.)

I was going to save this post for National Heart Month in February, but in the spirit of Doing Things Now, waiting simply wasn’t an option. You &/or I might be dead by then! (It’s possible, but fortunately improbable.)

I encourage you to check your pulse regularly—not just at your annual physical or your Orange Theory class. This isn’t about checking the actual heartrate to see how fit you are (or aren’t), it’s about tuning into the work your heart is doing for you. Feel it, notice it, appreciate it. It’s an emblem that you get to be here, you get to be alive, you get to make a choice today to savor rather than squander your next few Mondays… or at least the next few hours.