It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to be a part of your confrences and to deliver a keynote address to your groups.  I thoroughly enjoyed the discussions I had with many of you following my presentations.

I want to take this opportunity to suggest that you sign up for my Fearless, Focused Friday emails.

Also, please have a look at my other website: Choose The Life You Want.

Don’t forget to have a look at my other site: Choose The Life You Want. The work I’m doing there is really the next step in the evolution of The Power Of Mortality.

“I was stuck in this job, feeling like I was just on a treadmill of having to earn enough money so that I could afford to buy the house that was near enough to my job. It was just like this crazy cycle. On Sunday nights, me and my husband would be just grumpy and unhappy about having to go back to work. And I’d think, you know, we don’t have to do this. … I felt like I wasn’t being true to myself.”

Could that quote be from you?

It’s actually from a woman named Roz Savage who decided that she’d had enough of the “perfect life” – husband, corporate career, big house, little red sports car.  She decided to give it all up and row solo across the Atlantic.

While I don’t share her vision of rowing single-handedly across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in a 23-foot carbon-hulled rowboat – I absolutely LOVE her resolve in deciding to choose the life she wanted.

And how did she come to this life-changing conclusion?  She wrote two obituaries for herself. (A woman after my own heart!)  The first obituary was based on a life that continued along the path of the “perfect life”.  The second was based on a life of following her dreams.

While I haven’t read her book yet – I encourage you to read this interview that Roz did with the Globe & Mail newspaper: “Goodbye husband and career, hello high seas”

This article came to my attention via a Twitter post from my friend Bill Star. Bill is the CEO of My Life List™ which is a fantastic, free online community dedicated to helping each of us to design a “life list” that really matters.

So,  back to my original question: “Could the quote at the top be from you?”  Do you feel like you aren’t being true to yourself? Here’s how to get started on choosing the life you want:

1. Download and sign my free Mortality Manifesto Pledge.

2. Like Roz, write your own obituaries. One for the life that continues with the status quo and one for the life you would love to be living.

3. Sign up with My Life List™ and start creating and designing your new life step by step. There’s a wonderful community there to support you so you won’t feel like you’re alone on the Atlantic. (Unless that’s what you want to do!  In that case – talk to Roz!)

4. Come back here and share what amazing things you’re up to!

CONNECTING

Roz Savage – Twitter: @rozsavage Blog: http://rozsavage.com/blog/

Bill Star – Twitter: @mylifelist Blog: http://mylifelistceo.blogspot.com/

Ok, so that isn’t really MY barcode logo, but it is a screenshot of today’s Google homepage. Special thanks to my friend Alison in Australia for alerting me to this yesterday, when it was already today over there. (Did you follow that?) It seems that October 7, 2009 marks the 57th anniversary of the date that the barcode was patented.

So what better opportunity to address the three major questions I get about my barcode?

1. Do you really have a barcode tattooed on your arm?

Yes I actually have that tattoo on my arm.  No, it’s not a photoshop trick for the cover of my book.  It’s real.

2. What is the significance of tattooing a barcode on your arm?

If you are familiar with my story, you will know that I was born with a heart that was made completely “wrong”. At the age of 18, I was told by a leading cardiologist that medical science “hoped” that I would survive to see the age of 30.  As you can imagine, it took me a long time to come to terms with that news, but ultimately I decided that this was the best thing that anyone could have ever told me – and the Power of Mortality™ was born!

Shortly afterwards, I took the numerals of my 30th birthday (031800 – for March 18, 2000), the date that I referred to as my expiry date, and converted them into a barcode that I had tattooed on my shoulder.

3. You got the tattoo as a marketing gimmick, didn’t you?  You read a book that talked about developing a “brand” for yourself and took it literally, right?

