Remember YOLO: You Only Live Once? Is that still a thing?
I was thinking about it today and how there are actually two ways of experiencing YOLO and both have some validity.
YOLO, so take that risk!
When YOLO came out as a popular acronym I think this is the one people gravitated to the most. Because you only live once, you should seize the day, grab that opportunity that might only come around once and take that risk.
Take a chance because you never know and so you might as well find out, could be the YOLO tagline.
This is also the more dangerous of the two interpretations and might have been responsible for some people taking some unnecessary and life-threatening actions, spurred on by their peer group chanting, “YOLO!”
YOLO, so make the most of it!
The other meaning I thought of today was the idea that we only get to live once. We don’t get a do-over or a rematch or second shot. This really is it. And so the tune of YOLO in our ears can remind us to genuinely make the most of it.
To do that effectively, one first has to be able to define what “making the most of life” means.
To some it will be accumulating money or achieving fame or doing whatever your heart dreams of. While to others it might look a lot more like being significant, in terms of serving others or making a difference. Being a key part of transformation or change for another person, family, community or even country.
What if we all held to this as a motivation when we climbed out of bed every morning?
Find some time this week to sit down and carefully consider your life at the moment through this lens of YOLO. Are there any changes you would make if you seriously believed that you only had one shot at this?