Seize the Day

What if tomorrow is your last day on earth? Are you living today as if that could be so? I ask this question, not to be morose, but because many of us go through life as if time is unlimited.

Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber, a French journalist and author of The Art of Time says: “We think much more about the use of our money, which is renewable, than we do about the use of our time, which is irreplaceable.”

He also says “”For a long time I admired men [and women] in a hurry, until I realized that they were merely under stress. What I fear most about stress is not that it kills, but that it prevents one from savoring life.”

What do you wish you had more time for? 
 Exercising, spending more fun time with your children, your family, friends? Organizing your home and making it a comfortable retreat, a place to welcome those you loves? Having quiet time to reflect and commune with nature? Traveling to exotic, unknown places both in the world and within yourself?

These things represent what you desire, what’s important to you, your values your purpose in life. One of the reasons why we don’t seem to get to these activities is that we haven’t taken the time to consider what is truly important to us—not what everyone us is telling us should be important—but truly what holds purpose and meaning in our unique lives.

The time we are blessed with is limited and tends to be used up all too quickly. How we utilize that time is consequently one of the most important decisions we make. Yet it is far too easy to put off until tomorrow what we are dreaming of today.

The hectic pace of life these days affords us an easy out–we shelve our aspirations and desires so we can cope more effectively with the challenges of the present moment, with the idea that we will have more time and leisure to realize our purpose in the future. Or we tell ourselves that we will chase our dreams someday once we have accomplished other lesser goals. But time marches on and before you know it the time to realize our bigger purpose can be gone.

If we ask ourselves what we are really waiting for, however, we discover that there is no truly compelling reason why we should put off the pursuit of the live we desire for another day. Fear of failure nips at our heels, but we will never know what is possible until we confront that fear and move towards creating what we want.

We procrastinate for many reasons, from a perceived lack of time to a legitimate lack of self-belief, but the truth of the matter is that there is no time like the present and no time but the present. Whatever we aim to create, we will be more apt to make it real when we seize the day and make the most of the present.

All the joy, passion, and contentment you can envision can be yours right now, rather than some day that may never come. There is nothing standing between you and fulfillment. If you decide that today is the day you will take your destiny into your own hands, you will soon discover that you hold the keys to creating the life you desire.