The late night infomercial

Something about watching that delicious glowing screen while we lay reclined on the couch is just irresistible. And we’ve all been stuck in that position late at night when it appears: the ‘Paid Advertisement’ (or Infomercial). Lots of words and pictures about a product that the glowing screen tells us we need.

Then the catch:

Call now and we’ll throw in (fill in the blank with another worthless product) for absolutely free! But act now because this is a limited time offer.

There’s something in us that wants to respond. Truth is, we don’t want to miss out on that limited time offer, do we? All of a sudden we’re thinking, “WHERE’S MY PHONE? I MUST HAVE THAT FREE PARING KNIFE!!!”

We know that if we wait too long, we’ll lose out on that special offer.

At least until the next night when that same paid advertisement is showing again.

Your limited time offer

There is a limited time offer that we should consider thoughtfully though. One that is so amazing that all of us need to stop and be intentional in how we respond to it. (No, it’s not the ShamWow…though I do own a box of those.)

Your limited time offer is your life.

Don’t think that I am being unnecessarily morbid, but the offer on your life will expire eventually. To quote my favorite line from Fight Club:

On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.

However, unlike the infomercial which claims it will end in the next 24 hours, you don’t know when your offer will end. It’s not morbid to talk about something that will certainly happen, it’s foolish not to.

A bonus offer

True, you don’t have to intentionally act on your limited time offer to keep living. Chances are high that you will continue to have life for at least a little while longer. What you DO miss out on though is the benefits of living intentionally. Living with a purpose.

The bonus you get with your limited time offer is an amazing life lived to its fullest!

You will never receive this bonus without acting on the offer. You can’t have life to the fullest by accident, it just doesn’t work that way. If you want live the heroic life, you have to put work and thought in to it and be intentional about what you are doing.

Intentionally living life to its fullest is like getting two lives for the price of one. (There, I put it in consumer terms for those of us that respond to that.)

Which one are you?

Some of you are already living with intentionality. At some point you realized that living life passively meant to let life pass you by. Time with your loved ones had to be sought out on purpose. Doing the things you loved meant planning to do them.

Hooray for you! I want you to stick around. I want you to pour in to my life and encourage me to live that way. I want to be more like you.

But some of you are taking life as it occurs. You know that living life to its fullest requires more energy than letting it just happen. You might be thankful for the time you have with loved ones, but you don’t prioritize it like you know you should. And who knows when the last time you planned on doing something you loved over doing something to pass the time.

(Why are we staying up late watching infomercials in the first place?! On a top 10 list of things to do, does anyone ever list that?)

My guess is that most people would put themselves somewhere between these two extremes. We probably consider ourselves to be intentional in some areas, but passive in others.

Act now!

It’s not good enough to be intentional in only some areas of our life. It’s wasteful! If there are parts of your life that you are being passive in, STOP DOING THEM! You only have a small amount of time on this planet, why waste it doing something that does not deserve intentionality on your part.

If it’s something that you dislike but have to do, light a fire under yourself. Figure out how to change your circumstances. If they can’t be changed, decide to intentionally change your attitude about it. That’s a choice you always have!

If it’s something you DO want to keep in your life, shame on you (and me) for not being intentional about it.

I’ve told you before that I think you are amazing! It’s true.

Let’s be amazing people who live amazing lives too.

Tell me what you’re wasting time on. What parts of your life are you being passive in? Do you need to get rid of them altogether or just change them? What parts of your life are you being intentional about? How has that made your life better?