Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today…

I never really understood the value in that advice until the day I met John.

It was an early Saturday morning in October, and I was driving to a charity golf event up in Northern California. I was really looking forward to playing in this event, and I was even more excited because in order to get there, I’d be driving along one of my favorite stretches of asphalt in El Dorado County, called Latrobe Road. It’s a ten-mile drive that connects Highway 16 with Highway 50, and if you can imagine someone scribbling on a map with a crayon, that’s what Latrobe Road kinda looks like.

As I turned onto Latrobe, I floored it like a NASCAR driver getting the green flag! If you’ve ever had the experience of driving a sports car down a two-lane country road, then you know what I’m talking about. I had the wind in my hair, the gas pedal down, the music cranked up, and all I was thinking was “THIS IS MY DAY!”

But in a moment, everything changed.

As I rounded a blind corner, I came upon a man frantically waving his arms in an attempt to slow me down. (Talk about raining on your parade!) But what I hadn’t realized is that this guy was the driver of an SUV that had just been in a head-on accident with a motorcycle, and I was one of the first people on the scene.

For a moment, my mind was saying, “GO… JUST GO!” “Let someone else deal with it!”

But something inside me said, “STOP!”

So I pulled over, dialed 9-1-1, and simultaneously jumped out of my car to see how I could help.

The scene wasn’t pretty.

The motorcyclist was face down in the middle of the road, and there was twisted metal and debris everywhere. The impact from the collision had caused the rider’s helmet to come off, and his injuries were severe.

As I knelt down to try to revive him, I witnessed what I believed to be his last breath.

The 9-1-1 operator instructed me to turn him over and administer CPR. By this time, a couple more people had arrived and offered to help. As we gently turned him over onto his back, the hopelessness of the situation became very apparent.

Sadly, our efforts to revive him were futile, and as the paramedics showed up and took over, all that was left to do was to cover his lifeless body with one of those familiar yellow tarps.

I found out later, his name was John. He was a husband, a father, and by all accounts, he was a really good guy.

And he was my age.

That got me thinking about my own mortality. And I’m pretty sure that John did not leave his house that day thinking, “today is my last day.”

But what if today was your last day?

What have you been putting off until tomorrow?

I decided, in that very moment, that I would no longer put off until tomorrow what I can do today. I decided to begin taking the advice of my coach and mentor, Les Brown, who encourages us to, “Live full, die empty.”

This life is not a dress rehearsal, my friends. We only get one shot.

Please repeat these words out loud: “No more excuses! Today is MY day!”

Thank you for the opportunity to share these thoughts with you, and make today great.

J. Shoop – Contributing writer
www.coachshoop.com

For more information on how to connect with J., send an email to jshoop@jshoop.com.

**********
This week, I’m pleased to bring to you some “guest MOJO,” from our very own J. Shoop.

Many of you know of J. Shoop as one of our top producing Area Sales Managers for Western Bancorp, but you may not know that he is also an author, coach, and aspiring professional speaker. He recently released his first co-authoring project and we’re happy to have him as part of our team!

We welcome J’s insights for this week’s installment of Monday Morning MOJO!