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When It Counts —
Make It Count
By Greg Hickman
“I have one life and one chance to
make it count for something.”
Jimmy Carter
Life is a nonstop parade of minutes,
hours and days — a steady string of magical moments that
we can choose to use as we see fit. And the manner in
which we use or abuse these irreplaceable moments shape
the lives we get to enjoy.
Making the most of our time on earth
requires that we make the most of our God given gifts,
constantly striving to bring out our very best each and
every day. Since life is a one shot deal, a once in a
lifetime chance to make our mark and make a difference,
doesn’t it make sense to make it count for something
truly special?
“Don’t count the days, make the days count.”
Muhammad Ali
Rather than wishing it was Friday, the
weekend or sometime out in the distance, where the times
look better or the grass seems greener, why not choose
to make the most of the moment at hand? Instead of
counting the days, needlessly squandering away one
golden opportunity after another waiting for this or
that to happen, why not start happening yourself?
The moment you decide once and for all
to stop wishing your life away and begin living life in
the here and now, your here and now will all of a sudden
take on new meaning and extra excitement while becoming
much more fulfilling almost overnight. Instead of
wishing it was Friday afternoon on Monday morning, why
not find ways to make the days in between the best days
you’ve ever lived?
Hey, don’t start making excuses or
moaning and complaining that you never get a break. That
type of negative, down in the dumps thinking has never
taken you anywhere you’ve really wanted to go, has it? A
winner makes his or her breaks and the big break you’ve
been waiting for is out there waiting for you to
discover it. But in order to uncover your very best, you
must begin making every moment count.
“We should certainly count our blessings, but we
should also make our blessings count.”
Neil A. Maxwell
There can be no greater waste than the
frittering away of a lifetime of possibilities, allowing
the best of times to slip right through our fingertips
because we never made our blessings count. Instead of
permitting our promising futures to slowly rust away
from months and even years of neglect, we need to begin
cherishing each and every moment we are granted on
earth, making certain that we not only bring out our
best but also bring out the best in those around us.
We need to take our cue from the best of
the best, those unique individuals who consistently
squeeze more fun, more enjoyment and more happiness out
of each and every day. These prime time players have
come to realize that each day is a priceless gift from
God and that once it is gone — it is gone for good.
If we constantly allow one day after
another to come and then go without even making a dent
in what we could have been, where do you suppose our
lives will eventually end up? In all likelihood, no
place we really want to go, wouldn’t you agree?
“The purpose of life is to matter, to
count, to stand for something; to have it make some
difference that we lived at all.”
Leo Rosten
If the only way to make life worth
living is to make every day count for something truly
special, why do so many people allow so many days to
slip slide away, inadvertently permitting the best of
times to pass them by as well? Good question; yet the
answers are never so easy.
More likely than not, they don’t see
themselves as a person who comes out on top; a winner
who deserves to live life to its fullest. Yet that is
precisely what our Creator made each and every one of us
to be. A winner worthy of enjoying the greatest
treasures life offers up daily. None of us, not even one
of us, is incapable of coming out on top.
But we need to face the music here; the only way
we’re going to make our lives everything we have ever
imagined they could be and should be is to stop counting
those days as they pass us by and instead start making
the days count — right here and right now. We need them
to count for something super extraordinary, something
super sensational and something that words alone can
never express.
Time after time, the only difference between living
your life the way it was meant to be lived and living a
life that consistently comes up short is whether or not
you really made a difference. So why not make that big
difference by making a difference in the way you utilize
your days, starting right now?
The Bottom Line: When you start making your
days count, you’ll never again have to worry about
counting the days.
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