’Til you Can’t!

Nick Weir was an intern at Dallas Country Club when we first met him. We met a dynamic young man immersed in learning and searching for the path that he would take in his life. Our paths crossed over the next few years at conferences, in Nashville and in Vancouver. He was coached by Shelley and on a few occasions visited me in Vancouver for a few days to work on his Life and Business Plan.

His career path took him to the music industry, a path that truly fit with his passion for music. He has been a tour manager and worked with major artists in the music industry. He started his business Little Owl Entertainment and creates events and experiences for clubs all over North America and for industries beyond the club world. Find out more about Little Owl Entertainment.

For Shelley and me, Nick has gone beyond the roles of student and coaching client to become the educator. Once a month in our Extraordinary Leader Program we put aside one hour for Little Owl’s Creative Corner. We never know what we are going to learn from Nick, and we never know what surprises he will bring. He introduces us to leaders, innovators, and artists from his world. People in our program know that you don’t want to miss one of Nick’s sessions.

Last month he was telling us about one of his artists, Matt Rogers. Matt cowrote a song that didn’t get noticed by recording artists for seven years. Until it did. An artist named Cody Johnson liked it, recorded it, and it won the Grammy for 2023 for best country song. The song is called ’Til You Can’t!

 One lesson is that when you are creating something, not everyone is going to see its value, but some might think it is amazing. Since country music is not my go-to genre, the song and the message were meaningful discoveries for me. The song highlights a number of opportunities that we might have in life, and we put off because we think there will always be time to do them...’Til You Can’t!

In early November I booked a flight to go to see my brother who had recently been diagnosed with cancer. He got his first chemo treatment. In the few weeks between booking and taking the flight my brother passed away from pneumonia. I thought there was lot of time to have some moments with him but my flight to go to see him became my flight to go to celebrate his life. Although I experienced all the shock and pain of losing someone I loved, I truly felt lucky, because my brother wrote a book about his life and his family. There is a chapter in his book about me. In this chapter he celebrated me for who I am and what I do, and I was given the chance to talk about him from my perspective and can read my words in the same chapter.

A week ago today, a family friend in her early 30s picked up parents at the airport, got them home to her house. She was waiting with her parents and her four-year-old and two-year-old sons for Daddy to come home for dinner, when two police officers knocked on the door to say there had been an accident.

In the past month I seem to be receiving a message. Throughout our lives we are sent messages. Sometimes we listen and sometimes we don’t. If you have taken the time to read this far, I hope you have received a message.

People who know me know that I often express my age in days. Today I am 24,248 days old. My 80-year-old brother was given a lot more days than I have lived and a 34-year-old father, husband and son was given a lot fewer.

We just don’t know how many days are in our future, but we have today.

What will you do with this day? Who will you connect with? Will the most important people in your world know how you feel about them? What will you focus on?

Will you see scarcity or abundance? Will you give magic or poison? Will you make things better or bring things down? Will you do what you are meant to do?

Will you make someone’s day? Will you resolve an issue that has been weighing on you? Will you think about what is possible or worry about what might never happen? Will you celebrate life with the living? Will you put into motion, what you have always dreamed of doing?

Will you create something that has an impact of people’s lives? Will you be excited about what happened today when you close your eyes tonight?

You may think I am asking you these questions, and of course I am, but I also posing them for me. We can get so busy doing what we do, or what we think others think we should do that we seldom stop to ask ourselves some questions that we need to ask. We may be too busy or too afraid to resolve a relationship that is not good. We may think that that thing we want to do or place we want to go will happen some day in the future.

We work under the illusion that there will always be time in the future to do the important things, ’Til you Can’t!

Here are some words that Matt and his writing partner put in their song.

If you’ve got a chance, take it
Take it while you’ve got a chance
If you’ve got a dream, chase it
Cause a dream won’t chase you back
If you’re gonna love somebody
Hold on as long and as strong
And as close as you can
’Til You Can’t

What are three important things that you will put in your calendar to do in the next month?