Imagine with me for a minute.  It’s your birthday.  You’re preparing to spend the day celebrating.  You get up and and discover an email in your inbox.  You open the email and find the following message:

 

“Hi there!  We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected to receive the sum of $86,400 per day, starting today, for the rest of your life.  There is only one requirement.  You must spend $86,400 per day or you will lose it.”

 

Wow!  You will receive $86,400 per day for the rest of your life as long as you spend every dollar each day!  No carryover allowed!  That should be easy, right?  You begin to think of how you will spend the full $86,400 each day.  It starts out being a pretty easy exercise.  Day 1, you purchase a new car.  The new Audi S6 looks good.  Or maybe the sporty Jaguar XK is better.  That would take care of the first day’s required spending.  Days 2 and 3, you purchase a house.  You can put an $86,400 down payment on a house, and then pay it off the next day.  Depending on the area of the country in which you live, you should be able to find a nice home at that price.  That takes care of days 2 and 3.  Day 4, you pay off your bills.  No more worrying about your credit card or that loan you made for your car.  This is clearly not as much fun as buying a new car or new house but now you’re debt free.  Day 4 is spent.  Day 5, you buy all the cool electronic gadgets you’ve been wanting.  You buy a new iPhone, some new sound equipment, a new computer, and some games.

Now, it’s beginning to get a little more difficult to spend every last penny of your $86,400 each day.  But you keep trying.  Day 6, you decide to pay off your parents’ home mortgage.  Day 7, you give money to some friends.  Day 8, you open an Individual Retirement Account, a savings account, and an investment account.

Now, you’re feeling the pressure.  You’re losing ideas about how to spend every dollar each day.  For some of us, we could probably keep up the required spending each day for a few weeks or maybe even a few months.  But eventually, we would simply run out of creative, useful ways to use the money.

Guess what?  Each day of your life, you are given exactly 86,400 seconds to spend.  You must spend each second to the best of your abilities.  There is no carry over.  What you don’t spend, you lose.  There are no guarantees that you will receive 86,400 seconds tomorrow.  In real life, the seconds you are given each day are infinitely more valuable than the money you were given in the imaginary story.  But the same “use it or lose it” principle applies.  Once the day is over, the time you were given for that day is spent.  What will you do?  How will you make sure you are making the most of your 86,400 seconds each day?

There is no greater tragedy than looking back at the end of our lives and realizing we have misspent our fortune of time.  When I was a college student working in the funeral home of a small Midwestern university town, I often wondered about the life of those individuals whose funeral services we arranged.  I wondered, did she or he have regrets about how their 86,400 seconds each day?  Did she live life with purpose and honor?  In whose life did she make a profound difference?  If she had one more day to live, what would she do?

How can you and I live a life that fulfills our divine purpose and calling?  How can we avoid looking back and realizing we wasted our fortune?  Here are three steps you can take today that will enable you to spend the life you’ve been gifted with in a way that will make a major impact on the influence and meaning of your life.

Have a Vision for Your Life

“I want to live with purpose,” many of my coaching clients say, “but where do I start?”  It all starts with a “vision”.

“Vision” is the strong belief and knowledge of “what could be…and should be”, says pastor Andy Stanley in his book,  Visioneering.  Your true vision will grab you and not let go.  You think about it when you wake up and when you go to bed.  It will drive you and it will motivate you.  It will guide your planning process.  It will be the center of your life and of your thinking.

How do you find your vision?  Often, your vision finds you.  It often starts with a very personal belief that something in your life or the world could be (and should be) different.  Look at the lives of people who have done great things in the world.  Look at their vision (I promise…they had one).  That vision likely drove everything they did and influenced every decision they made.

So, how do you recognize and understand your vision?  First of all, be conscious of your thoughts about “what could be and what should be” in the world.  Take stock of the skills and abilities that have been created within you.  Remember, you have been given those skills for a purpose.  Frederick Buechner, one of America’s foremost Christian writers and theologians said, “The place where God calls you is where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”  What gives you great joy?  What skills do you possess?  What is a great need in the world?  Think on these things and begin to connect a need in the world with what gives you joy.  Pray that you will be open to understanding your most divine vision of life.

Create the Plan

Identify what is standing between where you are now and where you have been called (your vision).  Reflect on what has brought you success in the past, then use that understanding to build a step-by-step plan to help you close that gap between where you are and where you need to be to live your vision.  Set specific action goals with target dates.  Those goals might be starting your college education, participating in a mission trip, or forging a mentoring relationship with someone who is doing what you are being called to do.  When setting these goals, make sure they are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and have a Time-table.

Move Forward with Your Vision

Now, create ways to hold yourself accountable for executing your plan and reaching your goals.  Create “ticklers” in your calendar system, enlist a close friend or family member to remind and encourage you, and create rewards for yourself when you reach milestone steps or goals.  If you stumble, don’t beat yourself up.  Instead, ask, “what did I learn from that setback?” and move forward.

Above all else, keep listening.  If you constantly listen and reflect, you will begin to understand the purpose for which you were created.  Cast your vision, create your plan, and move your life forward in purpose.  If you do this, you’ll be wisely spending that great graduation gift you were given; the 86,400 seconds you have each day of your life.  Go and spend it well!

 

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