I saw this on leadership expert John C. Maxwell’s Facebook page this morning, and I was immediately entranced. How powerful is this?
I think we all have moments when we feel as though we are waiting for our “real life” to start. Barbara Bush sums it up best:
“I often thought of my life as though I was waiting to get off a train, to get to the green pastures. I thought it would start after I got married. Then I got married, and I thought, after we have a house. Then we had a house, and I thought, it would be after we had children. Then we had children, and I thought it would be after they were grown. It wasn’t until I had retired I realized: my life was the green pastures.”
You can’t get through life waiting to turn on a magical switch and start living “someday.” All you have is today. What’s more, Ben Franklin’s quote reminds us that all of the time we’re spending half-asleep, lackadaisical, lazy, timid, and careless, we’re not only hurting ourselves, we’re affecting others.
I have a confession to make. I used to sit through some of my easier college classes completely disengaged. I’m not one to fall asleep, but I would be inclined to work on other homework or study for other tests. I figured, what’s the difference? Some students would be sleeping, still others texting or zoned out. They were the easier classes, after all.
Then one day, a TA came up to me and asked what I was doing. I told her. She looked me square in the face and said, “You’re better than that.”
And she was right. Out of sheer respect for the fact that someone as intelligent and accomplished as our professor would even come to talk to us, I needed to listen. What’s more, I had earned the right to listen. I owed it to myself, as well as to the development of my own personal integrity and professionalism, to put my immediate interests aside for an hour and listen to the lectures.
So stop waiting for “the next big event” to wake up. Start living now, today. Not only is it the right move for your character, integrity, work, and relationships, but it’s also uplifting and inspiring to others around you.
Photo source: With great power, come greater responsibilities…, originally uploaded by 2k Photography.
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