From the book:

“Be brutally honest with yourself. Your time on earth is limited. Shouldn’t you start making the most of it? If you knew you had one month to live, you would look at everything from a different perspective. Many of the things you do now that seem so important would immediately become meaningless. You would have total clarity about what matters most, and you wouldn’t hesitate to be spontaneous and risk your heart. You wouldn’t wait until tomorrow to do what you need to do today. The way you lived that month would be the way you wished you had lived your whole life.

If you knew you had one month to live, your life would be radically transformed. But why do we wait until we’re diagnosed with cancer or we lose a loved one to accept this knowledge and allow it to free us? Don’t we want all that life has to offer? Don’t we want to fulfill the purpose for which we were created? Wouldn’t life be a lot more satisfying if we lived this way?

I’m challenging you to start living your life as though you have one month to live, and I’ve designed this book to help you. There are four universal principles in the one-month-to-live lifestyle: to live passionately, to love completely, to learn humbly, and to leave boldly. I’ve divided this book into four sections or “weeks” accordingly, and I encourage you to live these next thirty days as if they were your last.”

I find this book to be fascinating, thought-provoking and inspiring. Happy reading! What will you do with your one month?

Forgiveness must start with one’s self. To forgive our self does not mean that we pardon or excuse everything we have done. It means that we take responsibility for it. We acknowledge it inside and to others if necessary. We accept that we were wrong and we move on.

Many times when we recognize that we are in the wrong, we slide into our self-absorption, becoming so wrapped up in self-flagellation and berating ourselves that we never quite attain a point of forgiveness. To forgive we have to release the recriminations and keep moving ahead. If we do not know how to do that with ourselves, we will never be able to forgive others.

Looking back and regretting are much different than examining, making amends, and moving on. When we constantly revisit our past and regret, we are indulging in the self-centered activity of beating up on ourselves over the mistakes in our past.

All of us have made errors in judgment and taken missteps. When we have operated out of the haze of guilt and under the illusion of perfection, we have done much harm to ourselves and others. We cannot build a life on guilt, shame and regret. We indeed can only wallow in them!

If you need to make amends, then by all means do so. You and the other party will both benefit. Be sincere and heartfelt, but do not slip into blame and self flagellation – that does not help anybody.