When I used to work at a hardware store, they had something called safety bingo. All of the employees had a bingo card and each day new numbers would come out and you would mark your card. Every day money would be added to the pot. If an accident happened then you would throw out your card and the next day you would start over on day zero with a new card. If you got bingo you didn’t win until the end of the day when they verified that there were no accidents.

This was a great incentive but it caused conflict. One guy got bingo and he was going to win 600 dollars that, according to him, he desperately needed. The problem was a lady in the store hurt her back. It wasn’t that bad but it was bad enough that the safety bingo reset. The guy went out of his way to intimidate the lady for causing him to lose the money. He reminded her for the next few days how much he needed that money. Even his friends got into it with her as well. Eventually she ended up quitting because she couldn’t take the abuse anymore.

In life there are several resets to day zero that happen. It could be a job loss or job change, a sudden death in the family, ending a relationship, or discovering you have serious health issues. Like the guy in this story, there is nothing you can do about the things that have happened in life. It is all about what you are going to do moving forward.

So today is day zero. It doesn’t matter what mistakes happened to get you to where you are today. You need to acknowledge that things are different now and you need to do what you can to more forward.

You need to make those changes in your life today because putting them off until tomorrow is no longer an option. Don’t learn how to be an adult, you have to be an adult.

Throw out the game board and start another one but don’t give up. Just keep on playing and moving forward.