Live Like You Were Dying

If I Had Only One Day to Live

 

If you knew that today was your last day, would you continue doing things the same way that you have always done it, or would you do things differently?

Would you treat today like any other day or would you be doing something different?

 

if I knew that the next twenty-four hours were my last twenty-four hours?, would I continue to treat today like any other day? Would I just go through the motions on automatic? Would I get up and do the same routine, go to work, come home, sit in front of the computer and television mindlessly letting the seconds, minutes and hours drift away, never to return.

 

Of course not! If I knew that today was the only day I had, I would treat it special. I would savor the day. I would savor what I had that day.

 

 Leaving A Legacy

 

I would probably be frantically trying to find a way to leave a legacy y to my children and future grandchildren.

 

This may sound morbid, but I started thinking about this topic several years ago when my Dad died and then when within the next several months my closest brother and my only sister died.

 

I finally recognized my own mortality. I recognized that none of us are promised tomorrow and that I owed my creator everything that I was assigned to do during my lifetime here on earth.

 

I felt as if I had let most of my life slip past me. I felt as though I had lived too much of my life as though I had all the time in the world to accomplish everything I knew I was destined to do. I was frustrated in my own inconsistencies and in my own procrastination and even fear.

 

I had let fear keep me from living to my full potential. I had been afraid of a lot of things and I realized that I couldn’t let fear keep me from doing what it was that I needed to do. I had to get busy. Period. My time was too limited to waste.

 

Living in the Present

 

What if you knew you only had one day to live? Would you live that day differently than every day before you found out your time was limited or would you continue doing things the same way? Would you regret that you didn’t do certain things with your life? Would you look back at your past and wish you could go back? Would you look at what happened during the past several years and wonder where it all went?

If today was your last day, what things would you do to make life easier for your family after you were gone? Would you have final arrangements made or would you leave them for your bereaving family to handle. Would you just leave your business in the hands of your family or partners or employees to flounder with or would they be stuck not even knowing anything about what you do?

One Day at A Time

 “I believe in living today. Not in yesterday, nor in tomorrow.” Loretta Young – 1913-2000, Actress

 

The truth is, all any of us has is one day at a time to live.. Let me repeat, we only have one day to live . . . at a time. Today is the only day we have to actually live. We don’t live yesterday and we cannot live tomorrow. It is only today that we do our living, so why is is that we waste so much of our time doing things that don’t matter. Most of us either live in the past, live in the future or simply go through the motions of living.

 

 

Yet, at the same time, we are a culmination of our past, our present, and our future. We are a combination of our memories, our habits, our spontaneity, and our plans. To make our lives the best that it can be, we have to realize that each of those aspects of ourselves is reinforced or not by what we do today. We can’t change yesterday. It is in the past. We can’t live in the future because it is not here yet. We can only live today.

 

 

By living, truly living today, we create for ourselves better memories and better dreams. I may eat hand to mouth and live in a cardboard box today, but I don’t have to stay here. I can determine to improve my living conditions by what I do today. If you are able to read this page, you too are capable of improving your circumstances by determining to use the power of now to make the most every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every month of every year.

 

 

ONly today we can begin dropping old habits, creating new ones, or continue working on those that we started weeks ago. Only today we can live in the moment and make can make memories that we can look back on in our future and avoid regret for not living the life we know we were meant to live. We can also make plans for the future and build on those actions that we took yesterday.

 

But learning to deal with life from the aspect of today is not enough. We have to bring it to the point where live in the now. I will do it NOW. NOW is the time to start changing our lives. NOW is all we have to make the changes in our lives that will prevent adding to the regrets of the past. We cannot put living off. NOW is the time to take action. Now is the only time we can do anything

 

“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”-Tony Robbins – Author and Speaker

 

 

What we decide today matters so we need to get off automatic. If we plan for the future and take action today, where we are tomorrow, when it becomes today will be a different place.  If you always put things off until tomorrow, they will never happen unlti that tomorrow finally beomes today.

 

 

Today is the only day we can ever do anything. Whatever it is that you want to do, do it now and change your future.

 

Author Cygnet Brown, Donna Brown has published several nonfiction books including Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener, Using Diatomaceous Earth around the House and Yard, and Help from Kelp.

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga,  Book IV of the Locket Saga: Sailing Under the Black Flag is also on sale now! Soon to be published: Book V of the Locket Saga: In the Shadow of the Millpond. She is also working on another nonficiton book: Living Today, The Power of Now.

.For more information about Cygnet Brown and buy her books, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com

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