Ultimate New Year's Resolution

Happy 2012 from us, now resolve to be you!

If you were to die, who or what would you want to come back as?

This is the question Barbara Walters posed Barack and Michelle Obama the morning of December 23, 2011 on ABC's Good Morning America. I was in the lobby of a Marriott TownPlace Inn & Suites in Erie, PA preparing a complimentary waffle for my three year old son when I heard the question.

Michelle answered she would want to come back as their family dog Bo, which I could relate to having grown up in a dog family.

One little thing I noticed was that prior to answering Barbara's question, Michelle prefaced her answer with "Oh, God Barbara" which, coupled with her body language, I interpreted as she didn't want to think about passing on to another life.

Barbara assured the First Lady that "it was going to happen" after which Michelle gave her answer. I tuned out the rest of the broadcast as my son and I buttered and syruped our waffles prior to finishing the 12 hour drive back to my wife's hometown in northern New York.

And if long road trips are good for one thing... It's thinking.

As the miles past on the New York thruway I thought about the difference between my answer to Barbara's question on April 8, 2010 (the day before my cancer diagnosis) versus today as I live my life in remission.

Prior to my cancer journey I would have had a similar answer to Michelle, but more along the lines of coming back as a successful professional golfer. However, as my fellow cancer brethren can attest, when faced with the reality of a cancer diagnosis and an uncertain immediate future, all you want is more time as one person:

Yourself.

Not a dog, PGA Tour golfer, American Idol winner, or whatever you fancy.

Until we are forced to face the prospect of death square in the eyes we often lose sight of how fortunate we are to live our own lives despite our daily challenges. Which is why I am confident in saying that we all should spend more time improving our own lives instead of dreaming about how good things would be if we were someone or something else.

My New Year's resolution last year was to reduce the amount of time I spent in drive thrus for the environment's sake. Thanks to Barbara Walter's interchange with the First Lady, I've realized my resolution for 2012 will be to enjoy my life to the fullest and do what's right for me.

So the next time someone asks me what I would want to come back as if I were to die there would be no hesitation:

Myself.

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I hope that over the past 12 months of blogging on Lift Living I have inspired you to begin living your life in line with your True Self. I certainly have learned a lot about myself and will continue to share lessons I am learning along the way as I seek to Lift my (and your) life to a higher level of fulfillment.