If Today was Our Last

'How would I live out this day if I knew it was my last', is the first 'Morning Question' Robin Sharma asks in his book The Saint, the Surfer and the CEO. This simple yet important question forces us to ask if we should be living differently? How can we appreciate every day to its fullest. Furthermore, would we regret any of our past choices?

How would we live today if we knew it was our last? This question may confront us with the idea of death. But without thinking about dying, living becomes obsolete. Most of us do not know which day will be our last, but if we did, we would live without worry or regret. Many people live as if on autopilot, living our lives in a haze, planning much of our 'living' for after we retire or in our later years. We want to wait until we have more time, more money and fewer responsibilities. With both eyes to the future, how can we keep an eye on the present? Our lives are happening now. This is not a rehearsal or a practice run for the future, this is it. If we do not live life to the fullest now, when will we?

We have power over how we live our lives. We do not know what the future holds but we hold this present moment in the palm of our hands. We alone decide what to do with it. We may wonder when our 'real life' would start, when we will start to feel like adults and when we will begin to be satisfied. Satisfaction with our lives will come when we start living in the here and now. If we continually worry about which direction our lives are going, we will never make it across the street. This is the life we are so anxious to begin, and we should try to experience the beauty of it before it was ending.

We need to take responsibility for our own life choices and our life paths up until now. Things don't happen to us, we make things happen for ourselves. We should try to savor every part of the day and react positively to what each day brings. This keeps us in the present moment. Staying present allows us to appreciate the small things in life. And what are the big things in life, if not made up of all those wonderful small things?

Life is unpredictable, one never knows if this day will be the last. If we knew it was our last, many of us would try to rush around the world saying goodbye to everyone we loved. Instead, we should make sure all the people we love, know we love them every single day. We should be as present as possible in the place where we are, as we can only live in one place at one time. We should react with gratitude towards the universe for whatever it brings, accepting the challenge, the learning experience, the pleasure and the pain. This is not the dress rehearsal for our grand performance of life; this is the one and only performance of it. Try to live each and every day as it could be your last, not regretting anything and not leaving anything to chance. As Sharma says, "it's pretty incredible to know that every new day brings with it the opportunity to begin a whole new life."

Sharma, Robin. The Saint, the Surfer, and the CEO. 2003. Hay House Publications.