As you read this, I’m standing in a wild trout stream in Central Pennsylvania with a good friend, being guided by Dominic Swentosky of troutbitten.com. In my opinion, one of the greatest fly fishing guides alive.

It’s my birthday. I’m 58.

I’m telling you where I am because I’m doing this in spite of running a business, being a caretaker for my son with special needs, and having just launched a book. None of those things went anywhere this week. They’re all still there. I chose to leave them for a few days anyway.

I’ve written before about constraints. The ones imposed on us, the ones we accept, the ones we mistake for walls when they’re really choices. This trip is a voluntary constraint. I am taking it because it matters. Because I need to do things that fill me up. And fly fishing does that.

What I love about fishing with Dom isn’t just the water or the trout. At his core, he’s an educator. This isn’t a trip to catch fish, though I’m sure we will. It’s a trip to go deeper into a pursuit I love with all my heart, so that every time I fish for the rest of the year, the experience is richer…and reminds me that I am alive.

That’s the part most people skip.

I’m 58 today. I don’t know if I’ll ever be back to fish with Dom. I don’t know if I’ll be in State College again. I don’t know that I’ll make it home this week.

Most people miss that. And it’s the passion underneath everything I’m working on right now.

Because if we stack enough of those days, and we’re fortunate enough to be here five, ten, fifteen, twenty years from now, I’d bet we’ll have less regret than if we’d just done what we were told to do.

I’d like you to do something today that makes you feel alive.

Don’t wait.

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