I lost my mum to cancer in 2019, and it is one of the hardest things I have had to deal with. She gave me two vital gifts before she left: the gift of life and the paradigm shift of living like every day could be your last. Mum was healthy before the diagnosis and was gone in less than ten months. Losing my mum at 55 was tough, as she was on the verge of reaping from the seeds she had sown in her children, business and life in general. Since losing her in 2019, I have had a different outlook on life, and as a result I strive to make every day a masterpiece. As the saying goes, yesterday is history; tomorrow is a mystery; today is a gift; that is why it is called the present.

My mum used to say, “We might think our life would be short and it would be long; we might think it would be long and it would be short.” This was one of her favourite sayings, and at the time, I did not understand that statement, but now I do. It can be tough living in the moment as many things are fighting for our attention, such as work, recreation, and living up to our responsibilities. The challenge for most of us is that we delay living our lives and constantly live in tomorrow. We say things like someday I will start a business when I have enough money, go on vacation when the kids leave the house, someday I will write a book when I have read enough books, and I am more established. We live an “If then” life – if this happens, I will do that. We don’t have convictions; hence we vacillate from one idea to another.