Seize the Day

I was considering a saying this morning. It was made popular in a movie and just because it is common or well known makes it no less true or applicable. “Seize the day.”
The word that really got my attention was seize. No seize I have ever known has been a loose grip easily broken. When I looked it up there were key words that went with it. “Forcibly, eagerly, suddenly, decisively, strongly.
I thought immediately of the Taliban seizing Kabul. It seems no one saw it coming so quickly. It has left the Allies scrambling. All the words seem to apply to the Taliban.
It is what I feel I need to do with the day. I can drift. Trouble with drifting is days become weeks become months become years. I am no closer to achieving what may be in my mind to do. In fact the opposite can be true. I can be further away from the goal I have. I pictured a map. My goal may be Gympie from Brisbane. Drifting can see me in Winton depending on the choices I have made.
I used to race sailing boats. We could stop but we were never really stopped. We drifted. It may only have been momentarily but we had to make up lost ground.
I feel the same way about the day. It does not make me obsessive. I am big on taking a break. Drifting to me can be ok if I am drifting in the right direction. To me there is a time for everything and a time for everything. I remember a boss saying to me “I work hard and play hard” and he did. Sometimes it is head down tail up work, work, work. And sometimes it is head down tail up play, play, play.
To me that is right and proper. To much of anything leads to imbalance. That is guaranteed to undo me.
One definition of seize is “to take by force.” It seems to me that is what I need to do figuratively with the day. I have quoted the 2nd law of Thermodynamics before “everything left to itself tends to decay.” It does. It is in evidence everywhere.
I reckon it applies to me to. I need to force better to happen. What is worth going for is not handed to me on a platter. I can be like a car going up a hill. I need to work. I can also be like a car going down a hill. Minimal work is required. But I still need to take care the car does not get an unwanted momentum. If it does that can require an abrupt stop and often that does not end well. I know it did not going down a mountain on my motor bike.
Now that I am older for sure seizing is not what it was. Reminds me of something I read. It may only take one senior to change a light bulb but it may take all night.
Whatever the case, the day lies before me. The choice is mine. Drift of seize it. My choice.