Most people sleepwalk through day-to-day life, passively letting time slip away
. Unfortunately, the only thing that can usually wake people up to the intensity of life is impending death. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? 20,000 Days and counting presents breathtakingly simple strategies and concepts that, once applied, will enable readers to be 100% present and intentional with every passing minute of every day, for the rest of their lives.
Decisions you make right now can change your life forever.
Literally, forever. You do not choose to be born. You do not choose your parents. You do not choose the time period in which you live. You do not choose the country of your birth. You do not choose the circumstances of your upbringing. In most cases, you do not choose to die. You do not choose the time or conditions of your death.
Despite all the realms of this choicelessness, we do choose how we will live. May you have a glorious ending by beginning today.
Seven questions to seize the essence of today
Want to guarantee that you will create intensity every day of your life?
Then review these questions, as if for the first time, every single morning you are blessed with another day.
- Whose life am I going to brighten today?
- What three things am I most grateful for today?
- What memories am I going to create today?
- What challenge am I going to overcome today?
- What value am I going to create today?
- How much joy can I create for others and myself today?
Bonus question (just to cover all the bases): What question am I not asking yet today?
Never be misled by he number of hours in a day. This number simply represents the time that is potentially available to you. Each of these moments is but a dab of paint you can apply to the canvas of your life. Somewhere between sunrise and sunset, let it not be said that you lost an hour. No reward can be offered to find lost hours, for they are gone forever. The present moment is the only moment you totally control.
Ten things you can do now
We have an amazing ability to overestimate what we can do in the next five years and totally underestimate what we can do in the next fifteen minutes.
It seems that we spend 80 percent of our time planning and 20 percent implementing and progressing. Very few can really execute on purpose. This is not to say that planning is a bad thing. In fact, planning is critical. But a line must be drown; a distinction must be made.
Do you know how much time you could spend planning 20,000 days?
Here are ten things you could do in the next fifteen minutes that would make a drastic difference in your day:
- Call a family member whom you have not spoken to in a while. Tell them you love them. Honor them.
- Make a list of the top five priorities in your life today. Prioritize them. Now act on them in order, completing each priority or making major progress on some portion of it.
- Invite a close friend to dinner.
- You know that thing you’ve been putting off? Do it.
- Begin your next big project, no matter how big it is.
- If you don’t have a big project, come up with one. It can be as simple as organizing the garage. Or it can be as big as writing a book.
- Start reading the book you’ve been meaning to pick up.
- Exercise. Begin living healthily. Enjoy the gift that is your body.
- Crank up some of your favorite music and jump around. Dance. Celebrate the day! Celebrate this moment!
- Go outside and breathe deeply. Be still. Listen. Be grateful. Simply say, thank YOU.
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elated Reading:
Complement 20,000 Days and counting with 8 Growth Gap Traps. Are there tried and true principles that are always certain to help a person grow? John Maxwell says the answer is yes.