You Only Get One Life


The 1980’s movie Groundhog Day is arguably Bill Murray’s most popular movie. He plays a local TV weatherman who gets caught in an endless loop where he relives the same day repeatedly. He gets killed in an endless number of ways, has the same conversations over and over again, and can’t seem to escape.

It’s the movie version of the reset button on a video game. If you grew up in the 1980s or later, you know the experience of trying to beat a game, getting frustrated, and hitting the reset button over and over so you get endless lives.

It’s too bad real life doesn’t work that way. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a reset button to go back and re-do past mistakes? How cool would it be to have endless opportunities to have new life experiences or avoid those situations that cause us pain?

Unfortunately, you only have one life. We each have a limited number of days. There are only so many books you can write. There are only so many people you can meet. You can’t do everything or avoid every mistake.

James Baldwin said, “Best advice I ever got was from an old friend of mine who said, ‘You have to go the way your blood beats. If you don’t live the only life you have, you won’t live some other life at all.’”

You won’t live forever. This day you’re living won’t come around again. It only happens once. What will you do with this day you have been given, which will slip through your hands so quickly, and which you can never get back again?

You have a choice to make… so choose wisely.