In the hours leading up to, during and immediately following my birthday; I started spending significant time thinking about my laser-like (some might say myopic) focus on the “big vision,” which is to say…the picture of what I want my life to look like in the future.
In doing so, however, I lost sight of the most important ingredient to making that future happen: Today. An old friend of mine calls this “future tripping.” While he means it like “trippin’’” on the future (as in a drug trip), I think it’s more appropriate to think I was “tripping,” as in stumbling and falling down.
In order to combat either kind of tripping, I decided to start a little experiment to help me focus on the each day. For the last several days, I’ve started my morning by saying, “Today is going to be a day well lived.” I’ve ended it with a Tweet recounting my day with the hashtag #adaywelllived.
Truthfully, I genuinely thought I might feel silly doing this. But, the fact is it actually makes me feel great. It’s a daily reminder that today is all I really have. Moreover, a few friends (online and off) have started Tweeting about #adaywelllived. And that’s really where this idea can take off – as we share ideas for what #adaywelllived means.
I think the secret sauce to this entire experiment is the understanding that “a day well lived” doesn’t mean the day was perfect and filled with amazing experiences. It was simply a day where you did your best. It’s a day when, good or bad, you did what you could do. As one friend Tweeted, “#adaywelllived is all about being present, good or bad. I was present.” I find that to be a tremendously powerful statement. In essence: My day may suck, but as long as I acted authentically and according to my core beliefs…it was a good day. It was a day well lived.
The future, as I so dramatically forgot, is actually made up of a whole bunch of todays. We can’t actually get to a week from today without living through seven todays. If we do each of those todays right, a week from now takes care of itself. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t have a goal for what you want that day to look like, but once you have it, focus on making it happen one today at a time.
We laugh at athletes who give cliché quotes like, “I just want to take it one game at a time and do the best I can to help my team win,” but I think we can actually learn from this. The athlete’s goal is to win a championship, but without focusing on the game today and getting the win today…that future championship can’t happen. So, what do the best athletes do? They leave it all on the court. That’s all this is about: Knowing that at the end of the day, we’ve done the best we can and we’re grateful for the opportunities we had.
So, I started a Facebook community to help us share our thoughts. My hope is that members of the community will post their own lists of what made the day #adaywelllived. And, while we strive to feel that way every day, there will no doubt be days when we probably could have done better. I hope such honest thoughts are shared in this community, as well.
We have a big vision for how this community can grow, but in order for that growth to take place, we need members. I invite you to go to the page and “like” us. I invite you to please share the page with your friends. Let’s find out what happens when 100, 200, 500, 10,000 people start sharing their thoughts on what it means to experience #adaywelllived. Let’s maybe have a chance help those who are struggling.
As we gain members, we may introduce some fun daily challenges or random acts to try. We may offer prizes. And we’ll do this in the spirit of reminding ourselves about all the great, awesome things we can do on any given day to help ourselves feel like, “Yep, that was a pretty freakin’ cool day!”
If we can all say, “THAT was a day well lived” more often than not, well…the future will take of itself and we won’t trip over it…or trip over it.
I’m in!