Hey friends, in today’s episode, I’m diving into something a friend asked me: What will your story say? We all have that “dash” between the day we’re born and the day we die—that little mark that holds our life in between. It's easy to brush that off as something we’ll get to later, but when you really stop and think, it’s powerful. That dash is everything. It’s the moments we show up when we don’t want to, the days we push through when we feel lost, and the times we make choices that we know will shape us, even if we don’t see it right away. So today, I challenge you to consider: What will your highlight reel look like? Imagine it as the story you’re writing right now, every choice and every action adding to it. Our lives are just one flicker in a galaxy of stars, as Frankl might put it, but that flicker is uniquely ours. No one else controls it. You decide what your story will mean, what you want your dash to stand for. Let’s talk about making that dash count. - Eddie
Chapter 1: What does your dash represent?
When it's all said and done, what will your story say? A friend of mine, Justin Prince, once asked me what my dash represented. And I thought, dash? He said, yeah, dash. If you think about someday down the road, inevitably, when we all die, there will be on our gravestone or tombstone the date we were born, a dash,
and the date we died, making that dash symbolic of everything, the little line that represents it all. And so when the sun is setting on your lifetime and you've breathed your last breath and you've enjoyed your last sip of coffee and you've smiled for the last time and all that remains are the people that you've touched and what you've built along the way, what will that dash represent?
And I hope you'll join me in asking yourself that question, like truly thinking about it. No, not just when it's easy to, not when things are firing on all cylinders. I'm wondering, Will you think about it on the days you've hit that snooze button three times and you're wondering to yourself, does any of this even matter?
Chapter 2: How can we reflect on our life's meaning?
I'm wondering, will you think about it when you feel lost or feel that the hope in your life seems camouflaged? I'm wondering, will you think about it when you've let yourself down, or feel like you've let those around you down, or maybe when others have let you down. There's a lot we can control, but that dash, I need you to hold that. I need you to know that
Chapter 3: Why is the concept of the dash so impactful?
as Viktor Frankl alluded to in a slightly different context, that is the one thing that cannot be taken away. See the dash, at least for me, it makes it crystal clear how short our time is. And I don't know why it's so effective. Why of all things, it's the dash that connects. The idea that your life in terms of time is a grain of sand on the beach. It's a raindrop in a thunderstorm.
Chapter 4: What does Viktor Frankl teach us about life?
It's a single flicker of light in an infinite galaxy of stars. I think about that and it's like, don't you get it? You're here and you shouldn't be. None of us should. Too many things had to be perfect. Too many things had to be just right. An impossible number of variables had to align. And they did. They did in order to gift you that dash.
Chapter 5: How do we find courage in difficult times?
And that doesn't mean we can't sit down and relax every once in a while. My point isn't, hey, never sleep in or that you shouldn't be human. I'm coming from a different place. I'm speaking as someone who seemingly always finds the difficulty or trouble or obstacle first. I'm wired to see what's wrong. You know, I've talked about it countless times over the years.
I'm wired to protect and preserve. And I have my moments of courage. I wouldn't be here if I didn't. But my God, if you knew how hard I had to fight to be courageous when I most needed to be, I think you'd be surprised. But what keeps me fighting, the more I come to understand, is that simple line. I cannot let go of the dash. See, if we were here forever, then it's like, I get it. Go slow.
It's safer that way. Less chance of falling down. Follow your curiosity later. It will always be there. And there will be, at some point down the road, a better time. Why not wait for the better time? Forever will present one. But that's not how it works. And you start to think, oh, sure, that song is going to keep playing. And it might play forever, but me, I only get a few notes.
And this march through time is endless. Yeah, but I only get a few steps. And so you start to ask yourself, why wouldn't you make sure? Like, damn sure. Why wouldn't you be positive with everything you had that those notes echoed into eternity? And those footsteps took you to the places you most wanted to be. That dash, it symbolizes all that your life can become.
So when you need it most, use it. Close your eyes and imagine the highlight reel of your life. and ask, did I spend that snapshot of time with the people that I loved most? Did I laugh? Did I follow my curiosity? Did I do the things that lit me up? Did I chase down the meaningful, cut off the trivial, invite in the beautiful? In this snapshot, there is a world of possibility.
It's your reason to push. Because the reality around you now doesn't have to be the one that exists when all is said and done, when the dash is carved into stone. Today is not the end. Today is not permanent. Today is where you begin the journey of recreating what that line will represent. In the times in my life where I've found myself at my lowest, Do you know what saved me?
It's never been the acquisition of something new. It's never been money or resources or even people. It was hope. It was belief that tomorrow can be different from today. And I can't control everything, but I can control that. I get to decide what that dash means. And that has always been enough to close one chapter and start a new.
So if you're questioning the road, if you're asking yourself why, it's because you are blazing a trail that's currently unmapped. You're designing something that doesn't exist. So understand that not knowing isn't a bug, it's a feature. You're designing something that you'll be able to smile about when you look back down over your life.
And for those looking at the ceiling now, hitting the snooze button now, wondering why, and trust me, I've been there, it gets better. And it will get better because you will make it so. You didn't come this far to let it slip away. You weren't put here to mail it all in. There is outside your front door everything you need to live a life that excites you. Just decide to go get it.
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