Every day is a second chance. Yep that sounds great, but it isn't necessarily true. One day, for each of us will not be a second chance because we will never wake up. I think a better quote is "never put off to tomorrow what you can do today".
Whenever I read a quote like the one above I think of my wife. We started dating in July 1999. After dating for a couple of weeks, Sharon opened up to me and told me she was an alcoholic and asked me to help her to quit. It was a good sentiment, but one that she never followed through on. At one point, after we started living together we decided to start diaries. Once she passed away, I read through her diary and kept mine handy for the same time period to see how our outlooks matched up. A lot of her diary at around that time was about lying to me about her drinking and how she didn't "feel" like stopping just yet. I would write about how I thought she was drinking and lying about it on some days, and on how she seemed to be making progress on others. Meanwhile, hers would be about how she snuck out from work to buy a bottle and where she was hiding it. She would mention when she was grabbing a drink etc. etc. She believed she had lots of time to stop her drinking. Well, for her, a second chance was always around the corner, right up until her drinking killed her. My wife had an addiction. She realized this, wanted to stop, but never took sustainable action. It ended up killing her. It's easy to point at my wife and say "well yeah, but that was an extreme case!" But was it really? How many people do you know who are obese and yet do not change their diets or their exercise regiments to get in better shape? How many people do you know who go out most weekends and tie one on? How many people do you know who smoke regularly? All of these are addictions too. And they are very hard to break. Oftentimes, people give up one addiction only to bring another into their life. I will give you a personal example. When I was younger, I drank very heavily. I gave it up to help Sharon stop drinking. Back in college I had given up drinking, but went back to it after a while, because I felt not drinking was hurting my social life (this wasn't necessarily true). By the time I met Sharon, I was drinking out of boredom, and was looking for a reason to quit, since I believed it was a problem for me as well. Right after giving up drinking, I gained a lot of weight. When I started dieting, I noticed that my cigar smoking went from a casual habit of one or two a week to a daily habit. Similar to other "addicts" I was changing from one addictive habit to another. It has taken me years to realize this though. In fact, I just realized this the other day after reading an article about poor eating habits and their similarities to other addictive behaviors. So what are my addictive behaviors now? I am still battling with maintaining a low-carb diet. At the same time, I have added positive behaviors such as working out and push ups to the mix. Working long hours also seems to be a vice that I am driven to do. While working out is positive, I truly believe that I use it as a distraction to help get my dopamine high similar to how drinking, eating, or cigars gave me that high in the past. I notice that others also have their own little addictions going on...whether they want to admit to them or not. In the end, I find that I am always striving to better myself. I find it is best not to put off to tomorrow what I can be doing today. When I fail to keep up with something I am struggling with, I try not to look at it as tomorrow is another chance. That is such whiny bullshit. Instead, I look at it as a chance to better improve on the work I tried to accomplish yesterday. Beating addictions is hard. In my life, I have now beaten two. I have not had a drink since 1999, and I gave up cigars in 2003. To this day, I still get an occasional urge to smoke a cigar! Talk about the power of habit! I am still struggling to cut carbs out of my life. Diabetes runs in my family (as does alcoholism) and the carbs turn to sugar in your bloodstream. Pretzels and coffee rolls seem to be my major downfalls. As for working out and work in general, I will continue to try and work out daily. Meanwhile, it's hard to say how much of my day is work and how much is life. My work day is long, but broken down into many moments. I also home school my daughters during the day and take time to talk and play with them. I also do a lot of extra reading during the day that is only loosely tied to my stocks. I actually enjoy reading about the industries that I cover, so its hard to say how much of the extra reading is directly tied to the stocks I cover specifically. When I cover an industry, I try to become an expert in that industry. So there is a fine line between work and pleasure for me. I have rambled on long enough here. Please note, though, that I don't believe tomorrow is a second chance. Today is what you have, and there is no time better to make a positive change than right now. Because in the end, there will come a day for all of us when tomorrow will never come. Or a day when changing will be too late. Regrets suck. Even so, I think they must suck worse as you give yourself a shot of insulin or while you are relearning to walk after having some of your toes amputated. Or while you lie dying in a coma. Some regrets you have to live with. Some you don't. Try to have the wisdom to know the difference.
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