Watching the sun dip into the ocean after a long walk on the beach with your loved one. Sharing memories with close friends and family while eating a homecooked meal on a warm summer night. Holding your child in your arms while she sleeps on your shoulder after a day at the park.

What are these life experiences worth to you? What if you knew you could only have one of these. Would it be more valuable to you? Would you cherish the moment more because you know it’s a rare occurrence? Most definitely.

Striking a balance between finding the value in moments vs. tempering our energy for the “long haul” has always been tricky for me. Sometimes, I can get overwhelmed with emotion due to the intensity of the situation. It’s as if I can see the value in this very moment and know how precious it is to me.

Walking this fine line of processing our intense life experiences – good and not so good – and moving forward with everyday tasks and responsibilities is a journey I assume to walk the rest of my life.

That’s okay. It’s worth it.

One of the most significant areas in my life which I’ve been cultivating and believe to be a pivotal part of my development is knowing the difference between important and urgent.

These two adjectives are very different and should not be confused. I’ve always found it fascinating hearing from high-achieving individuals in their particular field’s, discussing their strategies. What I once thought was vital to achieving a measurable amount of success, can be considered a frivolous waste of time and another form of resistance. Another words, procrastination.

What interests me is true progress. Facing obstacles in your particular field and putting in the work to transcend those issues. Another words, doing what’s important.

After all, that’s important.

The definition of a renegade is someone who rejects lawful or conventional behavior.

I’m all for rejecting conventional behavior as we need to do what we need to do in order make our own dent in the world. That’s different for everyone.

We must entertain the idea of coloring outside the lines for us to reach new horizons. Pristine frontiers. It certainly won’t be done by replicating what others have already done in the past.

It is a knowing deep within- not a recklessness or unlawful acts that bring about the unconventional style. There is a difference.

It all comes from the intention of what we’re working to accomplish. This is where we pull from. Here are where the answers lie.

Others may judge our behavior and call us names, but that’s not our business and never will be. But, it’s the price you have to pay being different.

A renegade.

Maybe the reason people come in and out of our lives is for us to remember.

Remember who we are and the connections we make with them. Maybe they help us reveal more about ourselves and who we truly are. Or it could be that they are guides leading us in a particular direction.

Then again, it could just be random.

No matter the reason why so many come and go throughout our lives – like character’s of a perfectly written play – showing up exactly on the line they’re supposed to arrive and exiting on cue as well. We can learn many things while in their presence if we choose.

We can open up and allow these eccentrics of all shapes and sizes to leave their impression upon us forever to be changed.

Never to be forgotten. Just remembered.

We must not forget the “big picture” of what we’re working to accomplish. It may not happen in a day, a week, a month or a year.

But, we can certainly move towards it every day. One step at a time. One word at time. One mile at time. One note at time. One pound at a time. One fact at time.

The successive additions over time on a consistent basis are what add up to bring the results we’re intending.

The consistency of us showing up every day to put in the work is what transforms us into the people we are proud to see looking back at us in the mirror.

That’s the hook. It isn’t the result. That’s just gravy.