Seize Each Fleeting Day

It seems like only yesterday that I was playing on my high school baseball team, surfing waves along the California coast, completing my college undergraduate and graduate studies, fulfilling an overseas military assignment, getting married, and soon thereafter, watching our three daughters ride their Big Wheels (remember those?) down the sidewalks in front of our Southern California home. These are precious memories.

What seems like moments ago, my wife and I were celebrating our 25th and 50th wedding anniversaries, our daughters’ college graduations and weddings, the arrivals of our grandchildren and their college graduations and marriages, and the births of our greatgrandchildren. These are precious memories as well.

Yesterday’s count, fifty fleeting years ago: My wife and I, three daughters, and a cat. Today’s count, fifty fleeting years later: My wife and I, three daughters, their husbands, fifteen grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and three dogs within the expanded family.

The fleeting nature of time is similar to how a recorded movie races ahead when pushing the fast-forward mode on the remote control unit. Days, weeks, and years can seem like yesterday. Thus, my message today focuses on the importance of seizing each day and being grateful for every moment of each day.

One of the startling facts of life is that time moves on. It never stops; it is non-recoverable, irreversible, fixed, and limited. We all have the same twenty-four hours in a day and the same 168 hours in a week at our disposal—thus the importance of seizing the gift of each quickly vanishing day.

The latin term for “seize the day” is carpe diem, which is a phrase used by the Roman poet, Horace (65 BC) to express the idea that “one should enjoy life while one can.”

Wise planning for the future is a good thing and is a good investment of time. I do this a lot. But doing so at the expense of spending quality time in the moment with our beloved family members, close friends, neighbors, and work associates can be regrettable. Choose to seize every precious moment of every day!

We can begin a renewed commitment to seize each fleeting day and enjoy an enhanced quality of life by approaching each day with optimism, expressing love often to those that we love, expressing gratitude for the beauties of nature, spending more quality time with family members and other loved ones, and being kind, respectful and helpful to others. Simply speaking, do good things as you seize each and every fleeting day and enjoy an elevated quality of life.

About the Author

Richard K. Harder is founder and owner of Lead Smart Consulting LLC (formerly Richard Harder & Associates), a management consulting firm that specializes in leadership and organizational development. He is also an adjunct instructor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Dixie State University, St. George, Utah and senior adjunct instructor in the College of Business and Public Management at the University of LaVerne, LaVerne, California. He earned a master’s degree in healthcare management from California State University at Los Angeles and degrees in business and hospitality management from San Francisco State University and the City College of San Francisco respectively. His professional mission is to assist leaders in both domestic and professional settings in their effectiveness at leading highly productive teams as well as improving the quality of life for themselves and others. Richard can be reached by email at richard@ leadsmartconsulting.org.