The great playwright George Bernard Shaw was once asked if he had his life to live over again, and he could choose to be anyone, who would he choose to be. His response was “I would be the man I could have been”. Wise words from a man who accomplished a lot in his lifetime.
I don’t know about you, but if I’m not careful I can sometimes treat days like there’s an unlimited supply of them. Kind of a “If I waste today, no big deal, there will be a new one tomorrow” attitude. Or if I’m tired or my emotional energy level is low, I’m tempted to not push myself as hard that day. Or sometimes I put off starting a project until I “get motivated”.
But as we all know, we simply don’t have an unlimited supply of days. So we have to make the best use of each day we’re given. And this doesn’t just mean at work. It means at home and in our personal lives as well.
It might be too heavy to think in terms of working to your maximum potential every single day for the rest of your life. But I’ll bet you can picture it for the next week!
So what do you think you could accomplish if you decided to sprint toward your goals for the next five days. Just one week. I mean really focused, effective use of the next 120 hours. How much could you get done? How much momentum could you generate that might carry forward into the rest of the month? Or into the rest of your life?
Please, try to live each day so that you never have to look back and regret the way you spent the time or the things you accomplished with that day. Live each day as if someone is asking you daily the same question asked of Shaw. Live life so that you ARE the person you could have been! (Now I’ll step off my soap box till my next Instructor’s blog post!)
Chuck Violand (more about Chuck)
SFS Instructor
CEO Violand Management Associates