Out of the whole Beatles catalogue it is incredibly hard for me to pick just one favorite song.

Do you pick something from their early years? I Wanna Hold Your Hand? Love Me Do? Can’t Buy Me Love, perhaps?

What about their later years? Revolution or Carry That Weight?

Maybe a song that you never get tired of singing? Hey Jude or All You Need Is Love?

While it is hard for me to pick my favorite Beatles song it is no trouble at all to pick my favorite note from a Beatles song.

It is that final chord that comes at the end of A Day in the Life. The whole of the song builds and builds until one final crescendo. In that final definitive one E-major chord we get the entire summation of the song. Everything all at once – laid bare and finished. That last note leaves us with the lasting impression of the whole song.

And so it is in life.

We tend to focus so much on first impressions or keeping/maintaining other people’s impressions of us that we forget that what truly matters — What we will be remembered for is that final note. Our actions, the way we treat people, the way we love and serve- all these things are what truly lasts and will reverberate with people long after our song is over.

The E-major chord in A Day in the Life lasts for 40 seconds. That is quite a long time.

Imagine that this idea too translates into real life. What if your final note, the impression that your character and life leaves with those you’ve left behind, had so much power and energy behind it that it was able to ring out 40 years? That would mean your song would be heard by at least 3 generations.

I have always believed that I could care less about having a building dedicated in my name. But to have a building dedicated in the name of one of my children or great-grand children? That would tell me that maybe I did something right.

What are you doing today to add power to your final note? What impressions are you leaving people with? Today as the music of your life is being played- as it builds and crescendos, moves and sings- remember that everyone is building up to their final note.

May you do whatever you can to make your final note ring out loud and reverberate long after your song is finished.