What would you do if you thought you only had three minutes left to live?

I have had an article open on my browser for three months now, wanting to save it for the right moment as fodder for a column. It’s the moving story of a United States Air Force Special Forces soldier who was so badly wounded in a 2009 battle in Afghanistan that he thought he wouldn’t survive. Shot in the chest and shoulder by armor-piercing bullets, he was bleeding badly and suffered a collapsed lung.

But as the one member of the team coordinating communications with backup air support, he was the only one who would be able to help direct rescuers to the platoon’s position.

According to BusinessInsider.com, US AF Staff Sgt. Robert Gutierrez later recalled, “I've seen those types of injuries before, and time isn't your friend. I thought, I have three minutes before I'm going to die. I've got to do something big. Based on that time frame, I'm going to change the world in three minutes."

Despite life-threatening wounds, Gutierrez miraculously survived—even though he lost five pints of blood during the battle’s seven long hours—to save nearly 30 U.S. and allied Afghan soldiers. For his heroic efforts, he was awarded the country’s second-highest military honor, the Air Force Cross. In fact, he's only the second living soldier to ever receive the award.

The story and what Gutierrez expressed resonated with me and it’s taken me the many weeks since I first read about him in October to figure out what is so meaningful about this story.

Our mortality is the granddaddy of thoughts with which to wrestle. What will it be like when the end comes? Is there an afterlife? Is there God?

I’ve been particularly reflective of late—it’s what the holidays can do to you. There’s much to consider about what we should relish, cherish and be grateful for, and I wrote a recent column on that.

But suppose that you only had but a few moments left to live, would you hold tight to a certainty that you’d lived life fully? That all was right between you and those whom you love? Would you feel like you were at peace? Or would you feel regret for something left undone?

Would you have already taken the time to make sure those you loved knew how you felt about them? I don’t think we live our lives expecting each day to be our last, but I wonder how we would live each day differently if we just once seriously considered the question that SSgt. Gutierrez did.

How heroic could you be? SSgt. Gutierrez demonstrated seemingly super-human strength and resilience in the moments he believed to be his last. He did so with the driving motivation of making the effort to change the world. To save his buddies’ lives, to make sure as many of them as possible got home safely to those they loved. To make the ultimate stand for freedom and liberty (whether or not you agree with the war being fought—the work of our fighting men and women on the ground is valiant and most unselfish).

For active duty soldiers, it’s likely an internal monologue they’ve had too numerous times to count. But it’s likely too frightening a concept for civilians to entertain, until the moment is too late.

I think I’ve kept the story of Robert Gutierrez’s heroic face-off with death open on my laptop all this time because I can’t let the moment fritter away. I want to be reminded to be conscious of the opportunities I have daily to savor my days and those I choose to spend them with.

I’m reminded of it even more by the recent tragic Christmas Day fire that killed the children and parents of a Stamford woman.

With life potentially lost so instantly, it’s the now that is most important, so that those final three minutes will find you peace.