Not, “Just Another Day”
One of the greatest mistakes that you can make is viewing today as just another day. You open your eyes, sigh, and realize that today is the next day. The day after the previous one that you dreaded. You set your feet on the floor and begin to start the same boring routine that you do each morning without putting a second thought into any of your movements. Your routine is predictable. This mindset will soon evolve from just another day to just another life! Nothing special. And there is where the flaw lies. You determine what your life is and where your life goes. The solution is to approach each day as a brand new day, see each day as being different from the last, and make something of each day.
First Things First
Approaching today as simply being the day after yesterday is the wrong way to begin. You don’t have to be delusional, but if you are fortunate enough to see the day, you have to be open to the thinking that something truly special will happen today. It’s not just another day! Thursday isn’t just the day after Wednesday. This Thursday isn’t the same as last Thursday. Really think about this. Today is a day which you have never seen in your lifetime. It may seem mostly familiar, some things may look and sound the same as you remember, but I assure you that it is new. Embrace what this means and the opportunity that awaits you.
Seeing is Believing
Seeing each day as different from the last will drastically reshape the course of your day no matter how challenging the day before the day was. You must make the distinction. You aren’t naive to life. You accept that there are remnants–good or bad–from the day before that carry over to the next, but these fragments do not define what this day means. You must not group your life into one big pile as if it were laundry. Separate them individually. Place each day where it belongs. Each day is its own day and should not be confused with yesterday.
Give the Day Meaning
You have the final say on what each day means. It can mean nothing. It can be miserable. It can be the “same old, same old”. It can also be exciting. It can be an opportunity. It can be a step in the right direction. Please understand here that I’m not encouraging you to be in denial of what can happen throughout the day, but your response matters. Each second matters. Breathe slowly and think through things carefully. Remain centered or recenter yourself if you have to. You must not allow a bump or hurdle in your day to derail everything. You certainly can’t permit hurdles to carry over to the next day. Until tomorrow comes, that day remains untouched. You have the power to shape each moment of your life.
Once I had this job that, at times, could be relatively stressful. I recognized that how I began each day would drastically affect the rest of my day and others around me, whether positively or negatively. Every now and then, I would come in and say, “I have a good feeling about today” or “Today feels special”. Sometimes others would ask me what made today so special and I would simply reply, “Today is a new day!” It was a day that none of us had ever seen before. Everything was about that specific day. The days before were wiped clean. The days ahead were irrelevant. I’d often get smile accompanied replies such as “I like that.”
You can have a bad day, but you can make the next one better. You can have a good day and make the next day a good one as well. The key is to place your focus into the day at hand and realize that it has meaning. This moment is filled with purpose–you have purpose. Existing at this moment is an enormous deal and it should be viewed as such. Today isn’t just another day–unless you decide it is.
