A very Dear friend of mine ‘Kay’ travelled to the United States sometime last year and got me a book! One of Malcom Gladwell’s, ‘The Outliers’. Prior to that time, I had heard so many amazing things about the book, I even referenced the’10,000hour rule’, but I never read the book. It turned out to be a very interesting read.
But this writing is not about the book. Kay wrote something on the first page of the book before he handed it to me. He said “Nkiru, remember not to go through life as if it were a rehearsal, always put in all you can at all times”. In my early days in life, I was that kid who always tried to do everything right, and I grew up to be an adult with this attitude.
As I read what he wrote, I remember thinking, “this is exactly what you needed to hear girl, you really do not go through life daily as if it were your last day”. The world is so busy, we all are so busy, the last thing the average human thinks about is when his/her last day would be.
For about three (3) months now, I have made a very conscious effort to practice Mindfulness. And I came to this conclusion, we spend so much time fussing about the mistakes of yesterday and how life may end up screwing us up in the future, that we forget about what it really means to be ALIVE. And just like Gladwell’s 10,000hour rule, we have mastered this behavior so well that it has become a part of us.
Inasmuch as I try to do everything right, most times they do not turn out the way I wanted. what I am trying to say is, I fail sometimes, but I have also learnt from Seth Godin that ‘Winners quit(lose) all the time, they just quit the right stuff and at the right time’.
If life were a movie scene, we would scratch and record another scene and the essence of the scene wouldn’t be lost. But it is not. The truth is, ‘THIS MOMENT, RIGHT NOW IS ALL YOU HAVE’. So you decide, would you rather spend it fussing over ‘what could have been’ or ‘what would be’, as against ‘what is’.
Your life is not a rehearsal, don’t leave it without giving it your all. BE MINDFUL.