Would you like 86,400 dollars a day?
How would you like to have 86,400 dollars deposited on a bank account with your name on it every day of your life? Imagine that you entered a contest and won. Every day, for the rest of your life, a bank will deposit on your account 86,400 dollars. That sounds unbelievable doesn’t it?
There would only be two rules :
- The first one is that everything you would not have spent during the day would be lost forever. If your account carried a balance at the end of the day it would be wiped out. You could not cheat by transferring the balance on another account or hide it somewhere… But… EVERY DAY, the bank would again open another account for you with the same amount : 86,400 dollars for the day for you to use as you please.
- The second rule would be that at anytime, the bank could stop paying without any warning. In other words, you won the big prize and it is for a deposit everyday but you do not know for how long the prize will be paid.
What would you do? Your only obligation would be to spend the whole amount of money everyday, anything left would be lost or taken back… How would you chose to use this prize? Would you spend every dollar for your own pleasure on magnificent travels, luxury hotels, jewelry, fast cars, yachts, electronics… Would you buy gifts for the ones you love? Would you start a charity, knowing that this abundance can stop at any moment? Would you do… Nothing different than what you are doing today?
We all have these magic 86,400 dollars everyday of our lives for the rest of our lives… Except that the 86,400 does not represent dollars but seconds. The greatest gift we possess in life that IS the same for every one of us is… TIME. That’s right! 86,400 seconds everyday are deposited in our life and we may use them however we see fit. We can chose to be selfish with it or we can volunteer for a charity of any kind that strikes our fancy. We can chose to get up and be excited about the day or we can fear the events that might come our way. We can chose to see the glass half full or… half empty.
So I ask you today, what do you chose to do with this amazing gift that is bestowed to you every single day? Each night what has not been lived during the day is lost, yesterday is just but a memory. Tomorrow you are re-credited with 86,400 seconds of life and all of us are subjected to the same rule. At any point in time without notice, life can STOP. So are 86,400 dollars more important than 86,400 seconds? What are you going to chose to do with this amazing richness that is bestowed upon you? Are you going to hold a grudge or free yourself by forgiving freely your abuser? Are you going to live your life in regrets of not attempting a thing or are you going to let your dreams lead you to a wonderful life? Are you going to be lead by fear or by hope?
If you want to understand the value of a year of life, ask a student who has failed his/her end of the year exams and needs to retake it all over again. For a month, ask a mother waiting impatiently for her premature baby to be viable enough to be taken out of the incubator so she can finally hold her. A week? Ask a mine worker who has to go down the bowel of the earth everyday to feed his family. A day? Ask two new lovers impatient to see each other again. An hour? Ask a claustrophobic person stuck in an elevator. A second? Look at the face of total relief of someone who has just escaped death in a car accident. A thousandth of a second? Ask an athlete who just won the silver medal in the Olympic Games and was training for the gold all of his/her life….
Life is MAGIC. Chose wisely how you want to spend it. Let go of the details and ask yourself : “In ten years, is it going to be important?”. No? Then, LET IT GO!! Nothing ruins your day more than stress. Stress over your spouse, your kids, your house, the car, the government, the environment… ANYTHING YOU DO NOT HAVE CONTROL OVER… LET IT GO! It is not an easy recipe that I advocate and share with you today. It is an extremely simple one to comprehend intellectually but so hard to put in practice. If you are like me, you are still struggling with it. Please let me know what you think you can do to apply this simple principle daily and give me ideas in your comments below. And, as always… ENJOY your 86,400 seconds :-)
