A lot of times our routines can take us over. They can serve as clouds that cover the possibilities of the existence you who are reading this has been blessed with. Whether in our personal lives, in our jobs, organizations,  and in our relationships, we begin to let patterns and the natural momentum of things simply carry us through our days.

How many of you have said to yourself, or heard a friend or co-worker say, “If I get through today… then I’ll be happy…” or “I can’t wait for this to be over…” This is a common symptom of passive living.

Unfortunately, I can tell you with certainty that today is the last January 19, 2012 of your lives. Fortunately, you get to choose how to live it.

And as Steve Jobs asserted when he talked about death, “Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is life’s change agent.” 

In every second, in every day, there lies moments that are special, where our practical thoughts and expectations of life give way to the audacious idea that anything is possible. These moments challenge the status quo, they energize us, they fuel us. But too often, they go overlooked, shrugged off in the spirit of efficiency and “plans”.

When we begin to look at life and the small moments and details that comprise it differently and  acknowledge these moments as people and organizations, our possibilities become limitless. Then, maybe one day, your days could be filled with “magic moments.”

This excerpt from Paulo Coehlo’s book and blog, “By the river Pieda, I sat down and wept,” says it best:

“You have to take risks.

We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

Every day, God gives us the sun–and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy.
Every day, we try to pretend that we haven’t perceived that moment, that it doesn’t exist–that today is the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow.

But if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover that magic moment.

It may arrive in the instant when we are doing something mundane, like putting our front-door key in the lock.
It may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us.

But that moment exists–a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles.”

Take some time today to consider how you can look at the small moments in your life that comprise the final today of your life.

– Zach