One Chance

‘One Chance’. This is a popular phrase in Nigeria; it’s used in different ‘contexts’ but one of them is simply a reminder that in many instances we only have one chance – to do, say or take advantage of an opportunity.

One story I remember, from Sunday school, as a child is the story of the children of Israel taking 40 years to arrive at a destination that should have taken only 40 days. A whole generation died and missed the opportunity to get the promise at the end of their journey.

Why? This was because of choices they made again and again and again. So how about us; how are our lives being impacted by the choices we are making daily? That is worth pondering about.

I came across a quote which says, “Life becomes more meaningful when you realise the simple fact that you will never get the same moment twice”.

This is all about the power of moments and knowing that we don’t have the luxury of rewinding back our life to re-do the moments that we miss. We can only move forward, hopefully with learnings.

Have you ever had the opportunity to do or say something nice but you let the moment pass. It could be something as simple as a smile or a chance to talk to a stranger. You knew you should have ridden the waves of that moment but you chickened out or didn’t care enough to do so.

What if we approached life with the appreciation of how fleeting life truly is and how we may never get the same moments again. We don’t get younger with each passing day and we can’t keep putting off living in exchange for existing.

We have one chance at this life so where does that leave us? It leaves us with the decision to make all our ‘one chances’ count. And that will differ for all of us.

So what can we do?

Be present

Be present enough to notice the critical moments before they pass. These moments sometimes disguise themselves as mundane and ordinary so unless we are fully present, we might just miss them.

Be willing

Yes we might notice the moments but unless we are willing to take advantage of them, they still pass as if they weren’t there in the first instance.

Reflect

Yes we can’t rewind the moments but we must reflect on the ones we miss. This reflection helps us to take necessary corrective actions so we don’t miss the moments that are yet to come

Appreciate

We must appreciate the gift and privilege that each moment represents.

The more we appreciate them, the more likely we are to take advantage of them; the more the payback, benefit or feel good factor, the more we would look forward to and identify more moments. It becomes self perpetuating where we begin to see a ripple effect of the benefits of the moments we take.

Share

Some moments are meant to be shared with others and we don’t get the full benefits if we refuse to share them. We can laugh better when we laugh with others, we can have a lot more fun when we share certain opportunities. The important thing is to maximise each moments and share the ones that you can.

Thanks for reading and sharing my post. Have a wonderful week.