When living for today kills your tomorrow

We are bombarded with a constant message to live for today. The movies we see, the commercials, everyone is subliminally sending us the message: Carpe Diem.

So let's say you're a very poor person and you have a cow. That cow is giving you milk every day and that milk is keeping you alive. And then a friend (or not so much) comes and says: "Hey, I've got this brilliant idea, man! Let's kill the cow! We will eat meat for an entire week! No more of that boring milk! Carpe Diem!"

What will happen? You will eat beef for a week (or more, depending on how big your family is and how big the cow was), which will probably be a step up from milk and cheese. It will feel good for a short while. And then?

Then you'll starve.

I'm not saying re-think your every move every five seconds. But sometimes the consequences of what you do today are so obvious, it's not even necessary to think much to realize what will happen.

There are many people who go by "I'll cross that bridge when it comes to it". And then they wonder how they got to not having food on the table.

Carpe Diem is not about killing your cows and your income so that you can have one last huge party. Carpe Diem is about enjoying everything that you have and learning to appreciate the little things. Even if you won't get to live in that tomorrow where all the cows are dead, your kids will. And I'm pretty sure you don't want them looking back and think "How stupid was my dad, killing that cow?".