Ric Elias had a front row seat the day Captain Chesley B “Sully” Sullenberger glided his flight down on the Hudson River barely missing the George Washington Bridge in January, 2009.

Every passenger survived their close call with death for which Sullenberger’s cool, calm skills have been rightly acclaimed.

But Elias put into words a wake up call that I want to share with you.

How his close call with death changed his life.

1. Don’t postpone anything in life. Elias said, “I learned that it all changes in an instant … We have this bucket list, we have these things we want to do in life, and I thought about all the people I wanted to reach out to that I didn’t, all the fences I wanted to mend, all the experiences I wanted to have and I never did.”
2. Don’t waste time on things that don’t matter.  Elias said he hasn’t had a fight with his wife in years. Don’t be right. Be happy.
3. Find the most important thing in life.  Being a parent. A friend. Work can rob us of our ability to be friends and spend time on which becomes so important when we believe we are down to our last few seconds of life.

Does it take a near fatal plane crash to know what is really important or can we get to it by thinking about what our priorities would be if we had only a few seconds left and we got a second chance?

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