I Used the Wrong Word Yesterday
By Peter J. Merrick, TEP® and Adrian C. Spitters, CFP®, co-authors of the international bestseller It Starts With Gold™ and the forthcoming book Guns, Gold & Land™
This analysis continues a series of long-form investigations published in The Merrick Spitters Reset Report™
By Peter J. Merrick, co-author of the #1 International Bestseller It Starts With Gold
Yesterday, I called myself intense. That was not the right word. The word I should have used was significant.
These past six years have not just been different. They have reshaped me. Before 2019, I lived as though time were endless. I spent it carelessly. I believed I could always earn more of it, reclaim it, rewind it. I now know that was never true.
There were moments I almost did not make it. Blood transfusions. Emergency surgery. A body failing me when I least expected it. Then came the silence of the lockdowns, the stillness after my marriage ended, the haunting ache of losing friends who are no longer here. These were not events. These were awakenings.
I now see how much I once wasted. I will not do that again.
So when I said I was intense, what I meant was that I live with a demand for significance. I want my time to mean something. I want the moments I give and receive to carry weight. I want to feel my life, not coast through it.
I am not trying to change anyone. I do not need others to believe what I believe. I do not need agreement. I need presence. I need awareness. I need connection that is rooted in truth, not convenience.
That is not intensity. That is a refusal to pretend.
When I am in a room with individuals who have not reached this same understanding, who are still keeping their lives small out of fear, I can come across as overwhelming. I see it in their eyes. The way they shrink back when confronted with someone who refuses to live numb. What they feel is not judgment. It is the echo of their own longing. It is a whisper that says they want more, even if they are not ready to admit it.
I will not apologize for needing my life to be significant. I do not seek to impress. I seek to feel. To grow. To move through this world with my eyes wide open. I will not waste what is left of my time pretending that sleepwalking through life is enough.
When I write, when I speak, when I sit across from someone, I want the moment to matter. I want to leave rooms knowing something real passed between us. Even if it was brief. Even if it was quiet. Even if it was hard.
Not everyone will walk this path. Some turn away because the cost feels too high. That is not my business. I do not chase or convince. I accept. I release. I move forward. The ones who walk with me now are the ones who have seen their own reflection and did not look away.
The word is not intense…
The word is significant!
And that is what I now require of my life!
Join the growing movement of international readers who are waking up to what is coming next.
📘 Order your copy of the #1 International Bestseller It Starts With Gold on Amazon today. Discover why so many have said this book gave them the clarity, confidence, and courage to act.
📘 It Starts With Gold: The #1 International Bestseller by Peter J. Merrick and Adrian C. Spitters. Now available on Amazon → Buy here
