Where the rubber meets the road…

What are you doing with your time here? Are you making it count or are you just putting it in?

I won’t lie to you, making your time count is a tough thing sometimes. It seems that it’s SO much easier to simply let the time pass than to make something useful of it. Most people seem to be content today to stick with their routines. A quick breakfast, run out the door to get to work on time, put in the required eight hours at the job, cruise home for dinner some TV and then off to bed. Only to get up the next morning and do it all over again.

“Working for the weekends” is a mantra that most people seem to live by. Why? What do we do with the weekends? If you don’t have any real responsibilities, you might take some time to relax, or catch up on the house work and chores that you can’t do during the week. Maybe a night out with some friends or even a movie. If you’ve got family or other responsibilities then you time is even more occupied.

Sometimes it seems that no matter how we handle it, we end up in a repeating routine that merely allows us to exist. Sure, we might be lucky enough to take a vacation every now and then. Create some different memories, get some new stories to tell at work, and pick up a souvenir or two.

Is that all there is to this life then?

I want to say no. Even as I look at the daily schedule that I follow and see so little variation in it. Sure, there are things that NEED to be done to survive. You have to work. You have to care for your kids. You have to eat and sleep. The question is…are you locked into a routine that does nothing for you as a person?

We always hear people saying “Get in the Game!” Let me tell you something…You ARE in the game. If you’re not playing…then you’re losing! Life isn’t something that you get to be neutral in. No one is Switzerland. There are no sidelines. If you think that you’re just going to wait and see what happens…you’re on the wrong side.

If you’re in a situation right now, where you are just waiting to see if something is going to happen, you need to stop right now. Take an objective look at your situation and figure out what YOU can do to make the situation something you can accept. There are ALWAYS options that you can choose. No one is ever stuck where they are.

Even if you happen to be in jail right now, provided that you’re not there for life, you have options. Granted, you have LOTS fewer options than someone not in jail, but you have options nonetheless.

How long has it been since you took the time to learn something new? Something that’s NOT related to work.
How long has it been since you took the time to work on yourself and change something you find negative into a positive?

I know that we all have the hope that things will just fall into place and we’ll wake up one day with everything perfect. That would be great, don’t get me wrong. But…IT AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN! In order for anything to change and be different from what it is right now, it takes work. Sometimes its VERY, VERY hard work. It will also rarely happen overnight. Change in all its forms takes time. Trying to rush change is like trying to stop a speeding train…you CAN get in its way, but it just might be messy.

So, take a look around at your life and see if there might be things you can change about it. Change is a good thing. It keeps our spirits refreshed and awake in a world that would have them dulled and dead.

Besides, you never know what might be down that other path. It just might be the adventure of your life.

See you in the great wide unknown! :-)


You must be the change you want to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi