My mother, Illona Murray, gave me this message in 2000 while recovering from a severe depression. Maybe it is ironic that she has just retired from 33 years of working for First National Bank.
Share this message with someone who is going through a hard time because they need to know someone cares about them. Colman McCarthy often starts his lectures with this: “Nobody makes it alone. It’s always important to show appreciation for what we’ve got.” And one way to show you appreciate them is by sharing this message with them when they need to hear it the most.
The Best Bank in the World…
Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with R86,400. It carries over no balance at the end of the day. Every evening, it deletes whatever part of the balance you have failed to spend during the day.
What would you do? Draw out every cent of the course!
Each of you has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rights off, as lost, whatever balance you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance, and it allows no overdraft. Each day it opens up a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the daily deposit. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the “tomorrow”. You must live in the present on today’s deposit. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success. The clock is ticking. Make the most of today.
- To realise the value of ONE YEAR ask a student who failed a grade
- To realise the value of ONE MONTH ask a mother who has just given birth to a premature baby
- To realise the value of ONE WEEK as two lovers who are waiting to meet
- To realise the value of ONE MINUTE ask the person who just missed the train
- To realise the value of ONE SECOND ask the driver who has just avoided a head-on collision
- To realise the value of ONE MILLISECOND ask the person who won the silver medal in the Olympics
Treasure every moment that you have, and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special to you. Remember TIME waits for nobody.
YESTERDAY is history, TOMORROW is mystery, and TODAY is a gift, that’s why it’s called the PRESENT!
Give a copy of this message to a friend, for it’s a special gift and may just change their grey dull lives into brightness. There is also a Powerpoint presentation called “The Bank Account of Life” you can view here.