The Best Days of My Life

The glory days.  I hear people talk about them.  I hear songs about them.  The year they won the big game, traveled to Europe, graduated from college, got married.  Those were the best days of their life.

I find that sad.  The best days?  Already passed?

I have this picture on my desktop of my sister and I canoeing, taken by my Mom at the front.  It reminds me of the fun I’ve already had this year, and that I’ll be working 50, 55 hours a week.  Not much time left for fun.  I fear that the best days of the summer have already passed.

Time is an odd thing, so easily spent.  I just finished a month and a half of unemployment–a long span of time with no job, or not much of one.  You think it would be great, right?  I could get so much done.

Yeah… not really.

I tried, honest I did.  I set my alarm so I wouldn’t sleep away my morning.  I pegged things off my to-do list.  I wrote (a little).  I visited family and friends.  And all that time, all I wanted was a job.

And I’m two weeks into working full time now.  My apartment is a royal mess ’cause I just have time for essentials.  Now I work all day and look forward to going home.  I’d love to have another week off.

Oh the irony.

So, I spend my days trying to get to the next thing.  Days become weeks, weeks become years.  I’m young, but I already look back and wonder where the years have gone.  And did I do anything with them?  What do I have to show for it?

How do I make my time count?  How do I not waste what I have? How do I make every year one of the best years of my life?

Well, I haven’t figured that out.  I’m not a guru.

But here’s my guess:  I need to know where I’m going.  I need to ‘begin with the end in mind’ as Stephen Covey says.  I’m just starting to figure that out.

As a person of faith, I believe I have been made for a purpose, and I have been tailor made (gifts, body, temperament, everything) for that purpose.  You may not believe the same way.  Whatever the case, I urge you to examine what you believe and why you believe it.  Examine your values.  What do you love?  What is most important to you?  If you are a Christian, I urge you to contemplate if your values line up with God’s values.

Write these values down, and start planning your life accordingly.  Purpose streamlines focus.

But, of course, it takes a healthy dose of discipline to carry out that purpose, and that’s where I fell short.

I started writing this article on my lunch break three weeks ago.  That afternoon I was in an accident (detailed in ).  Suddenly I was laid up for three weeks.

Sweet irony.

So, I got a second go, and I’m happy to say I did a lot better this go ’round.  I set to work on this blog.  I wrote.  I visited my Grandma.  I studied.  I read.  I went fishing.  Not all my time was spent on those things.  I also watched TV.  But, I made progress.

These days I’m exhausted from the shock of working a physical job after being laid up so long.  But I’m also riding a buzz of excitement.  I might be onto something.

So tell me, what are you doing to make your days count?