I just got out of the the hospital after having a series of serious heart attacks and was told how rare my chances of survival up to this point was by many doctors and have learned a lot about both myself and what I want out of life from this new perspective.
For those that know me, I'm mostly alright now. Stress and my own family genes were the majority of the cause of everything (which my parents actually kept that vital information from me until after my procedures -.-'' ), peppered with some bad habits like my social smoking, liking of coffee, taste for red meat, and having a high-energy/high-starch diet to get everything that I do in a day done...
Currently, I can't walk but am relearning how to, and I'm permanently disabled now with extreme levels of heart disease (parts of the heart that are dead from either the strain of the attack, being resuscitated, or from the time it took to get my major heart arteries functional again (which was five days, since they had to deal with a small brain hemorrhage and couldn't work on my heart until my brain was taken care since the heart procedures require a large amount of blood thinners)). I also wear a "defibrillator bra" called a "Lifevest" pretty much 24/7, except when I shower, in case I have a dangerous arrhythmia or another heart attack. It's temporary, though, until a more permanent solution is found from my team of doctors over the next few months.
Anyways, I also lost a lot of money from whole ordeal between the expenses and all of the work that I do having suddenly being missed out on in a liquid market economy. I've realized that I don't live for myself enough and that there are many things that I want to do instead of being tied to working (even from home) and being tied to an extremely tight schedule that never let me travel or visit places and people that I wanted to, or spend time with my beloved like I want to, having adventures out in the world and doing considerably more of what we like without being confined to work and other things that tie us down.
So, I learned that I need to consider myself more and not-so-much my plethora or jobs and responsibilities. I also learned that I simply cannot handle tremendous loads of stress anymore (especially now >.< ) and I need to make managing stress and easing my stresses a significantly greater priority.
Have you had a serious encounter with your own mortality that gave you a new view of yourself and/or the world?