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As I was waiting between coaching calls today, I clicked on the Spotify playlist my daughter made for me. It’s become a special connection point for us, a bridge between our lives. Kayla and I have always spoken through music. This playlist fills my heart with joy every time I hit play because I know my kid — who’s now a mother and wife — is sharing a part of her heart with me.
Today, a song caught my attention: Starting Line by Luke Hemmings. I had to look up the lyrics, and when I did, these lines hit me hard:
"I wake up every morning with the years ticking byI'm missing all these memories, maybe they were never mineI feel the walls are closin', I'm running out of timeI think I missed the gun at the starting line."
I sat there for a bit, listening on repeat. The song made me pause and reflect — not just on the music, but on life itself. I started asking myself questions I’d never really considered before. I wondered if my fellow Gen Xers ever felt the same way. As each day goes by, I find myself becoming more introspective, more aware of the passage of time.
According to life insurance statistics, I have roughly 7,717 days left on this earth. It’s a number that makes you stop in your tracks. It’s not about fearing the end; it’s about what we do with the time we have left. It made me realize something vital:
I want to live an authentic life.
Do you?
I want to be free from the opinions of others.
Do you?
From the time we’re young, we’re told to be someone else.
Be smarter, like him or her. Be well-behaved, like them. Speak up, quiet down, study this, don’t go there, work harder, take it easy...
It’s a constant push and pull — a script we’re handed that we never asked to follow. We spend so much of our lives doing instead of being. It’s exhausting, like living in a cage. We desperately want to break free.
We crave the freedom to let our true selves shine. To discover who we really are underneath all the expectations and to develop a healthy self-concept. To stop living someone else’s life and start living our own.
But that’s easier said than done, isn’t it?
We often feel stuck, like we’re caged by the fear of what others might think. We become prisoners of others' opinions, afraid to break out and show the world who we really are.
Do you ever feel like a rat in a cage? (Yes, I’m borrowing from The Smashing Pumpkins here.)
If you do, you’re not alone. It’s a struggle that many of us face, especially in midlife when we’re more aware of the clock ticking down. But here’s the truth: It’s never too late to change the script. It’s never too late to start living an authentic life, free from the confines of others' expectations.
Today, I’m choosing to be more intentional with my time, to live authentically, and to embrace the freedom that comes with it.
How about you? Will you take a moment to reflect today? Will you decide to live the life that feels true to you?
Let’s break out of the cage together. One day at a time.
In your corner,
Coach Dane
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