24 hours. One day. What if you only got one? What would you do with it? Who would you see? How would you act? Where would you go? Fortunately most of us get more than one day to live out our lives. But for too many of us there seems to be something wrong with every single day we are given. It’s too long. It’s too short. It’s cold. It’s rainy. It’s boring. It’s too busy. If it were your last day, do you think you would give things like the weather a second thought? If you had just one day to live, your focus would undoubtedly shift from complaining and complacency to productivity, love, and thankfulness. Well, the truth of the matter is that every day is of equal value. Today is no less important than your last day. Each day is a brand new start and we are all given the same 24 hours to make of them what we will.
All of this may sound a little too cliché, but consider that billionaire powerhouses like Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett are given the same 24 hours every day that you are. They are afforded no more time and no less time. The difference comes in how they choose to utilize their hours. And if you think they just somehow happened to arrive at their success by chance or privilege, read up on their life histories and you’ll find that this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Now your goal might not be to become a billionaire, but most people are longing for something more out of life, but are either waiting around for it to come to them, or just don’t know how to go about getting it. The good news is that it doesn’t take a genius to create an extraordinary life; just persistent focused action on a daily basis. Maybe you would love to write a best-seller, but are intimidated by the whole process. If you got to work and wrote just one page a day, in a year’s time you will have completed a 365 page book! Even if it took you 2 days per page, you would still have a substantial 180 pages.
Advancing your life simply requires that you prioritize and change your focus. Evaluate your typical day and find those “lost moments” or “voids” in which nothing meaningful seems to take place, and then plan the night before how you are going to better utilize that time. Listen to educational programs during your commute. Instead of surfing the web, study your field of business. Turn the TV off in favor of some quality family time. You may not be destined to change the world, but by focusing 24 hours at a time it is easily within your power to change your life!
