THE FIRST GRAY HAIR

Okay, I know what you’re thinking, and yes you’re right. As much as I’ve never given it a first, second or third thought, it finally came. Life’s most gruesome, evil, forsaken, telling mark of age… my first grey hair. Sure, I went through all the stages, denial, maybe I’m stressed etc, but much more quickly than I’d imagine in retrospect, it didn’t cause the reaction most would think.

I didn’t flip out, I didn’t go on a mad treasure hunt trying to figure out if anymore were coming. For me, the first grey hair wasn’t as much as an alarm as it was a reminder…maybe even a stopwatch. If you know me at all, you know that I’m a sports guy, namely NFL and track and field. The reason I say it’s a stopwatch, is because most athletes don’t use a stopwatch to “countdown” per say, they use them to measure speed, accuracy, and improvement. Okay, okay… back to the grey hair, what I realized is that we don’t have the luxury of time when it comes to chasing our dreams and goals.

I began to think about what I’ve accomplished in life thus far…any self respecting entrepreneur would say it’s not enough, but in the same breath, I’m absolutely grateful for where I am, and what’s on the horizon. In my official effort to give grey hairs a perception makeover…Ask yourself these questions…

1. Have I truly made good use of the time that I’ve been given?
2. When I procrastinate, is there really a good reason?
3. Where would I/we be if I’d saw that one thing through, or not given up so early?

Although we’re all guilty of procrastination in some way, shape or form, nothing is worse than telling yourself flat out excuses (which are nothing more than well planned lies.) How many times have you said “Next year, I’ll definitely get it done, or “As soon as things settle down, it will be easier”, or maybe you just tell yourself “It’s just too late”.
All of these excuses run congruently, it’s kind of like the lie you tell yourself about running a stop sign. If it’s not a complete stop, it’s a roll. Accept it, deal with it, just hope you don’t get caught! However in life, for everything that you don’t give the extra effort for you not only get caught, you get penalized.

Think about it, how many times have you known that you should have done something as simple as changing the oil in your car, and not gotten it done? Only to talk about how “crooked” the mechanic is when he tells you how much it costs to replace your engine. You get the idea.
The reason I’m writing this is to invite you to look at your first grey hair, (or the 6th, 7th or 19 grey hairs that you have) as the starting gun to get things done. It’s clear that time isn’t on our side, so we have to make the most of what we have.

Top 5 things to do:
1. Take inventory of all the projects you’ve always wanted to do
2. Take inventory of the “reasons” that you haven’t done them
3. Prioritize (quickest gratification, sense of accomplishment
4. Plan of action
5. Be Accountable- now that you have a grey hair… how much will you get done, (be it little or whatever) before you find the next one, the next 5…

I can see now, that in the interest and utter respect for your time, this may have to be a 2-part series…but one thing is for sure, Grey hairs don’t come by themselves, and they typically don’t stop coming…why not make sure we have something to show for them. OH! and No!, I'm not telling you where it was!!!

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