Hi friends,
I had an usual experience last week as I listened to a podcast...
My eyes welled up and I couldn't stop the tears from flowing. 🥺
And that specific podcast led me back to a resounding question I have to keep asking myself - and that I want to ask you as well…
“Are you living like you’re running out of time?”
It’s not a new question or idea for me. I’ve thought about this question A LOT over the last few years.
I do believe the people who have the greatest impact on the world live like they are running out of time.
I watched Kobe Bryant live it out.
It was crystalized for me as immersed myself in the story and lyrics from "Non-Stop" in Hamilton as Lin Manuel Miranda penned Alexander Hamilton’s rise to the top.
And it was hammered home around my Dad’s passing five years ago.
People who know they are running out of time act with urgency.
Often living like that that means going ALL IN - tipping the scales completely in one direction and making every decision to accomplish the outcome they are seeking.
- Kobe the basketball player put everything he had behind becoming the greatest player in the world.
- Hamilton sacrificed everything to succeed as a government leader.
- You can fill in the blank with countless other people impacting the world on big scales. They are putting everything in to make it happen.
I too want to impact the world.
I want to have my life count and have left this place much better than I found it.
That means I want to live like I’m running out of time. But I don’t want to do it like the people who give up everything (and everyone) in order to do it.
I believe living like you’re running out of time is actually filled with nuance.
And the specifics are different for each person individually.
Truly living like you’re running out of time requires discernment and intention - not maniacal abandon completely in one direction.
That’s ultimately what Worthy Wins is about. Pointing our lives towards winning at things that will be what truly matter when the clock of our life runs out.
Because the clock is going to run out. And that’s what had me shedding tears during the podcast last week.
"I've always thought time was short."
I wasn’t very familiar with Ben Sasse until about two weeks ago when I saw an IG reel of him doing a podcast while his face was covered in open sores. 😳 Shortly later, my buddy Paul sent the full podcast link to that interview - and when I finally started to listen, I was a blend of encouraged, devastated, and challenged.
Ben has done some phenomenal things in his life and a list of accolades anyone would be proud of, whether or not you agree with his politics. Amongst other things…
- Ph.D. and Masters Degrees from Yale.
- Undergrad from Harvard.
- Professor at UT Austin.
- President of Midland University.
- US Senator.
- President of University of Florida.
He resigned from his role at UF in 2024 to be able to spend more time with his family.
And then came a Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer diagnosis in December of 2025. No one survives that diagnosis. Doctors gave him 3-4 months to live. (Currently he’s on bonus time and feeling much better physically than he did at the moment of diagnosis… but no one has ever beaten this stage of Pancreatic Cancer…)
The good part for Ben - that aligns with the others I listed above who have had big impacts on the world - is that he’s already been living like he was on the clock. “I will confess that I’ve always felt mortality heavy on my shoulders. I’ve always thought time was short,” he said during the podcast.
In light of his diagnosis, he has been spending time with his family, but he hasn’t only been spending time with his family.
He also started his own podcast, Not Dead Yet, because he wanted to use the time he had left - however much it was - well.
In his words, he wanted to ‘redeem the time.’
Ben is a great example of going all in and knowing his time is running out, and also leaning into the nuance to pursue Worthy Wins - relationships & accomplishments that matter most.
His time is short but he’s not only spending time with his key relationships. He’s also seeking to impact the world for the good.
It’s an ‘and’ circumstance, not an ‘either or’ circumstance.
The nuance of this makes it more difficult than going all in. But it’s critical distinction if we want to win where it’s worthy.
How to deal with the juggle?
So… How do we apply this mindset to our lives as we juggle some combination of the following… working our jobs and leading our teams, fighting for our marriages to stay strong, raising our kids well, and maintaining lifegiving friendships?
First, number our days. Literally and figuratively.
This is not a new idea. It’s something that has long been a challenge of humans.
Psalm 90:12 is an invitation to ask God to help us do this.
“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
It’s so easy to just keep living our days without intention. Like we have infinite time.
Most people reading this have a good chunk of time left - even if you don’t know exactly how much time is on your clock. But as Ben said in the podcast, we are all on the clock. Ben knows his time is going to run out sooner than most of ours, but every other person’s will run out too.
I apply this to my own life in different metrics, but one of the easiest is to just look at the average life expectancy and start there. In the US, the average is 79 years. So, just take your age and divide it by 79 to get a % of how much of your life you’ve lived… it’s humbling.
For me that number is 53%. Could I live past 79? Yes. Could I pass away before then? Also yes.
But that at least gives me a number and helps me to live with awareness that my days will come to a close.
Second, we have to decide what matters most.
Ben said this during the NYT podcast interview…
“We want to think very, very intentionally about our affections. What are your loves? We have to think deeply about rank-ordered loves. I don’t think we do that right now.”
What do I love? And how do I rank-order them?
This is difficult.
And it might sound harsh - but if our time is running out that means we have LIMITED time - and when something is limited you use it for the most important circumstances.
Getting clear on who and what matters most are critical for this. I’ve created an exercise to help myself develop extreme clarity in a very simple way. It’s called the Worthy Wins Who + What Clarity Exercise. It has allowed me to simply and clearly define what’s most important and has helped me make decisions about how I use my limited time, energy, and attention (what I call my TEA).
Over the last few years, I’ve shared this exercise with hundreds of clients and friends to help them do the same in their lives. The feedback has been overwhelmingly consistent:
“This is simple and it helps me get clear about who and what matter most.”
Since you're already subscribed to my email list, you can just go to this link to download it. It’s completely free.
Whether you grab the tool or not, know that I’m rooting for you. I long to see people spend their lives winning at things that really matter.
And I’m super grateful for Ben’s model of this as he runs down the clock of his own life.
I only hope the same can be said of me in the end.
Much love,
JO
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