The conversation came up around the campfire the other day about favorite foods. One person said “Man, I love steak. If I had to choose my last meal, I’d have a big ‘ol steak and a baked potato, with chocolate cake after.”
Then the next guy went on. ‘I’d have barbecued ribs, …” and so on and so on, until all eyes turned to me. I let ‘em stew for a while and finally replied:
“I don’t ever want to know what my last meal is gonna be..Each one might be my last meal. I’m gonna live each day like it was my last, but do my darnedest to make sure it isn’t.” That was a little to contemplative for them so they changed the topic and started B.S.ing again.
But this is truly something I believe in. You can’t live your life worrying about what has happened in the past or what might happen in the future. You can plan, and work towards a goal in the future but what you truly have control of is what you are DOING today, this moment. This doesn’t mean abandoning your long term goals and dreams. but rather having a series of short term and intermediate goals that will add up to achieving the long term goals.
While I was training for my marathon I had a real good illustration of this principle. I had the goal to complete a marathon a long ways off. 18 weeks. That was the long term goal. In order to do that, I had to achieve weekly goals of workouts I had planned out. To achieve the weekly mileage total I had to achieve a daily run distance. Each day all I could control was that day’s run that I was doing at that point. When the time to run came, I was the only one that made the decision to step out the door. I did each days run one step at a time. By achieving each day’s running goal, I was closer to the bigger goal of running a marathon.
Cameron Hanes has made a point of pointing out that if you have a destination in mind, you should enjoy the journey. Hence, if you want to be a trophy hunter you should enjoy all the work that goes into that, improving your accuracy whether bow or rifle, mastering your woods skills, studying your quarry, selecting your gear, getting physically in shape, so that when that opportunity of a lifetime comes you are prepared for it.
So what I was trying to convey to my campfire buddies was that I was going to make every meal the best it could be. I was going to savor the accomplishments of the day, since it made me that much closer to a greater goal. So I challenge each of you to achieve something every day that you know is taking you towards something worthwhile.
