Imagine you’re in a race with 500 million other people. It’s cold, dark and damp. Everybody is pushing and shoving to get ahead. Men and women of different ages are running next to you, struggling to get to the finish line first. The rules of the game are simple: the winner gets to live, everyone else dies. No exceptions.
Could you win such a race?
Look deep inside yourself and give me an honest answer. Do you have what it takes to beat the odds of 1 in 500.000.000? Take a minute and think about it.
What’s that you’re saying? You’re not sure? Maybe? Well, I’ve got news for you:
You’ve already won!
The race I just described took place quite a few years ago. About 500 million other cells were racing for a chance to live. And the fact that you’re reading these lines right now means you won.
There were millions of other possibilities. The race could have ended in a myriad of ways and everything — your family, your friends, and the world around you — would have been different. But it didn’t.
You’re here and that’s all that matters. You beat the odds and came out on top. You’re the only one who got a chance to do something in this life.
So make sure you use it.
Think of this next time your alarm clock goes off and you want to hit snooze. Think of it when you’re feeling down and not in the mood to get out of bed. Remember: you got the chance of 1 in 500 million. The only chance. And that makes you special.
So go out there and do something special.
PS: we’ve all learned about the beginnings of life in school. But life went on and we forgot. I’ve even studied all the stages and mechanisms of embryonic evolution and still forgot all about it. Until recently. Thanks to my loving wife, I now think about it every day. And I can’t wait to hold the little person that won this fight and welcome her into this world.