Motivation

Each day is a new chance to start over, to get things right, to set in motion the way that we really want to live. Each day is a trial, a series of decisions that can be right or wrong. It is easy to do what is most pleasurable in the short term, but difficult to exercise the self-discipline necessary to do what is in one's long term interests. But it is those long term interests that truly matter; when I look back five years from now will I look back and wish that I did more? Will I wish that I had been stronger?

I am strong, but I falter. There are things I know I should do, but sometimes I am tired. I tire from the constant struggle to improve, to make productive use of the most precious resource: Time. Time waits for no one and cannot be bought for any price. Each second that passes will never come again and brings us one second closer to the inevitable. While some might say this outlook is morbid, it is also inescapable. Those who deny their mortality or refuse to at least consider the infinite span of time in which they will no longer be present, live very dangerously, because the implications of our short lifespan are so profound.

I don't know where I was before I was born, or where I'll be after I die. Or when I will die, for that matter. I strongly suspect that there is no afterlife, just because it is the simplest explanation of everything. So, I should live this life as if it is all that I have, and to make the absolute most of every moment that I have the privilege of enjoying. Tomorrow is guaranteed to no one; as Jubal once said: 'There is no safety this side of the grave." So, when I am tired, when I am weak, I will have to remind myself the quiescence of this unstable existence and redouble my efforts.