Every day is a step in our journey, unless we plant ourselves and refuse to move. Every day is an opportunity to live a life of purpose, of meaning… without striving. At the end of the day, do you take a moment to look back at the start of the day and see your journey? Did you learn your lessons for the day? Are you further ahead in accomplishing your long-range goals and becoming your best you? Do you look, with pleasure, at your progress? Or… do you simply drop with exhaustion onto your bed? How do you view your every day?
First: remember that if you make mistakes or even totally waste your day, you need not repeat this behavior the next day. I will never forget a lesson my brother taught me about golf. He said that simply because the shot you just made was terrible, you don’t need to repeat it in your next shot. Application: sometimes we forget that yesterday is just that – yesterday. Too often we drag the problems, issues, mistakes of yesterday into the day. We need to assess what needs to be included and what has no value for the day.
Second: we often forget that mistakes are part and parcel of growing – they can be the input that assists us in being able to learn and it can broaden our options planning. Even in devastating situations, there always seems to be a way to resolve the problem – even with seemingly insurmountable issues. Unless we face each error or misstep with excuse or blame or digging in our heels, we can use every situation as a way to learn, to grow. We aren’t perfect, our lives rarely reflect perfect but ‘perfect’ can be a positive impetus or it can beat us into the ground.
Every day should be celebrated! We need to begin our days with a mindset that, ‘something good is going to happen to (me) today’. That phrase is over used but the thought is valid every day. And our ‘good’ doesn’t need to be an over-the-moon event, it can come in those quiet moments of inspiration or in a new understanding. It does require strength to maintain this mindset because it will require our sensitivity to seeing ‘good’. But this too will grow as we employ strength to our every day.
