Time: Focusing on Today and Tomorrow

A.I. Image from Adobe Stock

At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test,
not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal.
You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a parent.
Barbara Bush

​by Skip Cohen

As I sat here trying to think of what to write about, it hit me—this is my last Sunday Morning Reflections post for 2024. My challenge is trying to understand how the year went by so quickly! While I'm a big fan of looking forward and being focused on today and tomorrow, it's hard to avoid a long look in the rearview mirror. 

I found myself thinking about how much time I wasted in the past year. How much time did I let slip through my life worrying about things outside my control?  How many times was I upset about something that just didn't matter? Sheila has a great expression that I've shared in past posts, "Don't should on yourself!"

Put that together with the expression, "Hindsight is always 20/20," and you've got the recipe for thinking like a Monday morning quarterback, which we all become at one time or another. With time often comes clarity, but once time has passed, there's no rewind.

But there is a reset button. It's not always easy to find, but somewhere in your heart, it's there. And yes, I know this sounds pretty sappy, but here's my point: Do your best to stop wasting time. Like everybody, I have my share of regrets. I can't turn back the clock, but I can hit the reset button and do my best to learn from past mistakes, leaving room to change my journey. Time is our most valuable commodity - we can't control it; but we maximize its potential by living our best life.

Here's a better example as I step into the taboo of including something very personal in today's post. Since my divorce sixteen years ago, I've been estranged from my family...but I had a choice to make - dwell on the past or move forward and create a new life, and family. I chose the latter, and although sprinkled with moments of sadness, with help from Sheila, two pups, and even a therapist here and there, focusing on today and tomorrow became priorities over worrying about yesterday.

The key to maintaining a focus on tomorrow is all about forgiveness—possibly the toughest word to define and then incorporate into your life. Forgiveness doesn't have to mean you forget; just let the past be just that—the past. I can't change it, and it doesn't have to define me, but I'm still a work in progress.

Wrapping up Reflections for 2024, I only missed one Sunday morning post. Consistent with every post, it has been my wish to you for a day ahead that's spectacular. I hope you make it a day filled with the love you have for the people most important in your life, combined with time to make new memories to appreciate tomorrow. Go for those eleven-second therapeutic hugs I always recommend, and don't waste time worrying about things you forgot to do over the holidays.

Happy Sunday...or Monday on the other side of the world!
​

Waste your money and you’re only out of money,
but waste your time and you’ve lost a part of your life.
Michael LeBoeuf

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
Barack Obama

It takes a long time to become young.
Pablo Picasso