NOW is the Time

There are some phrases that really annoy me.  In fact, hearing them makes me feel physically sick. 

It's the twee, care bear, politically correct, caring and sharing phraseology.

"Sing like nobody can hear you" YUCK!

"Dance like no one is watching" PUKE!

"Love like you've never been hurt" AAARGH!

One that gets trotted out more often than others, especially in self help seminars, and usually by people who are getting over some traumatic experience is the old adage...

"Today is the First day of the Rest of my Life"

Huh!  I have news for you pal.  EVERY day is the first day of the rest of your life!  Go figure!

If you want to enjoy life.  If you want to live life to the full.  If you want to grab opportunity and squeeze it with both hands then do what I do.  Think different!

Here's one for you, far better than 'Today is the first day of the rest of your life'....

What if....

WHAT IF TODAY WAS THE LAST DAY OF YOUR LIFE?

What would you do then?  I guarantee something.  You would do a lot more than you would if you thought you had the whole of your life stretching out in front of you!

You would be doing stuff, clearing up challenges and issues that had been hanging around, speaking to people....everything.

If this was the first day of the rest of your life you would be saying "do that tomorrow" and "schedule that for next week" and "I'll get around to that, it's not urgent!"

I subscribe to this way of thought...

"I will live this day as if it were the last day of my life. 

And what will I do with the last precious day of my existence?  First of all, I will seal it in a bottle so that not a single drop of it seeps into the sand.  I will not waste a single moment of this day, complaining about my past miseries, past defeats, or past torments, since doesn't good come out of adversity?

Can fallen grains of sand make their way back into the sand glass?  Can the sun rise where it sets and set where it rises?  Can I erase my past mistakes?  Or correct them?  Can I heal yesterdays wounds and become healthy again?  Can I be younger than I was yesterday?  Can I retract the hurtful words that wer uttered, the blows that that were received and given, the suffering that was inflicted and suffered?

No!

Yesterday is dead and buried forever and I will never think of it again.

Nor can I live on what might be.  I cannot live on what might happen.  I cannot live on maybe, perhaps, or hope.  We can not forsee the future.

The future is uncertain.  It does not exist.  What exists is today, right now, this moment.

I will live THIS day as if it were the last day of my life!"