Well, this week’s famous personal development quote has a fair degree of sentiment attached to it as far as I am concerned.

Todays quote is one that no-one seems to be able to trace back to a particular source. I first heard it when I was in my early 20s, spoken by Zig Ziglar himself. It really resonated with me back then, and still does today.

“Life is not about the number of breaths you take… But by the moments that take your breath away.”

During my own wedding speech, I actually mentioned this quote.  I stated that my wedding day had given me many more of those moments that had taken my breath away. It really had, it was one of the few quotes that I felt summed up how I felt when I got married. Today, Katie and I have a wooden carving with this etched and painted into the side that sits on our mantelpiece as it means a great deal to us.

For me, this quote offers up a way to live life. For me, it is about seeking out the beauty of life and seeing it right in front of you. Every time I run along the sea front, I am in awe of it and I appreciate the moments I have to myself, at one with my body and the coastline that is such an important part of my life.

It is also those moments that remind you of why you invested time and effort… Yes, I could once again be referring to those moments when I have crossed the line at a marathon, highly emotional and tired, but elated with my achievement. But also, I am referring to moments like those I experienced while on my hypnotherapy diploma course last weekend. I had a quiet moment sat a table watching people dancing, celebrating, enjoying each others company, with friends made on the course, and I got to enjoy watching the beauty of those united in fun, who will now go on to be friends, and do good in the world as a result of their investment of time and energy in each other.

It is those moments when I put my book down in bed and start to drift to sleep, knowing that I was productive that day, I contributed some good to the world with my therapeutic work and that sense of satisfaction and peace of mind I get from that.

It is sharing a moment of laughter, a joke, some childish banter, something quite unnecessary or whatever it may be where for a moment or two, your smile and joy was shared with another person.

Man oh man, those are the moments that make me feel alive….

It is also about making an effort to make our experience of life richer and fuller and not just putting up with life in a passive manner. It is doing what we can to ensure we have lots of those moments. Being responsible for our own experience of life. Perhaps for some it is just being able to notice more of what they experience as being a moment of joy or beauty or one that can take our breath away. For others, maybe it is just filtering away some of the other stuff and focusing on those great moments in hindsight.

Though for so many, life wraps us up in distraction, discomfort, disillusion and so many other depressing words, that life can sometimes indeed become about treading water. Staying alive. Thus it gets measured by the number of breaths we take.

For those that are poorly or very ill, I understand that sometimes life can be about simply wanting to be alive. Fore them though, each moment gets a vast amount of value. Yet I encounter some people that truly inspire and love and find joy and happiness against some of the most incredible adversity – it is those moments that we can get ourselves focused upon.

When babies are growing up, how we celebrate the simplest of moments that we got to share and see happening. How as younger people, our naivety brings a sense of awe as we see new colours and experience facets of life for the first time, with a freshness.

Seeing life through those eyes again is also what this quote represents for me. I hope it resonates well with you too… More importantly, I hope it inspires you.