Finally. Opening Day. America’s pastime is officially back!

Whether you root for a team with big hopes for this season or one that is years away from contention or even if you have no interest in major league baseball, there’s just something about that first game of the new year. The pageantry. The fanfare. The newness. The chance to forget the past season. Rebirth. All 30 teams and millions of baseball fans start with a blank slate.

Opening Day is the first of 162 baseball games. The major-league baseball season is grueling. There are victories and there are defeats. Good days and bad days. The highest of highs and lowest of lows. And while only a few games hold the same ballyhoo Opening Day does there are certainly some that do. Undoubtedly, a challenge for Major League Baseball players is to keep the same anticipation, energy, and gusto for the other 161 games of the taxing season. And often they are criticized for that.

What about us? You know, those of us who have average, run-of-the-mill jobs that we go to 260 or so days a year. Those of us who root for our favorite team from our living rooms, the grill and bar, and occasionally a seat in the stadium? Do we approach our days as if every one of them were Opening Day? Should we be critiqued for that?

What if we woke up each morning ready to embrace the opportunities in front of us with the same expectancy, oomph and passion as Opening Day? What if we approached our normal, everyday duties at our workplaces with the same anticipation we had on our very first day of the job? What if we leaned into our everyday responsibilities with the same the zeal we had the first day we were presented with the obligations. Even on the dreaded days. The good and the bad days. Even in the worst of times and the most tragic of circumstances. What if?

What if we lived everyday as if it were Opening Day?