Memorial Day

The Best Way to Truly Honor the Fallen. 

Start working towards that job you always dreamed of. Visit Wrigley Field. Drink a beer with your friends. Make a commitment to reach your weight loss goals. Whatever your biggest goal is – your greatest dream in life – go for it now. 

That is the best way to pay respect to and honor those who have laid down their life for the sake of ours. 

We, as Americans, enjoy freedoms and a way of life that is unprecedented in the history of mankind. 

Never before have human beings had the amount of opportunity, technology, or ease of life that we, as Americans, enjoy today. 

And a huge reason for that is because millions, who fought in wars to establish and preserve this way of life, were willing to put themselves in harm’s way for the sake of future generations.

So, the best way to thank these fallen vets is to seize this gift they have given us – to not waste the unparalleled opportunities that come with living in America.

Imagine if you saved all of your money for five years to buy your parents a beautiful condo on the beach. You pinched every penny, worked multiple jobs, barely slept, skipped meals, went without luxuries and poured yourself into saving enough money to buy your parents a beautiful condo. 

And then, after five years, you finally had enough money to purchase that condo for them. You bought the condo, gift wrapped the key along with the deed for the house, brought it over to them and said ‘Here you go Mom & Dad. Enjoy.’

And then, imagine, if they took the key and the deed put it in their drawer, and never once visited the condo. It just sat there on the beach, vacant, unvisited and unused forever. 

What our fallen vets have given us is worth far more than a condo. 

They have helped preserve, for us, a way of life that allows for endless opportunity – a way of life that promises everyone who lives here the ability to freely ‘pursuit happiness’. 

I mean think about that – we live in a country that is founded upon allowing each and every one of her citizens the right to pursuit happiness. A country built on promising citizens their right to pursuit happiness. That is pretty profound and definitely unprecedented when studying the nations that existed before us.

You can, literally, be whatever you want in this country. You can go from being a poor, young African American girl living in rural poverty to Oprah Winfrey; you can go from a repeated failure to Steve Jobs; you can go from any starting point to any ending point here; your ability to pursuit happiness is promised and protected. 

And we are given this right because so many, before us, were willing to sacrifice, to go without luxuries, to skip meals, to miss sleep, to be away from their loved ones, to be directly in harm’s way, and even to give up their lives.

So don’t waste that gift – don’t waste a gift that millions have died to give us.

Build the best life you possibly can – go for your biggest dream – experience this way of life to the fullest. 

Take this gift that so many died to give us and seize it. Pursuit your happiness. No matter what that means for you – whether it is a fitness goal, or a financial goal, or a relationship goal, or a career goal – no matter what it is – don’t make anymore excuses and go after it now. 

That is how you truly honor our fallen Veteran’s – make sure the gift they died for wasn’t wasted on you.