The day I was given best cleaner certificate in England

Choose to believe it or not, I was awarded a certificate of recognition as the best cleaner while doing my masters degree in England a few years ago. I could not believe it.

I was working in a vocational college building cleaning the surroundings including emptying bins and tiding the principal’s office. One day, the manager of the cleaning services called all of us cleaners. We thought something must have gone terribly wrong. With our mops and brooms in hand, we drew nearer. Somebody was about to lose their job, we thought.

The manager stood on raised ground, cleared his throat and announced that he was so pleased with certain individuals’ dedication to duty and workmanship. Top on that list was me. I could not hold my joy as I rushed home to my wife to break the news. I just gave her the certificate of recognition. She looked at it and hugged me heartily while laughing her lungs out — I am yet to ask her why she was laughing instead of just hugging me with a smile.

If there is one thing I cherish, it is this certificate. Not least because it reminds me of what life can be like in England for most foreign students but more for the lessons it accords. I dedicated the certificate to my flatmate who had always believed that ‘when you are given something to do, do it with all your might’. Added to this motivation was a question I stumbled upon while reading some blog. It simply said ‘how would you spend today if it were the only day by which your entire life would be judged?’ This is something I made a genuine effort to keep in mind every single day of my life. I needed to give each day the best of my talents and skills. I needed to make each day my master piece.

I always think: What would I write if I knew this was the only article that would make all the difference in someone’s life? How would I spend the next hour with my two small sons and daughter if I knew it will be the only hour they would remember from their childhood when they grow up? How would I spend this evening with my wife if it were the last evening we would spend together? How would I spend my money today if I knew that somebody does not have such money to just buy food for her family?

Every single day, we’re making an impact on the people around us. The people we love. The people we merely like. The people we will never directly know. Even on ourselves — on our future health and happiness and relationships and skills and finances.

Every single day, we have a chance to really make all of those things shine — or we can choose to idle the day away and stifle the so much goodness in us.

For a moment, let me challenge you to make this day, hour, minute to be really the only time that matters. You can’t undo your past. You can’t live your future, either. Your only freedom of choice is right now, and thus today is your one chance to paint your masterpiece.

Have a blessed weekend as you plan on making today your masterpiece.