Nope.  I got the tattoo long before I realized that my story and my message of the Power of Mortality™ could be useful to others.  I got the tattoo strictly for myself!  The idea was that I would see it in the shower every morning and it would serve as a reminder of the fact that I was lucky to have woken up that day – no one “owed” me another day on earth.  When I see that barcode each morning it inspires me to do something powerful with the gift of another day alive.

So how does this apply to YOU?

I dream of one day having a team of tattoo artists at set up at the back of the auditorium where I’m giving a speech or a seminar, with a huge lineup of people waiting to get their own barcode tattoo.  Somehow though, I think the paperwork involved with the necessary release forms would be too much to handle!

Instead, at my live events, I hand out a barcode card that represents the date of the presentation.  I challenge my audience to accept the fact that no one owes them another day of life and to agree that the very last day of their live will be that day. Then, if they wake up the following day – they are living with the Power of Mortality™!!  And how much different will your life be when you realize that you are living on “bonus time”?

But you don’t have to wait until you can get out to see me at one of my live events – you can get started right now by taking the Mortality Manifesto Pledge.

ENJOY NOW!

• Talking on cell phones (WITHOUT headsets!)
• Eating (and not just nibbling – I mean hamburgers)
• Very aggressive driving (like they were trying to protect their pole position in an F1 race)
• Heated arguments with someone in the passenger seat
• Putting on lipstick by looking in the rear-view mirror.
• ALL AT 75 MPH!

It was crazy!

I kept asking myself: “What are they thinking? Do they think they’re invincible? Or maybe they have a death-wish? What is it that would make someone drive like that?”

Later I realized that those drivers have simply lost their respect for how powerful and dangerous automobiles can be.

Remember when you were first learning to drive? You would finally get the car back safely into the driveway and then realize you’d been holding your breath the entire time and your hands were welded to the steering wheel in the “10 and 2″ position. Driving was new to you and you realized that those keys bring a great deal of responsibility.

But something happened, didn’t it?

Maybe it was the 100th time that you put the car back safely into the driveway, maybe the 200th time, but somewhere along the way, you started taking it for granted that you were a “good driver” and little by little, your respect for the road and the machine began to wane. Nothing bad was going to happen to you.

IF YOU’RE LUCKY – the wake-up call for you will come in the form of having your driver’s license suspended, or some other “warning”. If you’re not lucky, the consequences could be much more dire.

But that problem isn’t just limited to our experience with the automobile, is it?

When we are first born we are given the “keys” to this fantastic body of ours. If you’ve ever watched a baby take its first steps, you will know that the look on the child’s face is even more intense than their expression when they back Dad’s car out of the driveway for the first time.

When we are young we have a tremendous amount of respect for life and we live every second of it. We live life one cheerio at a time.

But something happens, doesn’t it?

Maybe it was the 2,000th time you woke up, maybe the 5,000th time, but somewhere along the way, you started taking it for granted that you were going to always wake up and little by little, your respect for the privilege of being alive began to erode. Nothing bad was going to happen to you.

Well, I’m here today to tell you that I’m hereby SUSPENDING your license to live!

That’s right!

I’ll give it back to you if you PROMISE (not to me – to yourself!) that you will work to recapture that same awe and wonder for each new morning and you will go to bed each night filled with gratitude.

Do you promise? Really?  Good – now please sign this – your life depends on it!

No need to thank me – just doin’ my job!

Subscribe

On April 3 I promised to tell you some big news on April 15th. Well, sometimes things take longer than expected. Now I can finally let you in on the news!

First, the background… In the fall, I started working with a Speaker’s Bureau. After we had been working together for a while, Cathleen (the woman who runs Speaker’s Gold) introduced me to another speaker of hers because she felt that we ought to know one another, since our messages are so complimentary.

