Don't Count the Days....

Like many people I was reminded this weekend of a great many profound quotes from the life and times of Muhammad Ali.  His face is forever on the Mount Rushmore of sports and his many great boxing accomplishments are etched in the history books where they’ll remain for all time.  His civic deeds will always be remembered and his name will stand alongside many others who have impacted humanity. As I read through so many things he said over the years one that resonated with me was “Don’t count the days, make the days count”.

Too often in life we find ourselves in situations where we are simply treading water or, as the quote says, counting the days.  My son just wrapped up his last day of first grade. He is making plans for summer and wanted to know what I would be doing this summer.  I laughed and somewhat sarcastically walked him through my day/week. Monday through Friday are getting up early, driving an hour to work, spending 8 hours at my desk, and driving an hour home to cook dinner, get him cleaned up, and tucked into bed.  Then repeat 4 times and it is Saturday when I get to go grocery shopping, mow the lawn, and clean up the house. Then Sunday rolls around and for us that is our relaxing day to do what we want. At the time I didn’t really think about what I was saying to him. I made my life sound miserable. As I depicted it in that moment I basically hate 6/7 of my life with only the weekends, and really one day then, as rays of hope.

Obviously my weekends trump weekdays most of the time but I enjoy my career. I am fortunate to be part of a great team of people with a common goal. We are partners and friends. We have fun at work and try our best to positively impact the lives of those we assist as we earn our livings.  It is work; but it is work I enjoy far more than things I’ve done earlier in my career. I am able to come to work with like-minded people who I both like and respect and do something that I believe helps people while still allowing me to provide for my family.  I also left out the evenings when the three of us, my wife included, go to the baseball fields, play with the dogs, go fishing, watch television or any number of other things we enjoy doing.

As I read and reread Ali’s greatest quotes I kept thinking about the “Don’t count the days, make the days count” line and for some reason thought back to the conversation with my son. I don’t want him to have the idea in his head that I am just counting the days waiting for something better.  I don’t want him to think that is what life and work are about.  I’m realistic and know work is never going to be our favorite thing to do but it should be something we can take pride and some joy in doing. If we’re not, then we’re in the wrong job or with the wrong company.

Sure we’ll count down the days to big events, vacations, important dates, and things like that but we should never be just rolling out of bed in the morning and slogging off to some job we hate at a company where we are miserable.  We all deserve to be in a career situation we find joy in, working with a good group of people, and be doing something we’re good at.  As parents, or even spouses, we have responsibilities that cannot be escaped but trust me, meeting them doesn’t mean we have to be miserable. We certainly don’t want to teach our children that being an adult means being miserable in your career, and consequently life, and just counting the days until you’re done.  If nearly 8 years in recruiting has taught me anything it is that you never know what sort of opportunities might exist for yourself until you look for them. 

I learned early in life that it can be taken away from you without warning.  The death of someone close to me served as a cautionary tale for not only planning for tomorrow but also living for today.  As Ali said, “Don’t count the days, make the days count”.  Tomorrow is not promised to any of us so we shouldn’t waste a single day.