Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life

I made a placard for my eight-year-old son that says this old and very useful phrase and I gave it to him and explained it to him at breakfast one day. It sits by the window where he can see it when he walks into the dining room. It says, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life."

When I gave it to him, the purpose was to help him (and me) appreciate the value of making the little effort everyday to do the best - even in mundane tasks. After all, isn't there a saying that goes something like, "From a speck of dust a mountain is born"? 


I want my son to be a person who always does his best in everything... I want him to make the effort to succeed... 


I seriously want him to be the person I always wanted to be.


I am about to turn 55-years-old. I think that's an odd situation. Fifteen years ago, I had just turned 40. Isn't life supposed to begin at 40? Or so I had heard. Fifteen years ago I was 40. In fifteen years from now I will be 70.


Where have the days and time gone? Why did I waste so much of it?


Time, my friends, is truly your only nonrenewable resource. 


Today truly is the first day of the rest of your life. Don't waste even a second of it.