This is Not a Dress Rehearsal

Saturday, August 12, 2006 | 0

By Jamie Charter, MS, CPDM

"Too often we become so consumed with how we spend our days that we lose track of how we are spending our lives". ~ Sally Warner

I continue to be amazed at how fast time goes by. I remember being a kid and always looking forward to events, which seemed so far off in the future. The days, weeks, months and years seem to be ticking by at a pace that is difficult to fathom. My fifteen and a half-year-old daughter echoes this impression, so I know it is something that may have changed, perhaps in terms of our self-expectations due to the advent of technology.

Fax, cell, email, instant messenger, remote controls, voicemail, car faxes...one look around any store or public setting will reveal more people than not, talking on cell phones, various cell phones ringing in a myriad of tones; we have become accessible every minute of every day!

In a blink of an eye or a heartbeat, it could all end at any moment. My friend, who had been an employment lawyer, mother of two young children and president of absolutely everything, has had a resurgence of her cancerous tumors. She had been going for twice weekly treatments in Stockton, hoping for the gift of more years. She passed away in August of 2005.

A workers compensation insurance claims adjustor associate of mine told me yesterday her best friend and the mother of three daughters, ages 13, 17 and 19 passed away suddenly. The funeral was last week. As she told me, "you just never know".

And, as I had written in part one of the article series, Violence in the Workplace, a workers' compensation attorney I knew was murdered at his desk on June 14, 2006, sending shockwaves through the community.

This has gotten me thinking about the importance of the mark we make on a day-to-day basis with others. Do we help or harm through our energy and interactions? Do we promote a spirit of caring, support, loving and respect for others with whom we come in contact on a daily basis?

We cannot throw life into rewind, with a flick of our VCR remote control. This is it. Who among us has not made mistakes and wished we could recapture periods of life that may have dissipated due to choices we would not have made today? Are we looking out the windshield or constantly staring in the rear view mirror?

The important thing is to know that today, THIS DAY, could be a turning point.

We are all actors in someone else's play. We are also directors. What role are we playing?

Do we help or hinder? Do we use our talents to promote kindness or do we manipulate those in our lives through our actions to get what or where we want? Do we empower others or do we disempower and disable others to indulge ourselves? Do we spin a carefully crafted web and weave them into our dramas?

What sense of joy do we experience as we go through our day? Is it just the daily grind or do we seize the opportunities to inject a spirit of joy into all that we need to accomplish? And what if some of those things did not get done until tomorrow?

If it seems like I am talking to you, well maybe, just maybe, I am. I am also talking to myself.

We get one chance to live this life, to make an impact, to share all the riches of life. We can do this together, through a spirit of an open heart and being forthright. If we get jolted or scammed along the way because we have met someone on our path with impure integrity or who has been dishonest, it still does not, and cannot, fundamentally change who we are inside.

We have the chance to do some incredible things in this lifetime.

I bought myself a Nike hat: just do it, it says.

Whatever it is. Get involved. Feel it, cherish it, embrace it, love it, and create it. Be it.

Author Jamie Charter has been providing employment and litigation consulting services for 23 years through Charter and Company employment resource consultants. Jamie, on the faculty of WorkCompSchool, has authored many published articles on employment related subjects available through WorkCompCentral. Email: info@employerresourceconsultants.com; www.employerresourceconsultants.com.

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The views and opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of workcompcentral.com, its editors or management.