Can You Spare 7,300 Days?

If you live to be 80 years old (or as a pessimist would say, if you die at 80), you will have lived 29,220 days. (Counting Leap Years)

Yeah, that’s all!

If you don’t count the first 18 years of childhood, that means you have 22,645 days of adulthood stretching before you to do with as you wish.

If you spend six years obtaining your Bachelor’s Degree (be real, almost no one gets a degree in four years), you have spent 2,191 days in post High School education.  Let’s not think about a Graduate Degree, oaky?!

Now, we are down to 20,454 days left to dance in the sun, travel, make love, listen to music, make music, watch movies, clean house, take driving vacations, visit family, do karaoke with friends, and, oh yeah…work.

What about raising a family?  Can we still do that?  I just watched a segment on The Today Show which discussed the mixed messages from high profile mom CEO, COO and CIO’s, and I would still be lost if I was trying to live my life according to them or anyone else, because it’s really all about time.

If you have two kids, two years apart, you will spend 20 years raising them to adulthood.

7,304 days out of your 29,220 to be the one to…

• watch the umbilical chord fall off
• clean that first tar-like poop off a brand new bottom
• count their little fingers and toes a million times
• kiss their little fingers and toes a million and one times
• see their first smile (even though it was only gas)
• see their first recognition of dad
• witness the discovery of a foot
• witness the confusion over where the foot went
• let them go to take their first step
• kiss the boo-boo when they fall
• lick frosting off little fingers and toes
• cry as you drop them off at their first day of school
• help them with homework, peer pressure, winning, losing, sibling rivalry and their first crush
• help them decide whether or not to lie, cheat, steal, have sex, take drugs, get piercings or chase their dreams
• cry as you wave goodbye for their first day of college

That 7,304 days is only 25% of the entire time you are alive.  25% of your life is all it takes to raise your own kids to adulthood.

That’s all, just 25% of all the days you have available to chase your dreams, and live your life.  You might live longer, or you might not.  Either way…

• The new car can wait.
• The larger house can wait.
• The extra laptop can wait.
• The new iPad can wait.
• The latest SmartPhone can wait.
• The premium cable package can wait.
• The new furniture can wait.
• The daily Starbucks run can wait.
• The “Glass Ceiling” can wait for you to break through.

Your baby doesn’t wait…she grows up without you if you choose to spend that 25% of your time somewhere else.

Believe me, raising your own kid instead of paying someone else to do it is hard, yet well worth your 25% investment…..even if they never say a word of thanks.

Just wait for the grandkids to show you how karma works.