The E in L.I.F.E is for every day.
Some stats:
You will laugh about 17 times today (“Daily occurrence of laughter”).
Your heart will pump about 7200 liters of blood today.
You will listen to 4 and a half hours of music today (“Time With Tunes”).
You will spend 10 hours consuming media (“Americans devote more than 10 hours a day to screen time, and growing”).
You will spend 1440 minutes today of your life.
What did you spend those minutes on? Your goals? Yelling at someone on the drive home? Letting someone know you loved them? Adding shows to your “My List” on Netflix?
Our lives have big moments, some of them positive, others are heartbreaking. But most of our life is how we spend the 1440 minutes we are given each day, and that is important to understand for a few reasons.
The first reason is because we all have a last day. No matter what you believe regarding the afterlife, we all get one life. One path to walk. Each day is an opportunity to show love. To work towards a goal. To strengthening relationships. Or not.
Maybe because I am a few years away from 50, but time has become more valuable to me. Each day is an opportunity to spend time doing wonderful things. Or we can do mundane or negative things. Yes, it is our choice on how we spend our time.
The second reason to understand how we live every day is the connection to the moments in our lives that are drastic. How we live everyday creates a foundation that helps us when the big moments happen in our lives. It doesn’t matter if it is a negative or positive moment, we will respond to those moments based on the way we live every day. We will respond with love or negativity. The foundation we have every day will not ease any pain we may feel, or make the joy from a moment last longer. Our everyday foundation helps us deal with the moment. It directs our next step.
Today is our life. How we live today builds our life. We will have our hearts broken. We will achieve goals. We will laugh. We will cry. Life is what we do now. What we do with the 1440 minutes. We don’t have a great life looking back on our last day… we have a great life today.
Below are a few media recommendations that correlate with this idea.
Books
The Big Sea by Langston Hughes is part of his story as a young poet. His story highlights how we live influences our goals and talents.
Every Day I Fight by Stuart Scott reveals why every day matters.
Movies
Dead Poet Society is a complex movie about the tension between traditions and personal freedom.
The Truman Show is a movie about the beauty of everyday life.
Songs
“Live Like We’re Dying” by Kris Allen is a good reminder to spend your time on the important stuff.
“Five More Minutes” by Scotty McCreery highlights how everyday moments make for a great life.
LIFE is for… (concluding post next).
It is all Connected 