But, John, you listen to me: you need to fight for it.

The book ‘ON FIRE: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life‘, is written by a person who as a child was burned on 100 percent of his body and spent five months in the hospital, and was barely functioning for another eight months after that. He shares with us his story on how he chose to live a radically inspired life, and as an elder brother and a good friend tells us to fight for a better life.

I remember looking up at her and responding, “I do not want to die. I want to live.”

She answered, “Then, John, you need to fight like you’ve never fought before. You need to take the hand of God, and you need to walk this journey with Him. Race forward with everything you have. Daddy and I will be with you every step of the way. But, John, you listen to me: you need to fight for it.”

You need to fight for it.

ON FIRE: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life, in an autobiography and a self help book. Like other self help books, it is like someone standing and telling you get up, and get on with your life, have a better life. I did it, I came out from the worst, you can do it too. This book has a very genuine approach of helping other people, having a significant impact on people’s lives and not like other shallow self help books.

You see, there is always a chance for redemption.
There is always a chance to rebuild.
There is always a miracle just waiting around the corner.
But you’ve got to open your eyes to see it.
This book is your invitation to start living your life again.
You now have the information.
You know you have the power.
You can choose to hit snooze again; to keep sleepwalking in zombie land.
You can lead a radically inspired life.
And it all starts now.

The book is structured into 7 choices, with supporting stories from author’s life, impact of his family on what he did and how he fought his life battle.

One of my favorite quotes about that comes from Patanjali. He wrote in the second century BC:

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds. Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties, and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.

It’s a marvelous quote. Each word beautiful, every sentence poetic, and all of it true.

He has particularly talked about two authors or books which had an impact on him. Brene Brown’s Daring Greatly, and Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.

He asks us not to let the life come to us but intentionally get better and inspired life.

The fifth choice that you must make to live a radically inspired life is this: refuse to become stagnant by purposefully growing and intentionally stretching in every area of life.

We may not have had a life event like author. We may just be dragging on with our lives. We don’t have to wait for something to happen.

Sadly, we quickly lose that enthusiasm as adults, as our lives become a series of tasks, and we learn to go through the motions, barely noticing what is in front of us. We’re sleepwalking. The great adventure of life mellows.

The author asks us to wake up from slumber, and do something about it. Live in the moment like a child, be on fire with excitement, anticipation and life.