This weekend we once again get that yearly opportunity to "fall back", to get an "extra" hour of sleep as we turn our clocks back one hour ending Day Light Savings Time.

   Every year as I turn my clocks back an hour, I have some recurring thoughts. I think of how wonderful it would be if we could "fall back" more than an hour. Wouldn't it be great if we could "fall back" to a time when we could "un-do" or "do-over-again" some part of our life?  For most of us, it is only hindsight that has shown us how often we have missed great opportunities; and "falling back" would be a great way to take advantage of them, wouldn't it?

   I recently spoke with a man who works as a college admissions director. Every day he deals with folks who regret the fact that they had put off their college education.  To illustrate his point, he told me about one of his high school classmates who told him that now at 55 years of age she wished she had gone to college, but thought it impossible to remedy.

   She said, "Joe, I'm 55 years old. Because I work full-time, I'd have to go to school part time and it would probably take me 5 years to get a degree. Why, I'd be sixty years old by the time I graduate! I feel so stupid to have missed the chance to get an education. My life would have been so much better had I gone to college. But there's nothing I can do about it now."

    I asked Joe how he‘d responded to her.

    "I just asked her one question. I asked her how old she would be in five years if she didn't go back to school." Joe said. Then I said there were four words I wanted her to post on her refrigerator.'

    "What words did you ask her to post?" I asked.

    "Now is the Time!"

     "Why would you want her to do that?" I said.

     "Because those four words have kept me from missing important opportunities that have come my way, and I think those four words would help her take the next steps she needed to take." He said.

      I don't know if his high school classmate took his advice or not. I don't know if she has enrolled in college yet or not. I do know that those four words are some good words to consider as I turn my clock back an hour. Those words remind me that I need to pay attention to the opportunities that are before me right now. Otherwise, next year at this time I may be wishing to "fall back" further than one hour.