You don’t need a do-over when you have right now.

There’s a story behind that.

This is your daily message from Chad, number 1067, to upgrade your mental game today by telling yourself a better story, because the most important story you hear is the story you tell yourself. And this message is dedicated to Ellie and Ethan Godby.

Here’s the Upgrade:

You may think you blew your chance, but upgraded thinking knows now is always your next chance.

Here’s the Story.

At 7 years old, during mumps quarantine, a girl named Dawn received a microscope. She spent hours looking at mealworms under the lens and fell in love with the thing beneath—the order, the pattern, the working of it. Her mother saw it and said: You’re going to be a doctor.

As time went on she married and had two kids. The dream of being a doctor was shelved, but she did become a nurse practitioner, the closest thing she could manage. Then divorce, remarriage, two more children. She told herself stories about timing and season and the price of ambition. By 50, she closed the book, told herself the dream is done. I missed my window.

Well, decades passed. She was a skilled nurse practitioner. She had grandchildren. She had done good work. Her life was full. Then in 2020, her husband Carl nearly died of a brain hemorrhage. Fo forty-eight hours nobody knew if he’d wake up. When he woke, they sat down and looked at their one remaining life. Carl said he wanted to travel. Dawn—in her late 60s, with gray hair and a pension—said: I want to be a doctor. Not I wanted to. Not I wish I had. I want to.

She was 69. She applied to medical school. She paid for it herself. She studied while classmates were her grandchildren’s age. Dawn did her clinical in Chicago, West Virginia, and South Texas where an attending doctor pulled her aside during rotations and said: You’re too talented for your degree to be a trophy.

She graduated this month at 72—the oldest first-time medical graduate in recorded history—and matched into residency. She will start as a doctor in Muskegon, Michigan at Trinity Health Medical Center. When they asked what it feels like, she said: I feel alive when I work in the medical field. Not accomplished. Not productive. Not even satisfied. Alive.

The better story to tell yourself is: “I’m not waiting for a second chance. I’m taking the one I have.” Dawn Craft didn’t get her life over. She got her life now. George Eliot wrote: “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” You think the window closed. Realize: the window is open right now.

Tell me a story of someone who refused to let “too late” be the final word—send it to fromchadsmith@gmail.com. Send someone a text and ask them, “What is something you would do if you were starting over?” You can get a free copy of my book, The Most Powerful Story in the World, by going to fromchad.gumroad.com. The transcript of this message and hundreds of others are always available at www.fromchad.com.