The gentleman’s name is Derrick Sweet and we hit it off right away. We had lunch to discuss the possibility of doing a joint speaking event. As lunch continued, we found ourselves more and more amazed at how well we got along and at how our messages and our styles meshed so well. Derrick told me that in addition to being a professional keynote speaker, he was also the Founder and Chairman of an international training and development company. (Naturally, I already knew this because I had done my research before our lunch meeting) The company is called Healthy Wealthy and Wise and its mission statement is: “To provide leading edge training and development programs in the areas of coaching, sales training, public speaking, and self-improvement. To empower our clients with new and innovative tools, skills and resources which enable them to reach their full potential.”

Derrick told me that he felt that my skills and my style would make me a perfect fit for the Healthy Wealthy and Wise team and asked me to consider accepting a position with them. I was excited at the prospect, because I felt that the HWW offering would be an excellent compliment to my role as a motivational speaker and author. Initially, I made the decision to become involved with the Certified Coaches Federation, which is the coaching division of HWW. In February, I became a Certified Coach Practitioner™. I was so impressed with the powerful program developed by the Certified Coaches Federation, and I was so blown away with the phenomenal reactions from fellow attendees, I decided that I needed to incorporate this into my own offerings. In April, I became a Certified Master Coach.

Since I had a 10-year career in sales, I was very interested to learn about HWW’s Sales Mastery program. Also, since I entered my first public speaking competition in the seventh grade and since I’ve been a professional motivational speaker for the past five years, I was also very interested in HWW’s Speech Mastery program.

Derrick and I continued to discuss opportunities and I’m pleased to announce that I am now a Senior Vice President with Healthy Wealthy and Wise! I am excited about this for two main reasons:

1. I truly believe in what Healthy Wealthy and Wise does and the value that it offers to its clients.

In the past, I have worked with more than my fair share of companies who’s vision didn’t match mine. I chose to work with them because I felt, “well, sometimes you have to compromise to put food on the table, and work is work.” Does that sound familiar to any of you? Well, you can only tell yourself that for so long before the disconnection between what you do and what you should do gets to be too much. I am so happy to be working with a company that has the same ideals and goals as I do!

2. It doesn’t require me to compromise my own message or mission, in fact, it compliments it beautifully!

For a number of years, I wore two distinctly different hats. On the one hand, I was a motivational speaker and author. On the other hand, I was a corporate sales person in the field of IT security. This split-personality situation was the cause of a great deal of personal anxiety for me. In 2003, when I decided to start my career as a professional motivational speaker, I wasn’t financially ready to leave my career in sales. So I did both. (Again, does any of this sound familiar to you?) And I told myself, that I would only continue with the IT world, until I was in a financial position to leave it behind. The problem was that my heart just wasn’t in the world of IT any more. After I would complete a corporate security sale, no one ever came up to me and told me how much better their lives were as a result of the product that I had sold them. But that is where my money was coming from. So I stayed. The next thing I knew, it was four years later and I was no closer to being financially ready to leave my career in IT sales.

And that’s when the Universe introduced me to Healthy Wealthy and Wise! And as Bogart said at the end of Casablanca… “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

To learn more about my work with Healthy Wealthy and Wise, including the Certified Coaches Federation, the Sales Mastery Course and the Speech Mastery Course – please visit http://www.Mathieu.com/

ENJOY NOW!

I see it as yet another opportunity to connect with anyone who has:

• attended one of my presentations or seminars (or just wanted to)
• seen me on TV (or YouTube) or heard me on radio
• read my book

I’ve added a link to the left-hand navigation bar of my blog so that you can reach my profile on Facebook. So feel free to add me as a friend.

I found an interesting FB application called Testimonials, so if you have something nice to say…

For many people, the holiday season is something
that must be endured, not enjoyed. For them, the
focus of holidays has changed to become all about the three “P”s:

• Planning
• Preparing
• and Paying for it all!

Today, I just want to give you a quick reminder: please ensure that you spend at least as much time enjoying the holidays as you do planning and preparing for them.

And the best way to do that, is to keep focused on the present moment and enjoy the natural ups and downs of the process. It’s not all about one day, one meal or one big gift. It is about being constantly present throughout the process!