I recently read a Dear Abby column that shared a story about a man whose wife had died. You could feel his pain as you read the letter and felt his sense of loss. He wrote to the columnist not because he wanted to share his story, but more as a forewarning to others to treat each day as precious.

While I don’t spend any time on regrets in life, I’m sure I could create a list of all of the opportunities that I waited too long to respond to or too many doors that closed due to my inaction.

The problem with waiting until tomorrow is that when it finally arrives, it is called Today. And, today only stops by for a limited time. When she’s gone, she never comes back for a visit.

Since my company is Upside Thinking, I try to live every moment on the upside and stay away from negativity. I liken it to having created a force-field like a superhero where when I feel it from yards away, I begin running in the opposite direction. However, I do believe that it is important for each one of us to pause long enough to remind ourselves that we get only so long to live our lives. There are only so many moments from the day of our birth to the day that we stop breathing.

Time stops for no one and is the great equalizer of mankind – young, old, rich, poor, we all get the same 24 hours a day to create our own greatness, making it imperative that we cherish each moment. She doesn’t care about our dreams or big vision, our projects or gonna-do lists. And, she doesn’t stop for our great excuses or creative reasons why. She just keeps on ticking.

There are countless opportunities that present themselves to us each and every day. We all have them. My challenge to you is for you to take an inventory and at the end of each day, stop and ask yourself, “What did I do with the last sixteen, eighteen, or twenty hours? Did I seize every opportunity that was presented to me? How can I be more present tomorrow?”