10,000 Days
Twenty seven
point three nine seven two six years.
Almost three decades.
The thought came to me- and kept coming back to
me- that there is something remarkable in that number.
I was
sitting next to my wife, listening to her talk while I drove and it occurred to
me that we have spoken to each other every day since we met and doing a rough
calculation in my head, figured it had
to be over 10,000 days.
12,974 to be exact.
That’s a big
number, but what does it mean?
What else
have I done over 10K times?
One of my
favorite movies is Groundhogs Day.
Bill Murray gets stuck in a time loop and relives the same day over and over and
over… at first confused, then finding ways to use it for his own personal
benefit, then realizing that if there is no tomorrow, there are no consequences
– "I can do whatever I want to", then becoming bored and seeing the uselessness
of that existence and wanting to kill himself to be free- but even that doesn’t
work.
So at last he finds something worth doing- he sees that a woman in his
life is actually worth knowing, and loving- and uses his ability to build on what he has learned each day
to woo her. She being a savvy and real person senses that she is being
manipulated and rejects him.
At this
point he gives up.
Not on living ~
But on playing
games.
He comes
across a homeless man. Someone he has seen before but not noticed. The old man is cold and alone in an alleyway.
He takes him to a diner to give him some hot food. The Old man smiles and
eagerly eats. Later he finds the old man in the same alley way passed out. He
gets him to the hospital. The old man dies. He is told it was just his
time. “Not today” he says. But no
matter how he tries, day after day, he cannot change the old man’s fate.
He takes up
piano lessons using money he easily gets from being observant. He helps a car full
of old woman when they get a flat, being Johnny on the spot to change their
tire. He gets to a tree just in time to catch a boy that falls and “never
thanks me- oh well, see you tomorrow”.
Later we see
him again at the towns Groundhog dinner party- with him playing jazz piano!
He steps off
the stage and is greeted by locals as if they knew him for years. The love of
his life- that he has stopped pursuing - is amazed. He excuses himself to
perform the Heimlich maneuver on the mayor, just in time.
She sees something in
him that was not there before.
Later he is with his love alone in his room,
just talking- connecting.
They fall
asleep together.
He wakes up,
and it is the next day ~ Finally.
I go through
each day doing some of the same things, over and over.
Do I have a
purpose?
Is there a plan?
Am I
paying enough attention to what is right in front of me?
What if I
systematically use my NEXT 10K days to accomplish something that I really want to do? That I plan for…
On purpose?
What will I attract?
Of course I
don’t have to stretch it out that long
- how about the next 1000 days? Or 100?
What do you
want to accomplish? Who can you
help? What can you do?
Today.
