17,354.
That’s how many days I’ve lived so far. I never really thought about that number until I sat down last night to read 20,000 Days and Counting by Robert D. Smith. The book was from Keith St. Onge, who received it from Andy Andrews.
I first came across Robert via his guest post on Andy Andrew’s blog and I shared my thoughts on 48days.net:
What Did You Have for Breakfast? How About a Couple of No’s
Robert’s post gave me a whole different approach to facing rejection and he expands on this outlook in his book.
Yes, there’s some talk of death in this book, but it serves the purpose of waking us up to examine our lives and understand how we can leave a legacy of difference during our time here on earth. The message is clear: live with intensity.
Robert asks in the book, “Are you getting so bogged down in the day-to-day minutiae of your life that you overlook the power of each moment?” And there’s more: “Do not wait for impending death to light the fire of action inside yourself. Act today. Start small. There are opportunities hiding in the ‘day-to-day.’” We definitely have to be mindful of the power of each moment because that is all we really have– the here and now. This reminds me of a line in one of John Denver’s songs: “The moment at hand is the only thing we really own.”
Last night, before I sat down with the book, I was experiencing a high level of crankiness about small things. I was lamenting about my weight gain, grumbling about the frustration of learning how to barefoot backwards and just generally in a very rotten mood. An hour and half later, I closed the book and reflected on several key points. The first thing was to switch to an attitude of gratitude– after all, here I was down in Florida getting to barefoot water ski with some great people. I took each of the negatives and switched them around to positives. Life is too short to give in to the grumbling.
Tomorrow is day 17,355. It’s gonna be good.