Today Is The Beginning Of The Rest Of Your Life

An Akha girl performs her tribal music to earn money for her family - Old City, Chiang Mai Thailand

“It is a beautiful and blessed world we live in, and while life lasts, to lose the enjoyment of it is a sin.” — Talbot W. Chambers

I’ll bet you’re thinking, “Wow Marv…that’s deep.  Of course today is the beginning of the rest of my life, duh!”.

OK…I’ll try a little harder:  Do you know how long “the rest of your life” is?

Of course not.  You could have 30 years, you could have 30 days remaining.  Your mileage may vary, but even good genes and taking good care of your health doesn’t guarantee the end isn’t near.

So what?  More than likely you still have your whole life ahead of you.  This is not necessarily a good thing.  It is a problem.  I will tell you why later in this post.

A great to question ask a person:  “What is one good thing that happened in your life today?”

To gain appreciation for your life, the best person to ask this question to is someone who is lonely, depressed, or otherwise believes that their life has no meaning or purpose for either themselves or anyone.

Why is that?  Because they believe that life could not get any better, and if it’s going to be 30 more years of the same…there’s no way they could possibly enjoy it.

OK, Maybe you don’t know anyone like that…but what about the folks who aren’t depressed…but aren’t happy no matter what blessings they have in their life.

You know who they are, the chronic complainers.  The couple who has kids but complain about it or tell their childless friends “You wait until you have yours!”.  The gal who thought forever she wouldn’t meet the right guy, and now moans every day about his socks on the floor.  The guy who has always been hurt in the past, but now dreads it when his spouse wants daily “cuddle” time.

If this is you, imagine that you could talk to your Creator and he said, “You have exactly 24 hours before I pull the plug.  Get your things in order.”

What if you knew you had only 24 hours left?  Could you find one good thing that happened in that day?  Would you quickly get past some of life’s minor annoyances and quickly move forward with enjoying the time remaining in your life?

Of course you would.  Do you see the problem now?  If life was shorter, we would find joy in it every single day…even on the “bad” days.

When we have the luxury of time(we really don’t, since we have no idea when our time is up), we tend to get stuck on lots of little problems and annoyances that in the grand scheme, will not cause our world to come to a catastrophic end.

As an endurance coach, part of my job is to help athletes overcome this syndrome during the course of their “lifetime” in a race.  Both short races and long races are filled with obstacles.  Flat tires, blisters, wrong turns.

I remind them…this race has a finite ending.  You know it will be over…you just don’t know when.  How you perform is up to you…but win or lose, it’s lights out for your race when the clock stops.  Keep on moving.

Don’t get stuck on the things that happen along the way.  The clock is ticking.  Enjoy the race, learn from the obstacles that pop up, most of all be glad you are even here.

In the same way, the race for your life will end whether or not you keep moving.  Will you enjoy the time remaining?  Or will you sulk and beat yourself up until the clock runs out…whenever that is.

When your husband is gone, you’ll wish you could see dirty socks on the floor every day.  When your children leave the nest, you’ll lament the times you complained about them.  When you’re on your final days at the hospital…I guarantee you that “cuddle time” will be the most amazing time you’ve ever had.

The secret to enjoying life is to not get stuck along the way.  You’ll encounter potholes.  Go around them.  You’ll climb hills.  Slow down and take time to overcome them.  There will be trails overgrown with weeds.  Change direction.  Sometimes the path will be unclear…keep moving forward.

I don’t mean traveling…although if you do choose that, let us know how we can help.

I mean keep moving forward mentally, get past the roadblocks to a happy life.  If you need to change jobs, do it.  If you need to change friends, do it.  Life is not too short…we just take too long to start enjoying it.

For every frustration, setback, disappointment, and annoyance you can find in a day…there are a hundred good things you can list.  Even a perfect hard-boiled egg can make you appreciate your life that day.

The clock is ticking.  What good things happened in your life today?