“If you live your life casually, your life will be a casualty.”
Let’s take a look at some things that all humans have in common:
In life we have an endless number of opportunities. Studies show that on average we make 35,000 choices every single day. As far as impact goes, most of those choices are small, some of them big.
The average lifespan of a human is 27,776 days. Each person has 168 hours per week. 86,400 seconds every day.
The biggest question that you have to ask yourself is: “Am I making every day I have left matter?”
This question has been written in many forms and has been asked throughout the history of humankind. Every human life is infinitely valuable, each person being worth more than anyone could ever be able to quantify. That includes YOU, and your most valuable resource is time. It is the one thing everyone has and no one can ever get back. The only one that can restore time is God, but it doesn’t look like He is going to be rewinding the clock for anyone anytime soon.
So, the question still remains, am I making everyday matter? Well, I’m not going to answer that for you, but there are some questions that are worth asking and some things you can do to help unlock that answer for yourself.
The first thing you should do is take a week of your life and write down EVERYTHING you do during that week. And when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. Why? One of the greatest men to ever write about leadership John C. Maxwell once said: “A thought is not a thought unless it can be written down.” This correlates with what we are talking about here because you need to be thinking about what you’re doing each day. This one exercise is going to answer a lot of your questions. If you want to take things a step further, tally up how many hours you did things like work, spent time with family, personal development, sleep, etc. to help you get a solid gauge on how you spend your time. Then comes surgery time, what about your life do you like? What do you dislike? Where could you have made better choices? What good choices did you make?
Other questions you should ask yourself are things like: “What do I value most?” What do I most enjoy doing?” “What are my strengths?” “Why do I do the things I do?” “Why do I feel certain ways doing certain things?” “Who is the most successful person I know? What do they do and how do they carry themselves?” There are many other questions you can ask yourself, but this will be a good start. Once again unlocking your ability to think is the goal. When I say think I mean really think. Do not sugar coat any of this, don’t be nice to yourself, don’t try and validate the things you did in the past. OWN IT. In his book “Can’t Hurt Me” David Goggins talks about this principle of writing and reflecting on your life and not being nice to yourself. It’s time to get real, this will change everything bad about your life if you will dig in and take is seriously.
Other essential things to living a life of victory is identifying where you can make the biggest difference and pursue it with everything you have. Remember the question “What are my strengths?” Once you figure out what they are be relentless in pursuing your strengths. It is good to get better at your weaknesses, but other people can cover those weaknesses for you, which comes to my next point:
Surround yourself with the right people. You have probably heard someone say, “you are the sum total of the top five people you spend the most time with.” There is a vast amount of truth to this. Those people are going to influence how you think, which will determine how you act, which will determine your destiny on this earth. So, choose those people wisely. Something that is overlooked is the power of technology for this. YOU get to determine who your top five are, it’s not based on your surroundings. You want Kobe Bryant in your top five? He can be in your top five. You might think, “didn’t he pass away?” Yes, he did, but how many books are there on his life? How many books has he written? How many YouTube videos and podcasts and clips are there of Kobe? There is a large selection, his mindset is widely available, and you can make him apart of your top five through the things he left behind. If no one in your direct association is going where you want to go, pick new ones.
The intentionality and focus you bring to life will determine if your life is a story of victory or a casualty. Everything is a choice, and your choices day to day are the building blocks. As James Clear says in his famous book “Atomic Habits,” every action you is a vote towards the type of person you want to be. So who do you want to be? What do you want to be remembered for? How do you want to live? The choice is yours, it’s never too early or late to start.
Now’s your time, see you at the top.
Sources:
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits. Penguin Publishing Group.
Goggins, D. (2018). Can’t hurt me : master your mind and defy the odds. Lioncrest Publishing.
How Many Days, Minutes, Seconds Do You Live In A Lifetime? – Measuring Stuff. (2023, January 26). Measuringstuff.com. https://measuringstuff.com/how-many-days-minutes-seconds-do-you-live-in-a-lifetime/#:~:text=According%20to%20CDC.gov%2C%20life%20expectancy%20in%20the%20USA
Krockow, P. E. M. (2018, September 27). How many decisions do we make each day?. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/stretching-theory/201809/how-many-decisions-do-we-make-each-day