Wisdom from "Old Man"

The Old man continued :
"My greatest regret is not listening to myself. I knew I could do great things in my life. I was a very good writer when I was younger; I had even won some literary prizes during my university days. But my mother wanted me to be an accountant. She said that if I didn't listen to her; it would be the mistake of lifetime. Actually, the mistake of my lifetime was not being true to myself and doing what I felt was meant to do. So now- and you should know that the doctors in here tell me that I probably only have a few weeks left- I am so sad at the choice I made. I feel I've wasted my whole life. Eighty-seven years have gone by in a flash. It feels like it was just yesterday that I got married to my bride, Margaret. It feels like just yesterday that I watched my children being born. Now Margaret's dead and my children have gone off to lead lives of their own. Your life will whiz by quicker than you could ever imagine. The days will slip into weeks, the weeks into months and the months into years. You look pretty young now, but watch out- you'll look like me before you know it. Life's like that. So live the life that you are meant to live. Your life is far too important to wait until you are just about to die to wake up. I lived my mother's life when I should have had the wisdom to live my own. I spent my life trying to please others. But where are they now ? On your deathbed, the only person you'll have to answer to is the person you look at in the mirror every morning. You'd better be true to him. I committed the crime of self betrayal. That's what's really going to kill me. Not the cancer ".


(Source :- Extracts taken from one of the Robin Sharma's best-seller novel)