Many times, we give significance to days of the week. We hate Mondays. Wednesday is Hump Day. We Thank God It’s Friday! We live for the
weekend. But every day is a great day to celebrate. Regardless of the day of the week. Regardless of the day’s schedule. Regardless of whether it is a holiday or
not. Every day is a great day to
experience life to the fullest. We
should truly seize the day!
We often associate the Carpe Diem sentiment with doing
something magnanimous. We will often
discount the significance of our life by the deficit of doing “big things.” I know that I used to subscribe to the notion
that I needed to do “big things” in order to truly experience life. I put a lot of energy and money into ensuring
that I created the most spectacular of spectacular events for everything I did. My children’s birthday parties were great
productions. My birthday parties were
grand and fabulous. My work in my career
and in my community were always full throttle pursuits of excellence. Immediately, my focus was on how to make this
“bigger.” I got great results. I got
great accolades. I felt great about my big
accomplishments.
Life had a way of shaking things up and moving me in big
ways. I was literally moved from my
comfort zone. My first husband got a new
job in another city and I literally left the life I had built behind. That move was the first of two major moves
that reshaped my life and created new opportunities and experiences. Perhaps I would have learned to appreciate
the beauty of creating great moments every day if I had stayed put. But being ripped of everything familiar
enabled me to earn greater appreciation for creating new experiences. I earned this appreciation in retrospect,
however.
A friend gave me a book for Christmas that helped me to
truly reflect on whether I was truly experiencing the power of the moments
given to me. Duly named, The
Power Of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip
Heath and Dan Heath, this book helped me to reframe how I viewed the previously
quipped “series of unfortunate events” that had plagued my life. I came to realize that these events were not
unfortunate at all, but merely things that had not gone as planned, but had
gone exactly as they should. The full
breadth of that realization is the subject of another writing, but is the
underlying theme of this Carpe Diem message.
I love to read and try to read at least one book a
week. I record my impressions from my
readings in my Book of Thoughts, a series of notebooks especially for this
purpose. I have been doing this for
about 10 years. About seven years ago, I
decided to turn my Book of Thoughts into a Book of Actions by committing to
creating action items from what I’ve learned and actually make my knowledge powerful. One of my Takeaways from The Power of
Moments was to truly become conscious of the moments I was creating…and the
moments I was missing. I decided that I
need to have better more meaningful experiences.
Some of the most beautiful moments happen between the “big
things” we do. In fact, every day is
full of beautiful moments. Some happen
on their own. Others happen when we
commit to having them. I have stopped
having bad days. I have stopped have bad
relationships. I have stopped having bad
experiences. Instead I have begun to
have powerful moments that create great lessons, great reasons to be grateful,
and great experiences. When my
relationships yield far more lessons than blessings, I end them focus on the
relationships that add more value to my life than they take away. I have let go of the commitment to completion
when I find that the activity or organization no longer adds value nor I to it. I am focused on being mindful of the
experiences that I am creating. If it no
longer serves me in this season, I let the season evolve to the next.
I truly believe that it is all working together for my
good. Every single day. There is something beautiful to be gained
from everything we do. Even those series
of unfortunate events that we’d much rather avoid. Sometimes we get so focused on the
unfortunate so much that we miss the fortunate.
I remember a speaker asking the audience to describe a catastrophe that
they had experienced in their life that they hadn’t survived. After a pregnant pause, we all erupted in acknowledgement
that despite the pain, disappointment, tragedy, or even violence that we had
experienced, we had survived them all.
And that is the fortune in every unfortunate event!
The truth is our life is a series of moments. Are we truly experiencing life or are we just
wasting precious moments? Are we focused
on the wrong things? Are we ignoring the
beauty because it is dusted in ugliness?
Are we discounting the small but powerful moment waiting on the big
bodacious one? Every moment is one to be
relished. Whether it is the one you wish
for or the one that was forced upon you.
Every moment is powerful.
I have committed to being truly focused on looking for and
appreciating the powerful moments in my life.
I have come to believe that nothing in life happens by chance. We are where we are in our lives because
there is something good to be gained from that moment. Whether we seize it or miss it is totally up
to us.
Today is the day to experience every moment of life. Don’t wait until someday. Don’t wait until a special day. Don’t wait until Friday. Experience every day for the fortune that is
in it. Appreciate the power in every moment.
Be grateful for what went right.
Be grateful for the lesson learned from what did not go right. Be grateful to have survived another day to
create another experience. In all things,
be grateful.
