Seize the Day!

By Gary Silverman, CFP®

Quite a few articles cross my desk. One that found its way there was about the importance of managing your time and not, through mismanagement, wasting it. In it was a quote from Seneca (cool guy, you might want to Google him):

What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily? For we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the major portion of death has already passed. Whatever years lie behind us are in death’s hands.

A bit morbid, but a great quote, and one you could discuss with your friends for a few hours. (If you don’t have any friends, buy me a coffee and we can discuss it). And it got me thinking. Actually, it got me playing in my head the scene in the movie, Dead Poets Society, where Robin Williams said, “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary!”

Now, I’m not one who thinks (and definitely not one who acts like) you should fill your day with intense, meaningful work. To me, taking time to figure out the latest changes in the tax code is no more or less important than taking time to play a computer game. For God’s take on it, read Ecclesiastes, though Solomon doesn’t specifically mention taxes or computers.

Then my mind drifted (like this column) to regrets I’ve had in life. Most of which were minor things. There was a place that sold cement statuary on highway 287. I always wanted to stop in and look. After years of passing it by I finally stopped in—only to find that it had closed.

Having played drums in my High School marching band, I was interested in going to see the percussion museum in Lawton. When I finally got around to planning a day to do so, I found out it had moved out-of-state.

And then I saw that the Horton Classic Car Museum in Nocona closed... another sight I had wished to see.

Thus, my rambling message today is carpe diem; go do, see, experience those things you’ve been putting off, for they may not be around when you finally get around to them. This includes friends and family. Our lives are finite and that person you’ve been wanting to get together with might not be around when you finally find the time.

Of course, if you have a mind that finds a lot of life and the world interesting, you’ll have to make a choice—hard to do it all. But I just urge you to consciously make that choice rather than letting the busyness of life (or the mundaneness) make the choice for you.

See you next week.

May God protect the innocents.