Start Now and Change Your Script

JMS episode 379 Start Now and Change Your Script

“If you’re not getting exposed to those new thoughts or new ideas, then you’re not effectively advancing the way you’re serving.”

For years, people kept telling me how incredible the show The Sopranos was. I finally sat down to watch it, but I made a massive mistake. I accidentally started on the first episode of season six instead of season one. By the time I realized my error, I had already watched the entire hour. That blunder completely ruined the suspense for the first five seasons because I already knew where certain storylines were headed. Even when things looked grim or perilous for characters, the tension was gone because I had already glimpsed the ending.

That experience got me thinking about how much it relates to life. It’s always amazing hearing the things people think when they look back on their life. When my grandfather was in a nursing home he gave some heartbreakingly solid advice. “Don’t do what I did.” He explained that he had spent his entire life working to provide for his family, but his work ultimately separated him from the very people he loved.

Then there is my close friend Lee Cockrell. After recording over 600 podcast episodes with I’ve learned a lot. When I asked him if he would do anything differently as a father, he shared that there was one thing that stood out. He wished he hadn’t left his wife, Priscilla, to raise their son alone so often while he traveled to for work. Similarly, James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, shared that he would give anything to go back 25 years and live just one more day with his kids at home. He wondered if he could have found a better compromise between his career and his family.

Three different men, three different lives, but the exact same reflection.

If you change nothing, you already know how your own story turns out. You will get older and look back with some feelings of regret. It may be that you wish you had spent more time with your kids, taken that vacation, wrote that book, or left that bad job. But unlike a television series, your ending has not been written yet. You know the script you do not want. That means today is the day to pick up the pen, change the script, and start rewriting your timeline.