This is poignant and yet it must be discovered. Another way to say it is, “just because something is true does not make it applicable to us unless we make it so.”
All of us wants things to occur in a great and masterful way for us. But, we go about our lives with lackadaisical attitude that betrays the passion that lives within us. We make plans that will satisfy our family and financial needs. We plan for a family because it is the right thing to do. We watch our kids grow up and leave the nest because it is the responsible thing to do. Then, we outline a retirement that is supposed to reward us for a lifetime of work. To me, living our lives like this is not wrong. But, it is more akin to being a paralytic laying beside the “Pool of Bethesda” waiting for the angel to come down to stir up the water so that we can then be healed and walk. Ouch!
I submit as noted above that our passion, our personalities, our desires, our souls become animated the moment we first comprehend that our single life is all we have and we ought to be about the business of optimizing and maximizing every nanosecond of our existence. Suddenly, the thing that animates us and drives us forward is operationalized. As the song from the group Queen says, “nothing can stop us now!” We move heaven and earth to do what we are called to do and time is running out. Going through the motions of being alive will never satisfy us ever again. We are “in it to win it!” My old friend Doug Andrewski who is the organizer and promotor of the Titan Classic in Kenosha, Wisconsin said to me when I was lamenting that I wished I had started bodybuilding at a much younger age, “Doug! Just remember this, All we have is today and I (Doug) have a lot of potential.” In other words, “start where you are and tap your potential that you possess.” Nothing else matters in this realm.
To be clear. I am no suggesting that we jettison our lives in exchange for something better. Quite the contrary. Finish what you started but be encouraged that life is now going to be lived actively from now on. Being simply passive and reactive will never do again. I think I’ve said enough.
This is our time and we will be granted no extra seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, or years. Be courageous and do that for which you are called. If we do that, all of us in the world benefits from our greatest efforts.
Your second life has begun!
Six Pack and Senior 