IN 2009, MIDWAY THROUGH MY FIFTY-FOURTH YEAR LIVING on this planet, I came to a realization that changed my life forever: I had been alive for nearly 20,000 days!
That’s 480,000 hours.
28,800,000 minutes.
1,728,000,000 seconds.
Yet even with all those days, all those hours, all those minutes and seconds that had already passed, I had this overwhelming feeling that I still had so much more to do. I am aware of the fragility of life, yet somehow I continue to be shocked at how rapidly the days fly by. To this point, my life has slipped past so quickly I can hardly comprehend it.
I am blessed beyond belief with parents who have loved me, have encouraged me, and are proud of who I am still in the process of becoming. I have three sisters, all of whom have incredible families. I look forward to every moment with them.
I knew what I wanted to study years before I went to college. I attended Samford University in Birmingham, majoring in psychology while minoring in speech and drama and acquiring a secondary teaching certificate.
During the three years after graduation, I held a variety of jobs. Those included being a youth director for a church, selling cars, and acting as sales manager for a company that produced surgical stainless steel. At the age of twenty-five, I was asked to go into artist management. My only client was to be a friend I had met seven years earlier when he was in the ninth grade. That friend’s name was Andy Andrews.
For the last three decades, I have been privileged to manage this one act. He started as a comedian on cruise ships, then headlined the college circuit for years before performing in arenas and major showrooms in Las Vegas with Kenny Rogers, Joan Rivers, Randy Travis, Cher, and many others.
Eventually, Andy transitioned from comedian to author of what most would call “inspirational” books. We self-published a series of books called Storms of Perfection that sold over 600,000 copies . . . before Amazon existed. As far as publishing is concerned, Andy’s tipping point happened when Thomas Nelson Publishers published his first novel, The Traveler’s Gift. More about that later.
Bottom line: I am a behind-the-scenes guy. I have never had any desire to be onstage or even write a book. So yes, I am just as surprised as anyone that you are reading this. In fact, what you are about to read has always been for my eyes only. These are my personal notes about life and business and God, from journals that no one has ever seen.
But enough about the past; let’s talk about the future.
What can you and I do right now in order to make the most out of the years in front of us? What can we do to accomplish more, to celebrate more, to touch more lives in our remaining years than we have to this point?
How can we live our next days to the fullest?
I am definitely one to plan things out. Planning is natural for me to do; however, on my 20,000th day, I did something entirely out of character. I packed a few things, hopped in the car, and drove. When the time seemed right, I stopped and checked into one of The Leading Hotels of the World with a single objective in mind for the next forty-eight hours: to celebrate my first 20,000 days by putting myself through a crash course in planning my next 20,000 days.
Consider this book your personal crash course. Following are the specific breakthroughs I took away from my 20,000-day planning period. Here are the thoughts and actions I have pledged to implement daily for the rest of my life in order that I live with intense purpose, constant joy, and lasting influence.