Today I am writing a somewhat philosophical post, prompted by two events that while 52 years apart share some common characteristics. These events have prompted many thoughts and feelings that I felt compelled to write down and share, if for no other reason than to provide a means to clear them from my mind. I do, however, believe that we can and should take something from the underlying message. So to the events:

Today, 5th February 2010, my wife’s family gathered to say goodbye to my nephew Andrew who lost his battle to an aggressive form of cancer. He was 28 years old. The ceremony was moving, very individual and was attended by several hundred people.

Tomorrow, 6th February I, as a Manchester United fan, will remember those that lost their lives in the Munich air disaster. In this crash, 21 people lost their lives, amongst them were eight of the players of Manchester United. The squad at that time had an average age of around 22 years old and were affectionately termed the Busby Babes.

Now, you might ask what either of these events have in common with the other? They are separated by 52 years and both were very different in their scale and causation, one a tragic accident the other an invasive disease. But, for me, what these events demonstrate is the fragility of human life and the dreams and aspirations that we have.

These young people would have had dreams for the future of marriage, families, future careers perhaps and many other things I am sure. In both cases, these dreams were extinguished so brutally and prematurely. This thought has played on my mind, how often have I put on hold my dreams to do things? How often have told myself that something can wait, can be done next week, next month, next year? How often do we all do that?

This is not a macabre message, it is one of positivity, I want to promote the thought that there is no better time than now to get things rolling on a goal or dream – “Do it now!”, take the first step on the stairway to making your dreams & goals happen. In the words of Gary Ryan Blair (The Goals Guy) “Every second counts” and how you choose to use those seconds, actively chasing your goals and dreams or choosing inactivity will ultimately decide their fate.

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction

John F. Kennedy

So in closing, I urge you to take action and “Do It Now!”; get moving on making your dreams a reality.