Our life today is the result of our attitudes and choices we made in the past.

Our life tomorrow will be the result of the choices we make today.

This is a story of an elderly carpenter who had been working for a contractor for the past 43 years. He had built many beautiful houses, but now as he was getting old, he wanted to retire and lead a leisurely life with his family. So, he goes to the contractor and tells him about his plan of retiring. He would miss the paycheck each week, but he wanted to retire. They could get by.

The contractor feels sad at the prospect of losing a good worker but agrees to the plan, because the carpenter had indeed become too fragile for the tough building work. But as a last request, he asks the old carpenter if he could build just one more house as a personal favor.

The old man agrees and starts working, but his heart was not in his work anymore. He had lost the motivation towards work. So, he resorted to shoddy workmanship and constructed the house half-heartedly. 

It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career.

After the house was built, his employer came to visit his employee’s last piece of work. After inspecting the house, he handed over the front door keys to the carpenter and said, “This is your new house — my gift to you.”

The carpenter was shocked and upset. Had he known that he was building his own house, he would have done a better job! Now, he would have to live in the house, which is not worth living in.

So it is with us. We should think of ourselves as the carpenter. We work hard every day but are we giving our best? We build our lives a day at a time, often putting less than our best into the building. We put our least to the work we don’t like or do not have interest in, but without choice we have to do it. Later, we get shocked at the situation we have created for ourselves and try to figure out why we didn’t do it differently. If we could do it all over again, we would do it much differently.

But we cannot go back. We are the carpenter and every day we hammer a nail, place a board or erect a wall. 

Our attitude and the choices we make today, help build our tomorrow. The quality and texture of the thoughts we entertain in our intellect, the quality and texture of emotions and feelings we entertain in our minds, the quality and texture of the words we express through speech and the quality and texture of the actions we perform determine the quality and texture of our future life. 

Therefore build wisely!

Enjoy the tasks and carry on the responsibilities with pleasure and not with pain.

Life is a do-it-yourself project.

When we do our job enthusiastically and with devotion, the result will certainly be a positive output and a pleasing life.

Life isn’t qualified by the branded clothes we wear or other such things, but it’s measured by the number of faces who smile when they hear our name.