The Wake-up Calls of Life

It was 1969. Israel and Egypt were at war, and a young Israeli officer named Jack Lehav was assigned to serve at the Suez Canal. There was one day of fighting Lehav will never forget.

"We were shooting at each other in an absolutely crazy battle. All that separated us from the Egyptians was 200 to 250 yards of water. You could look through a periscope from the bunkers and see into the canal. All of a sudden, I saw two huge whales, calmly swimming. I said to my guys, 'Stop shooting.' And apparently the Egyptians did the same, because the shooting stopped.

"All of us raised our heads and looked into the water. For 10 minutes, everybody stopped what they were doing, which was fighting and killing and shooting and bombing, and watched this miracle of nature going by. I thought, 'Look what two whales can do to two nations!'

"As the whales headed south and disappeared from view, we slowly headed back to the bunkers. A very good friend of mine, another young officer, stood out there and kept on looking. I screamed to him, 'Get down!' but I was too late. Within a tenth of a second, which is all it takes in a war, a bullet went through his head and he was dead.

"Something very strong happens to you in life at that moment. In wartime you make close friendships with people, then in one second a close friend is in your arms and he's dead. I realized we all come to this planet for a short visit. It could be 10, 20 years, or 80 or 100. And you get a chance to contribute, to do, to set yourself goals, and you never know when it could end. It could end for you tomorrow.

"I realized then and there, 'Hey, mister, you have a chance. You don't know what this chance is like. Go and get the most out of it.'"

There are moments in life that are so shocking, that make such an impact that they make us realize just how vulnerable we are. They make us want to 'get the most' out of whatever time we have, to set goals, and to accomplish them. They are the wake-up calls of life.

The good news is that we don't have to wait for a life-changing incident to set goals for ourselves. Sometimes we need reminders, like Jack Lehav's story. We need an emotional kick to jump-start our resolve and commitment—a neon sign that says, "Life is precious; don't waste the time you've got." We need to invest as much as we can in life so that we can get the most out of it. That's what goals are all about. They're about setting a course and remaining true to it, not stopping when things be-come too difficult or too easy. They're about pushing on in the face of adversity and constantly reminding ourselves of the basic elements of life: who we are, what we're here for, and whom we can serve.

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.

—Friedrich Nietzsche,
German philosopher