Why I’m Making Today Count
The story behind why I’m learning to seize the day like never before.
One of the most important days of my life happened recently. It was a big milestone, a day that will remain significant for a long time: my 49th birthday. It was important, to me at least, because it marked the beginning of my fiftieth year, a year I intend to make my best year ever.
I recently finished writing a book. That was another really important day: the day when I published it to Kindle. It’s actually an eBook, but both the print and the audio versions are on their way.
The book is called “Making Today Count” and at its heart is a call to grasp hold of this precious gift we call “today”and in doing so make it count towards our dreams of tomorrow.
The reason I mention this is that although I have milestone days I can look back on, the significant points that help me chart my progress and remind me that I’m moving forward, the most important day of my life is really…today.
That may seem obvious to you, I hope you’re with me on this. But I didn’t always think that way.
It’s only in recent years that my passion for seizing the day has steadily grown as I have learned just how much it is possible to affect our tomorrows by what we do today.
In fact I’ve come to understand that all our dreams of the future are only dreams until we do something about them today.
Our tomorrows are built on the foundations that we lay today.
How did I get here?
One of the driving forces behind me writing the book was the burning question: What really makes the difference?
Much like Robert Frost in his poem The road not taken I found myself at a crossroads in life. I was just turning 42.
https://artplusmarketing.com/two-roads-diverged-c8dfa10401d5
I couldn’t help but wonder how I ended up in such a place. After all, on the surface everything seemed fine. I was living, by choice, in a beautiful part of the world with my wonderful wife and amazing kids. I had a lot to be thankful for.
But for a brief moment in time I looked forward down the road I was on, and all I could see was a sure path to regret and mediocrity.
There had to be another way. Another road to take that would lead to a bigger way of living, a fuller way of embracing life. A road that may be full of twists and turns, with rivers to cross and mountains to climb. But a road, nevertheless, that meant staying true to myself.
That was more important to me than anything.
Needless to say, I chose the hard road. The costly, risky road. And it’s been worth it.
Making Today Count is a book that is very much at the heart of everything I’m doing right now. Pretty much all of my focus over the last 9 months has been on developing material for my personal growth website nowlivingforward.com, which is turning into quite a project.
I write a lot about personal growth and life-transformation. More importantly, I write about what I’m learning and discovering through my own personal growth journey ever since I chose to turn my life around 7 years ago.
My life began to change the moment I made a decision. And at the time it was not so much a decision based on what I wanted, but more based on what I didn’t want. At the time, that was all I could do.
You see, by that time in my life I didn’t have big dreams any more. By that time in my life I had convinced myself, based on experience, that life was what it was. That I had to be content with what I had, appreciate my blessings, and continue to be the dutiful husband and father that my family needed.
So when I finally did change direction I floundered for a long time. I made the big mistake of believing that I could change my life on the outside and that would somehow translate into more fulfillment and purpose. I had a lot to learn.
However, I had at least made a start, and as time went on and I slowly grew in myself, I reached a significant milestone. I began to wonder — “How many other people are there like me, struggling to make something of the latter part of their lives?”
Things really began to accelerate from that point on. This was no longer just about me and my personal journey. This was about the journey that we are all on.
I haven’t arrived yet. I’m still walking this life-transforming journey of…life! I’m still working things through and still working things out in my own life, and I never want to reach that place where I stop learning or growing or expanding my boundaries.
Here on the pages on Medium and publications such as ART+marketing, I’ve come to meet other people on that journey. We have all come from different places, we are all heading in different directions, but I take encouragement from that fact that as we briefly meet here, today, we can all cheer one-another on.
So to come back to that burning question of what makes all the difference.
Based on all I’ve learned and seen and experienced on my journey so far, I would have to say that there are two things…
The first: Taking hold of this day, most important day of our life , and making it count.
The second: Embracing our tomorrows, with all their uncertainty, risk and, more importantly, promise.
Find out more about what I do on the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nowlivingforward/
