When I read the quote above, I couldn't get to my journal fast enough. It was one of those moments when the proverbial light bulb in your head increases from 50 to 150 watts.

I have learned that motivation can come in small and large doses. This one was super-sized. You see, all my life I have waited to do many things until I could do them, right. 

My father used to say, "Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today." (Many people think Benjamin Franklin made that up. He didn't. It was my father.) I always said, you only get one chance to make a good first impression. All this time, I've been confusing the two sayings.

It's all about making your best impression at any given time.

Another moment of enlightenment came when I went to see the movie, Polar Express, with Tom Hanks. At one point he says to his young passenger, "It doesn't matter where the train is going. What matters is deciding to get on." You can decide how important it is to have a destination. To me, this says that there are many of us who never get on the train...any train. Consequently, our hopes and dreams of what could have been are just that: hopes and dreams.

As we psychologically begin another year of living, may we remember that there are trains leaving every hour on the hour. Many, if not most, are trains to failure. However, the more trains we ride, the more likely we'll find the one that takes us where we were supposed to go.

Do what you can, where you are, with what you've got.

All aboard.

-Sonny Melendrez