Sunday Story...Opening Night, Closing Day

Sunday Story…Opening Night, Closing Day

Remember how it easy it was to be excited on the first day of school? Or the first game of the season? Your first date? Wondering if the experience is going to be everything you hoped for? What if you approached every day with the attitude that today is opening day? Today is the day that the first impression gets made. Every phone call, every interaction, every word is new and fresh. In many ways this is true even with people we see every day.

Why can’t I wake up every morning and see the world with fresh eyes? What if I got up this morning just like a small child and saw everything like I had never seen it before in my whole life? Wouldn’t the world be an amazing place?

What if when I looked upon you, I saw you just as I did for the very first time? Full of wonder and inquiry, thirsting to know who you would be and what we might create together? And what if you looked at me with the same eyes…inquiring, adoring, wondering?

But let’s be honest, it is very, very difficult to keep those fresh eyes. It is hard to face the 100th or the 1,000th day with the same opening night jitters and anticipation as we did on day one. As a matter of fact it may be impossible.

And when I look upon you after 3 or 6 or 16 years I see so many days and nights, ups and downs, and good and bad moments that my vision is clouded by my perceptions. It is so hard to see with fresh eyes every day, to think with pure open mind, to feel purely without judgment, that it may be close to impossible.

So maybe I need to look on it from the other side…If it is too hard to act like every night is opening night maybe it is possible to view it like it was the last day.

Many years ago I asked one of my instructors (SahBumNim Asimo) what he did to keep his classes exciting and how he stayed so engaged after all the years of teaching. His answer was simple…”I teach every class like it was the last class I was every going to teach. As if I would never see these students again.” I have to admit I don’t always hit this mark. I would like to but I don’t always.

One day will be our last. I don’t know when but there will come a day that will be my last. What if that day was today? What if this was going to be the day that you weren’t going to wake from? Did you look at today, at the people around you, like you might never see them again? Did you treat them, the world around you like it might be the last memory of you they would ever have? Why not?

This concept…the one where we realize that today is the last day of our lives is not new. Yet almost none of us really live that way. How would I live, how would I speak, what would I say, where would I go if this was my last day? How do you want to be remembered if this was your last day?

The following quotation from a classic commencement address from Steve Jobs offers an idea:
When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important thing I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure -- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.


There is no reason not to follow your heart. There is no reason not to be the person you want to be. There is no reason not to live on purpose. There is no reason not to live consciously and with intent.

If this was an easy thing everyone would be doing it. Unfortunately many people don’t know what they don’t know. If you are reading this that is no longer true for you. You now know. You now have no excuse for not getting out there and starting. So pick one…Opening Night? Or Closing Day? Maybe both…get excited and antsy like Opening Night, be intent on leaving a legacy like Closing Day!


Do the work it is going to take to get to that point of living a life on purpose, with conscious intent. Find your passion and follow it every day. Do not let the world hammer you into a life of quiet desperation, a life of terminal normality. Act boldly. Act as if this were the first night of the performance that is your life. Act as if this were the last performance you will ever give.



Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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