You Only Have TODAY!

This post is one of those posts designed to help out when you most need it. It’s slightly different to my usual Social Media topics I cover, but every now and then I like to throw a curveball to see how the readers react to things.

Business owners, especially new business owners, or those who are making changes to move their business forwards in a new direction can often find the struggle and challenges of making things happen a worry. It can affect your motivation and can often be the difference between making it and failing.

So I wanted to take a look at a few different scenarios, in which we look at 2 different ways of interpreting them – dependant on whether you approach them as a pessimist or an optimist. What I hope you will gain out of this post is the ability to look at daily {sometimes mundane} tasks in a different light – it’s this thought process that I hope you will then be able to use when you need it in business.

We all need a little direction, and often motivation – that motivation comes often as a result of someone challenging your own thought processes, and that’s exactly what we are about to do {I hope}

So the average person will wake up in the morning, get in the shower, clean your teeth, make breakfast, get dressed, drive to work, have their lunch – a sandwich,  come home, eat dinner, have a cup of tea, watch a movie, go to the local supermarket and do their weekly shop, collect their children from school – these are all EVERYDAY tasks that most people can relate too.

These are also daily tasks that we take for granted, some might even say BORING – and for sure “Mundane” That’s a direct result of society shaping thought patterns and beliefs.

When your iPhone or Android is dead, what do you do? You recharge it, and bring it back to life again; giving it power to do all the things you need it too (which is sooooo much more than it being a phone these days!)

Imagine if you could you recharge yourself each day, and plug yourself into the power that you need to make everyday count. Would you be happier? Achieve more? And be successful? ABSOLUTELY  – because you’ve trained your mind to approach “everyday” differently.

You have a choice each and every day.

You can stay as you are, which is where you think making breakfast is “one of those things you have to do” Or you can realize that you only have today, so you make everything in your daily life count toward you giving yourself more power each day to make things happen.

Simply speaking you need to have a look at the difference of being “out of battery” and unplugged and being “fully charged” from being plugged in when it comes to your beliefs and attitudes towards your daily life.

Lets look at some examples:

Today is boring, everyday is boring, nothing I do is important, it’s just another day and it doesn’t matter if I don’t do anything today

You only have today – Yesterday is gone and tomorrow doesn’t exist yet–today the here and now. Everything you today counts towards tomorrow, and every day you live and appreciate is what creates your LIFE (you know the thing you look back on and remember) At any given time, one thought can change your life.

My life WILL always be this way, I just can’t see it getting any better, I can’t see it getting worse, but I sure as heck don’t see it changing. Period.

Life does change, you never know what is happening in the future, nobody can predict it, but if you realize that you ONLY HAVE TODAY and you act on that, then you can affect and shape it with your vision and how you approach your everyday life. Don’t live without intention – regretting not trying is worse than trying and failing.

I live for the weekend, I love Fridays, but I really dread Monday’s – work is a chore.

Work gives you purpose, it gives you structure. If you have the right attitude to work you feel pride and creativity – enjoying work is fulfilling – and that is what we need in life – fulfillment. We all need downtime, but too much of it and only ever focusing on Saturday and Sunday is a massive waste of your potential and also your life. At the end of the day most of us have to work to earn a living – we can either feel grateful we have that option or feel sorry for ourselves because of it.

Sometimes I’m late, today is nothing special so it doesn’t matter if I don’t dress appropriately, and honestly today I’m tired so I can’t give my all to today, and EVERYBODY procrastinates. Like I said, today is nothing special, so it doesn’t matter.

Ever heard the saying “dress the part” well there is so much truth in that. By dressing well you instantly feel important, like what you are doing matters – whether its for the office, the school run or the gym – by looking the part in those environments you feel better. If you don’t value your time enough, you don’t get enough done. Being late is a waste of your time – its precious remember, when you value your time, you are adding to your own level of belonging which affects how you feel about yourself. People get excited about putting in the extra effort – think about it – you get dressed up for weddings, nights out and you feel good because of that extra effort you make.

One day I will get my big break  – it has to happen I deserve it.

Behind EVERY big break, chance and opportunity is a long line of days that are ordinary – through consistency and persistence comes what you “deserve” nothing will ever fall in your lap – what steps have you taken today to get your big break?

If you look at life with the attitude of “you only have today” there is a massive power you can tap into –

You want social media growth – then spend a few minutes each day engaging with your audience. Doing this everyday will see steady growth happen over time.

Social media activity – A daily post that is consistent beats a barrage of posts all in one go, that is a FACT.

Blogging / Writing – By committing to writing something each day you are bettering your skills as a writer and over time you are creating a catalogue of information – which in turn could be a number of products you can adapt and repurpose

Product Creation – Do a little each day and you will see the progress, rather than do nothing for weeks on end and then hit it all in one go. Little and often and you don’t need to look for results, they will just appear in front of you.

Finally,

Don’t over think it, and don’t try to change everything all at once.

If you can only do a little bit of a task, then do it, but do it each day – those little bits add up over time

Pick something you’ve avoided and start working on it – give yourself 20 minutes a day to work on it – you will see the results over time

You can either live in the mundane everyday life or you can wake up and realize that you only have today – and today is all you need to change your future.

Clair