They Got It Wrong

For years, we've been told that to enjoy life to the fullest, we should live each day as if it was our last.

The logic is simple: By choosing to live each day as if we have only one to live, we're bound to live that day more enthusiastically, more passionately, more thankfully. Overlooking the trivial -- which, not surprisingly, often accounts for a huge portion of the typical day -- and focusing instead on the truly important things will, the theory goes, help us live large.

It's a useful concept, a good one even, one that might motivate us to see beyond the minutiae, beyond the many aggravations that often prevent happiness and fulfillment and help us enjoy this life we're living.

But we are here to say that the idea of living each day as if it was our last is a shortsighted one. Backwards, actually. Because they -- whoever 'they' are -- picked the wrong day.

We at TJOW have a better idea. We believe that it would be a far better approach to live each day as if it were our first.

And, no, not Life: Day One. For many of us, that's too far back, with no useful memory of it. Being a newborn again is not what we had in mind. (But, come to think of it, being swaddled, kept warm by loving arms, and fed every few hours -- with absolutely no other responsibilities -- has its allure. Sounds like an idea for a new type of spa. Or a Woody Allen movie.)

No, not that first day. The other really special, memorable first days. The first day of kindergarten. The first day owning a bicycle. For many, that first Christmas. The day you learned to swim. That first sleep-over. The first day in Disneyland. Going to your first professional ball game (especially, for me, if it was at night). The first day of high school. The first day of driving a car on your own. The first day of college. That first big trip. The first day living in your own place. The first day meeting your sweetheart. The day you knew he or she was The One. The first day on that sought-after new job. The first day after getting the promotion. The first day being a parent.

There have been so many great first days.

Remember your first days? The anticipation, the fear? The mystery of the unknown? Not sleeping the night before, your mind filled with ideas too many to sort through? The electricity charging your every synapse, heightening the sensation at every nerve ending? How time seemed to stop, or at least, how it slowed to a crawl? Remember the excitement, the passion? Remember the joy?

That's being alive. That's living large.

First days are terrific in so many ways. The newness, the unknowing, the extent to which it's all so foreign, so amazingly new. Your senses are set in Overdrive. The colors seem brighter, the smells sweeter, the sounds more crisp. You notice everything. The stimulation envelops you, ensnares you. You become a very part of the moment, a very part of the place. You might forget to breathe, it's so exciting.

That's being alive. That's living large.

First days, by definition, are days of questions, of learning. Who are these people? What are these things? Why do things happen this way here? Where did all of this come from? When do I get to be a part of it? How can I make this a part of me? So much to assimilate, so many options.

That's being alive. That's living large.

The excitement, coupled with the learning, is what makes a first day, well, a first day. For that's what being alive, truly alive, is all about: Seeing for the first time, adding experiences, incorporating new ideas, exploring new concepts, feeling our way through a new world, becoming a part of it, and loving every minute of it.

(Tangentially, it's what we who spend our time as consultants do every day. It's one of the things that makes this line of work so very special. More on that next week.)

So, this week, live each day as if it's your first. Because there's nothing as exciting, as invigorating, as alive as that first day.