When Kobe Bryant took off in his helicopter from downtown Los Angeles on January 26, 2020, he was a five-time NBA champion. He was a two-time finals MVP. He was a two-time Olympic gold medalist. He had won an Emmy and an Oscar and he was a New York Times–bestselling author. He had earned hundreds of millions of dollars in his career and raised a venture capital fund of more than $100 million.
Yet it goes without saying that he would have traded all of those things for just one more day as a dad to his four girls. And you would do the exact same thing.
Who wouldn’t? We know this. If asked, we would say it. You would say it, right? Yet . . . yet . . . yet . . . look at your choices. You’d give up so much for one more bedtime with your kids, and here you are, on your phone while they’re in the bath. No amount of money could compensate you for one more morning with them, and here you are, grouchy because it’s early, put out because you’re sitting in traffic as you drive them to school.
You have, right now, in your grasp, the thing that Kobe Bryant would have traded anything for. Do. Not. Waste. It. Be grateful for it.