How To Make Every Day The Best Day Ever

Was today a good day?

Not in terms of productivity.

Not in terms of dollars earned.

Not in terms of quantifiable metrics related to your business.

But did you take care of yourself?

Did you belly laugh?

Did you smile to yourself involuntarily when you randomly remembered an inside joke you have with someone you love?

Did you tell yourself everything is going to be okay?

Did you tell someone else everything is going to be okay?

Did you tell yourself you’re doing a good job?

Did you do something to make you breathe out a deep sigh of relief?

Did you find a silver lining?

Did you say thank you?

Did you say yes to something purely because it would be fun, not because it would be responsible?

When I was a child, my experience of time was felt in days, and those days felt so long.

As I get older, the units of time that once felt so long, begin to shrink more and more.

A day used to feel like a week, a week used to feel like a month, and a month used to feel like a year.

Now, it’s the opposite–

A year can feel like a month, a month can feel like a week, and a week can feel like a day.

As longer units of time seem to collapse into smaller ones, time feels like it goes by faster and faster.

Days seem to whiz by and accumulate rapidly into years, so where as a child, my experience of time was felt in days, now, as an adult, my experience of time is felt in years.

As I continue to get even older, I fear that my experience of time will be felt in decades, in generations…

When you see how fast you are being hurled into the future, it makes you want to better savor the present.

And it changes your relationship with the idea of striving.

We always focus on what we haven’t yet attained, more than what we already have attained.

We dwell more on the dissatisfaction of who we haven’t yet become, than the satisfaction of who we already have become.

We lament over progressing slower than we want, operating under the mindset that things should be much better, forgetting that things could be much worse.

But the older I get, the more I see the things I already have as more important than the things I am trying to get.

The more I appreciate the people I have, than the things I want.

The more I appreciate the person I already am–the one who has already evolved so much to get me to where I am today–over a future, more optimized version of myself.

You’ve already come so far.

You’ve already won.

You’ve already achieved things that your past self and other people around you thought impossible.

It’s okay to relax, enjoy, and celebrate how far you’ve come.

Sometimes you just need a pat on the back and a pint of ice cream.

Right now, I am giving you the former, and this is my permission for you to give yourself the latter.

When you are an ambitious, goal-oriented person, it is easy to spend more energy fantasizing about and shaping your future, than living and enjoying your present.

But I want to remind you–

Your future does not exist.

You are building towards a future you may never see.

And you should continue building.

Continue to grow.

Continue to stretch.

Continue to strive to be better.

Continue to learn.

But above all, continue to live–right now.

Continue to love–right now–the people around you, the activities you enjoy, the individual moments that make you smile…

I love a good cliche.

Because it’s always true.

And it’s always timelessly true.

Cliches are not trends.

When it comes to a good cliche, what was true yesterday is still true today and what is true today will still be true tomorrow.

So here are your cliches for today:

Life is short.

Tomorrow is not promised.

Seize the day.

Enjoy the present.

Don’t just measure your life in checkmarks ticked off towards your goals.

If you never get to the destination, you want to have been able to enjoy the journey.