I was at lunch the other day with a young lady and we started talking about the moments that change our lives. Through the conversation we agreed that you only began to recognize these moments as being special, years down the road when you look back at it. I have often said that in an average person’s life they will have only a few (3-5) life altering moments and it is only after the fact that you realize how very special, they were.

Clearly marriages, births, deaths etc. are remembered as life altering, but I am talking more about events and decisions that change where we end up in life. A few examples would be career change, financial change, health change, investments that either turned out good or bad etc. One I remember very vividly was in 1990. We were broke after buying some fast food restaurants in 1988 and the only way out seemed to be bankruptcy. I called a friend of mine that sold hotels and asked if he would teach me how. It never crossed my mind that that phone call would change what I did for a living and and the economic future of my family. See, its only when you look back that you really recognize the significance of those moments. When it is happening you just see it as another day.

Take a moment and think back on your life and you will see clearly the events that shaped who you are and where you belong and changed the course of your future. Obviously, for all of us, there are memories and events that led down the wrong path (hopefully brief) but it is my hope that you can also see the good events of your life that helped you turn directions toward a better future. Life is full of memories and the older I get the more I am aware of this. Its important to tell your children about your events because it will help them have some basis to lean on when they are faced with big decisions. KT