You have people that matter to you in your life.  Identify who they are.  Who do you love?  Get out your calendars and pick a time to be together.  It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant or expensive.  Where can you go?  Ice cream?  A walk together?  A movie?

I’ll tell you a couple stories that have impacted me.

One is about a chiropractor I know who practices in Virginia.  His Dad is 89.  Every Sunday he picks his Dad up for grocery shopping, they go have lunch and then they go play pool together.  ( He usually loses to his 89-year-old Dad 🙂 ).  This is a super, super busy man and he’s taking some time he’ll know he’ll never get if he doesn’t schedule it and make it happen.  He recently said in a Facebook post: “Appreciate the time you have now with your loved ones.  Tomorrow is promised to no one.”

On a “Dad-date” I scheduled with my daughter she told me something I’ll never forget.  We went for ice-cream.  I got there and forgot my wallet.  “Shoot,” I said, “you know what, we can run by my office, I know I have some cash there we can use and it’s only 2 minutes from the ice cream shop.”

“No Dad, it’s okay, let’s go all the way back home and get your wallet because then we’ll have more time together.”

Oh my.  How precious.  She didn’t care what we were “doing” together, she just wanted some quality time with her Dad.  I will never forget that.

Another speaker I saw had a powerful example of how quick life really is.  He used the day, Saturday, as his teaching point.  In an average lifespan, we have a little over 4000 Saturdays.  That kind of sounds like a lot, until you realize your age and ask yourself, how many more Saturdays do I have left?  He suggested getting a big jar and fill it with marbles, or something small with every item representing a Saturday you have left to live.  Every Saturday take one out.  Ask yourself, am I doing something special and meaningful with the time I have here?  Are you spending quality time with people that matter the most to you?  That puts things in perspective.  And hopefully you can outlive your jar full of marbles! 🙂

The magic with this is all in scheduling it.  If you don’t the days and weeks and months will pass you by.  Put the appointment in your phone or on your calendar.  Schedule it, and don’t let anything get in the way of it.  It is important, it’s your word you are keeping with this person you love.  Make it happen, and before it’s done, get the next date scheduled so it’s never a “some-day,” rather it’s a “Just did” and the next date is on the books!  Make it happen.