Day 33 of 103in365: Carpe Diem

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

   Old Time is still a-flying;

And this same flower that smiles today

   Tomorrow will be dying.

This is an excerpt from a poem by Robert Herrick, a 17^th century poet. It is discussed by Robin Williams in the movie Dead Poets Society. In the scene, Robin Williams is showing the young men in the class he is teaching, all these pictures of past students from their school. As he is showing them the old pictures, he points out that they all have something in common. They have all passed away. (He puts it a bit more bluntly, but you get the point).

He refers to the ones that have come before them to bring attention to that fact that like all of the men in the pictures, we all will one day die too. This does not have to be a morbid thought. To the contrary, Mr. Williams is speaking to the idea that since we have only a finite time on this earth, we should not waste it. We should not settle for less than great.

He goes on to teach them the Latin phrase, Carpe Diem . Seize the Day! The scene ends with Mr. Williams pretending to be the voices of the former students from the pictures. The voices are telling the youth men in his class to “Seize the Day” and to “Make your lives extraordinary. “

I believe it can be a healthy exercise to remind oneself that we are not always going to be here. It can put our daily lives into a bigger perspective and remind us that what we think is big deal in our lives today, maybe is not worth all the effort and stress we are assigning to it. There is a whole day ahead of us and we need to Seize every moment.

I like to think of what kind of man I want to be in 40 years from today. (First of all, I hope to be here 40 years from today, which is a big part of why I am on this 103in365 journey.) I like to imagine myself at 80, and think about what I need to be doing between now and then to not only get there, but to get there with too few regrets to mention. (“Regrets, I have a few. But then again, too few to mention”).

One of the things that I am doing to make sure I have too few regrets to mention is taking advantage, and appreciating, the opportunities that I have in my day to day life. This is much better than complaining about the opportunities I may not have and how unfair it all is. (I have tried that kind of thinking and it is dumb).

Another part of this quest is to stop putting off the things that can be done today (and maybe need to be done most days) to get me closer to my short term and long term goals. Not just my weight and fitness goals, but any of my goals. (Note to self: take the time to define and write down more of my goals). I will occasionally blog about the many different ways I am following through with that as the year goes on. 

In attempting do all of this well, one of the many things I am doing is demanding of myself that I am purposefully “spending” time throughout my day and not just “killing” time or simply “getting through the day”. This has helped me to take advantage of moments that I may have been formally doing things like channel surfing for some show to catch my interest and after and hour or two, realize that I never did find anything worth watching but not for a lack of trying.

That is time I am now spending writing, creating, working out, planning so that I can be eating smarter and spending more quality time with my family and friends. I still am watching a bit of TV, and I do mean a bit. Only fraction of what I was doing before.

I was watching a Dave Ramsey dvd a week ago (he is brilliant BTW! We are huge fans!) He was saying to “throw a brick through your TV and get a clue about your own life!” I can have the tendency to waste and kill a lot of time just staring at it that thing. (That is one of the big things I have changed in the past 33 days) He then went on to say the average millionaire, can not tell you what happened on any given TV show. They are too busy making their own lives richer, and richer with money too. (There are some bonehead millionaires too, but he was not talking about them).

I have lost touch with almost all of the shows I have been working so hard to follow, and you know what, it feels great! It is kinda cool to be the one that did not see Dancing with the Stars last night because I was too busy getting healthier and “spending time” instead of wasting time. Don’t get me wrong, I think that a bit of watching specific TV that you are really enjoying and that is being used as a finite bit of unwinding time or down time or a reward for a day well fought, can be a great thing. (I have a few shows like that right now, although they are on dvd and Netflix which makes it easier to watch them purposefully and on my time) If that is what Dancing with the Stars is for you, I did not mean to ruffle your proverbial feathers. Dance on!

Carpe Diem means (to me at least) that we have to purposefully Seize the meaningful things, time, and ventures we want to be a part of our days, in order to really be able to make our lives extraordinary. Go out there and Carpe what gets you a little closer to the person you want to become.

Make your day extraordinary!

Scuba