Tomorrow we find out if we are better than we were.
Today we create our tomorrow.

So, what have you been doing during the “Safer at Home” stage of life (or whatever your locality may call it) you now find yourself in? Cleaning closets? (Check!) Organizing the garage? (Check!) Learning what six feet actually looks like? (Check!) Or maybe you have pulled out some old projects that you tucked away because you didn’t have the time to complete/deal with them. Now you do.

One of my old projects that I dusted off (and old it is…20+ years) is a novel manuscript.  It needs major surgery. Despite its many shortcomings at this stage, I have had fun re-reading the pages and getting to know the characters again.

One of them, Gracie, describes her philosophy of life as the Rule of 30. At this point in the novel, her and her husband are in their forties. In her words:

We got twenty, thirty years left? Maybe we only got ten left.
Why we bustin’ our asses for someone else?
Life ain’t gonna wait for us. We need to grab it.

Gracie and her husband have dreams, and they had been ignoring their dreams. Until they didn’t. Until they realized life, obviously, gets a shorter each day we close our eyes. What we put off, we may never do/see/feel/experience/achieve/enjoy.

Let’s put the Rule of 30 into a visual.

Consider the following graphic. You look to the future and say, “Got plenty of time to save for retirement/get the dream job/build a family/ [you fill in the blank].”  With the table below, you are standing on the far left. Looking at the 30 years in the future—the “plenty of time.”

So, you figure, I got a lot of time. And then, the following happens (the red indicates years that “pass us by”):

Life happens. And twenty-five years pass…and the dream is still in the future. And then 30…and then…..

For sure, there are reasons. Some extenuating and poignant. Others, mere excuses.

We all have opportunities and obstacles as we journey to our dreams. It’s what we do with each of those that creates our story.

Tomorrow we find out if we are better than we were.

(NOTE: If 30 years out is just too much to get your head around, try 30 days. What do you need to accomplish in 30 days?)

Video Recommendation for the Week

Make it a great week and HTRB has needed.

My new book has been released.
eBook ($2.99) Paperback ($9.99). Click here.

Roxie Looks for Purpose Beyond the Biscuit.

Well, actually, my dog Roxie gets top billing on the author page for this work. Without her, there would be no story.
Click here for more information about the book.

In the meantime, check out her blog.

And you can still order:

• My book, Community as a Safe Place to Land (2019), (print and e-book) is available on More information (including seven free podcast episodes that spotlight the seven core values highlighted in the book) at www.stevepiscitelli.com.
• Check out my book Stories about Teaching, Learning, and Resilience: No Need to be an Island (2017). It has been adopted for teaching, learning, and coaching purposes. I conducted (September 2019) a half-day workshop for a community college’s new faculty onboarding program using the scenarios in this book. Contact me if you and your team are interested in doing the same. The accompanying videos would serve to stimulate community-building conversations at the beginning of a meeting.

My podcasts can be found at The Growth and Resilience Network®.

You will find more about what I do at www.stevepiscitelli.com.

©2020. Steve Piscitelli
The Growth and Resilience Network®