Live This Last Day of Your Life

     Recently, I read the two books that inspired me the most. They were "The Alchemist" and "The Present." They both propose the way we should lead our lives. In "The Alchemist," Paulo Coelho states that we should not give up and follow our "personal legend" with enthusiasm. Personal legend means what you dreamed of achieving when you were young, full of hope. In "the Present," Spencer Johnson states that we need to live in "the Present" in order to be successful. "The Present" means the present moment and what you are doing at the moment.
     After reading these two books, I chose a quote as my new motto. "Live this day as if it will be your last." It is a quote from Oq Mandino, an American essayist and psychologist. This saying contains both the ideas from "The Alchemist" and "The Present." I imagined as if I today was the last day of my life, and thought about what I'd do. I concluded that I would probably do the one thing I have always wanted to do in my life. To be honest, I'm not sure what it is at this moment because I don't really have a specific "legend" I want to create. However, if I do have a "personal legend," I would put all of my efforts into achieving it. Also, I would concentrate at that very moment, "the Present," so that I could accomplish my goal.
     Of course, I thought about whether these ideas were actually effective or not. Then, one day, I heard from Mr. Hatfield a story about Wilma Rudolph. She was famous for having a successful life. Although she was born premature, with crippled legs, she won the gold medal in the Olympics. There is another athlete who is the issue of today's Korean soccer society. His name is Ji-sung Park. Although he has always been the shortest in his team, he became a hero in the 2002 World Cup, and now leads a successful soccer life in Manchester United. It is said that Wilma's goal was to become the best runner in the world, and that Ji-sung's goal was to play in the Premier League in England. We find many evidences that they have tried their best to achieve their goal. They must have had clear "personal legends" and lived every one of their "Presents" to create their own "legends."
     Although I have not yet fully committed myself to following the proposals of Paulo, Spencer, and Oq, I have had some trivial successes during the last few weeks. I could set short-term goals as my temporary "personal legends," such as getting good grades and doing my best in my studies. Also, I tried to concentrate on putting all my efforts on what I was doing at "the Present." As a result, I could do better in the mid-term exams I took this week than in other exams. Consequently, I became a ardent believer of the three ideas I mentioned previously. Let me say this: "Live. Live this last day of your life."

(References)

Viloria, Angelica. The Living Legend. 2000. 30 Oct. 2005
     http://www.viloria.com/viloria/angel/essay-20001030-livinglegend.html
Caruso, Gary. Live Each Day As If It Were Your Last. 1999. 12 Nov. 2005
     http://www.nd.edu/~observer/11111999/Viewpoint/0.html
Coelho, Paulo. The Alchemist. Harper Perennial:
     1998.
Johnson, Spencer. The Present. Doubleday:
     2003.
Macintyre, Donald. "Park, Ji Sung - Pocket Battleship." TIME 2005. 10 Oct.
Roberts, M. "Rudolph Ran and World Went Wild."
     http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016444.html

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