Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's

Hear now the wise words of Bob Feller, the great pitcher of American baseball, who declared: “Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is.” Though he spoke of sport, he spoke too of life itself, for the field is but a mirror of the human journey. His words are not only for players of the game, but for all who rise each morning with breath still in their lungs and a future yet unwritten.

The origin of this saying comes from Feller’s own life, a man who knew triumph and trial. Born on a farm, he rose swiftly to the heights of baseball glory, striking out legends and inspiring a nation. Yet he also knew interruption and sacrifice, leaving the field to serve in the Second World War, trading glove and ball for uniform and duty. When he returned, he played again, proving that yesterday’s absence need not destroy tomorrow’s potential. From such a life came his wisdom: that each day is a new game, and no defeat, no delay, can rob a man of the chance to begin anew.

History echoes the same truth. Consider Thomas Edison, whose thousand failed attempts to create the light bulb could have left him in despair. Instead, he treated every failure as a step toward success, every dawn as another chance to try again. Like Feller, he understood that yesterday’s errors are not chains, but lessons. The man who seizes the new day as opportunity transforms failure into fuel.

And yet, how many choose the opposite path? They dwell endlessly upon old defeats, replaying them like games already lost, until their spirit grows weary and their will collapses. Others cling too tightly to yesterday’s victories, living in nostalgia rather than pressing forward to new triumphs. Feller’s words remind us that neither posture is wise. The past—whether glorious or shameful—cannot be replayed. It is the present day, the new game, that holds life’s true power.

There is also humility in this teaching. For to see life as a series of new beginnings is to admit that no man has mastered all. Each dawn, we stand again at the plate, uncertain of what pitch life will throw. Some days bring victory, others defeat. Yet the true measure of a person is not in any single day’s outcome, but in their willingness to rise again, to face the challenge anew. Thus, opportunity is not given once, but daily, like the rising of the sun.

The lesson, O listener of tomorrow, is this: do not be enslaved by your past, nor paralyzed by your failures, nor content with old glories. Embrace the new day as a sacred gift, a chance to live better, to strive further, to love more deeply. The game is not yet finished, and while breath remains, there is always another inning, another chance. This is the way of life, and as Feller said, the way of baseball.

Therefore, take action. Each morning, ask yourself: What will I build today? What will I release from yesterday? What new game will I play with courage and joy? Enter the field of your day with gratitude, with resolve, and with hope. And when night falls, win or lose, know that tomorrow will rise with yet another chance, another opportunity to begin again. In this spirit, life becomes not a burden, but a series of living games, each played with the dignity of one who knows how precious each day truly is.