Winner! Winner!

Image by hakan kaydu from Pixabay 

We wrap up our focus on self-development and lifelong learning with a story. 

Imagine this for a second: There is a $86,400 lottery drawing. Each one of us is automatically entered into it with no action required from our side. The odds to win this lottery are extremely slim, but someone has to win it and we did it!

On a daily basis, each of us receives a very generous prize: $86,400, wired to our private accounts for personal use, each morning.

This award comes with some restrictions:

• The lottery takes back any money not spent at the end of the day; we cannot carry it forward. Each day at 1 AM, we receive another $86,400 for that day.
• We cannot transfer money, we may only spend it.
• The prize can be discontinued at any time, with or without warning–even in the middle of the day.
• There is no way to run for another prize.

What would you do? Use all the money, to benefit yourself and the people you love? If so, let’s start doing it, here and now, because we already won this lottery; it’s the time in a day! Every day, we each have 86,400 seconds as a gift of life, and when the day finishes, any unused time is gone.

What we haven’t lived up that day is forever lost. Yesterday is forever gone! And there is no guarantee about tomorrow.

Each day the number of seconds available is refilled, but this can stop at any time, with or without warning. So, what are we going to do with these 86,400 seconds? Aren’t they worth so much more than the same amount in dollars, euros, pounds, or material possessions?

Think about that.

Let’s enjoy every second of our life, because time goes by much faster than we think. Let’s actively enjoy our time instead of trying to fill our time with passive activities.

Let’s make the only investment which really counts—the investment in meaning.

Yes, almost everything is possible in life and the sky is the limit. However, we can’t do everything at the same time, because our main resources—time and energy—are limited.

So let’s set our priorities based on our values. Let’s budget our time and talents.

Wildland Fire Leadership Challenge  - Digging a Little Deeper

• Assess your priorities. Are you spending your 86,400 wisely?
• Ask yourself the following questions daily:
• What did I do today to make something better for someone else?
• What did I do today to make myself a better person?

Here is a video version of the story:

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Share widely across the internet, this story's author is unknown. We want to thank NWCG Leadership Committee member Mauve Juarez, Monticetto Fire Department, for sharing it with us so we could share it with you.