Article: However cliche this statement may be, it holds some truth. Living with the idea that your time is limited can motivate you to accomplish your goals and cultivate gratitude for the beauty in life. Adopting this attitude can also give you insight into the things that are important to you. Ask yourself, "If I only had one year left, what would I want to accomplish?" Develop a personal mission statement that works according to your values. Stating who you are to the worldand to yourselfis one of the first steps to finding inner peace and happiness, which will likely make you want to keep going. You can take this one step further by completing an online inventory to determine your core values. Such assessments, like the one from the Barrett Values Centre, are designed to help you get a better sense of the variables driving your goals and decision-making. Ask yourself, "How do I want to be remembered? Am I doing the work I want to be remembered by?" The answer to these questions will probably lead you to knowing what your life's work. Once you know this, you can take the necessary steps to get yourself there, which can ultimately give you a goal and something to work on. Don't mistake your life's work for work in general. Your job or occupation does not necessarily have to be your life's work. This is the work that allows you to share your talents, strengths, and experiences with others to improve the world around you. For some, parenting may be their life's work. For others, it may be starting a business or encouraging other's to start a business. It really depends on you. You can discover your life's work by paying attention to the things you are naturally good at, the things you absolutely enjoy doing. What can't you go without doing? Thinking about such activities can help you discover your life's work and give you a reason to go on. Adjust your expectations for life. Putting too much pressure on yourself is a sure way to not only experience failure, but to make you feel bad about yourself. It's OK if you have to scale back on your daily goals; doing so doesn't mean that you won't reach your ultimate goals. You'll just find a more realistic way to get there. Start by defining smart goals. That is, those that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. For instance, you might say "I want to go back to school." You will need to come up with a way to measure you progress towards this goal, determine if it is attainable and realistic for you, and set a deadline for reaching it.

What is a summary?
Live like there is no tomorrow. Define your personal values. Make sure you are doing your life's work. Set realistic goals and move toward them daily.