Our life is the sum of our days. We quickly and reactively pile one day on top of the other. Monotony weighs. Challenges occupy our minds. Days, weeks and years fly by. The life we want takes a back seat to I will do it tomorrow.
The days often add up before we can even realize it. Our complacency compounds. We push the stuff we desire behind us in favor of the many number of increasing obligations.
We forget that each day matters.
Every day is a new opportunity to make small steps towards a big change. You are never going to train for a marathon, start a business or break a nasty habit in one day. But, you can start. No matter how many steps you have taken in the wrong direction, you have an opportunity each day to make one step back in the right direction.
We are never in complete control of what comes at us each and every day. We can only control how we respond to what life brings us. In that same way, we are the only one in control of how we approach each day.
The best way to have a great day is to try to take control of the only thing you can control – your mindset. Focus on these 8 things first thing you do every day.
Find One Thing To Be Grateful For
This may be the single greatest thing you can do for yourself each and every day. Thinking of the things you are grateful for will immediately improve your mood and mindset. Beyond that, you will begin to train your brain to see the good in life. Your mind will condition itself to look for the positive more frequently than you look at the negative.
There will be days that you will have to dig deeper than others to find something to be grateful for, but you will always be able to find something. Often times, once you find one thing to be grateful for you will continue to find many more.
The benefits of practicing gratitude are wide and far reaching. Give yourself the gift of seeking them out each and every day.
Checklist: Each morning write down 3 things you are thankful for. Keep the list close to you and review it regularly.
Life is a Gift
This is a simple truth that needs to be highlighted daily. We get stuck in our burdens, obligations and fears. We get overwhelmed by our troubles.
The daily reminder that life is a gift truly puts everything in perspective. You begin to see life in a different light. Your challenges are no longer insurmountable obstacles. They become building blocks to greater opportunities.
Your thoughts start to lead with hope. You are teaching yourself that there is an abundance of good in your life. You don’t become immune to sadness. You learn to appreciate the smallest about of good – no matter how small of a morsel it is.
Positivity strengthens us, negativity weighs us down. One of the best gifts in life you can give yourself is gaining the perspective that life itself is truly a gift.
Checklist: Remind yourself each day that life is a gift. This is your opportunity to make the most of it.
You Control How You Respond
When life is in control, you are reacting to it. When you are in control, your principles take over. You can regularly be caught off guard by what happens to you, but you can always control how you respond.
This changes everything. It gives you the ability to give up control to circumstances. When you are doing the right things with the right attitude bad things can always still happen to you, but they will never be what defines you. Your response is what defines you.
Hold tightly to your dignity, integrity and strength. Let those guide how you respond. When you are faced with an unexpected challenge, remind yourself that it was out of your control, but you are more than equipped to handle it. Then handle it.
Checklist: During tough situations take a deep breath and choose the right way to respond.
Make One Person Smile
One of the great misconceptions about happiness is that it is our own. Study after study reveals that our greatest source of happiness comes from others. It’s the relationships we build that bring us our greatest sense of satisfaction.
Spend your day seeking how you can make a difference. Find a way to improve the day of one other person. If you can make one other person smile it will dramatically improve both of your days.
Checklist: Simply find a way each day to go out of your way to make one person smile. It will improve both of your days.
Make No Excuses
Excuses give you no benefit. Nothing of value comes as a result of an excuse. You are cheating yourself when you make an excuse. They cause you to halt progress, lose trust and promote negativity.
It takes a much stronger person to own a mistake than it does to blame someone or something else. Assigning blame may make you feel better in the moment, but there are no long term benefits to it.
Excuses do not lead to solutions, they prolong your issue. Rather than finding the simple escape, take the time to solve your issue. Doing the right thing is the best antidote to the toxicity of excuses.
Checklist: Watch yourself. If you find yourself making an excuse, divert your thoughts to the best resolution. Do the right thing to get there.
Make Your Decisions Based on Courage – Not Fear
Many of us run our days out of fear. We are afraid to mess up. We are afraid to tell people how we feel. We are afraid to take risks that could benefit us greatly. Fear suppresses our potential. Fear stunts our growth. Fear removes happiness.
Courage is the opposite. Courage helps us to stand up for what is good. It gives us the strength to take necessary risks. Courage takes you to new heights.
Today, make every decision with courage.
Checklist: Remind yourself that you can do this. Let courage outweigh fear.
Do Your Best
Each day matters. From simple daily tasks to life altering events, always do your best. You can’t catch up to time. Eventually is too long to wait. Giving each day everything you have compounds into great things.
You will never know your true potential if you aren’t making your best effort. Effort tends to be the x-factor. If you can’t be the smartest or the most talented or the thinnest, you can always outwork those people.
Checklist: Give it your all. You everything to gain.
Positive Mindset
Our mindset is our engine. It guides everything that we do. A relatively simple mindset shift can have unbelievably profound results.
It starts by making the conscious effort to change how you view things. It may be challenging at first, but it couldn’t be much more straightforward than it is.
Just by shifting your mindset any scenario can go from a negative one to a positive one without changing circumstances at all.
A good example is to try changing your mindset from I have to to I get to. Suddenly, something that was an obligation now becomes a privilege. You don’t have to go to work, you get to go to work. There are many people that don’t have jobs.
You don’t have to work on your dream, you get to work on your dream. You don’t have to exercise, you get to exercise. You don’t have to change your mindset, you get to change your mindset.
Checklist: There will always be two ways to look at every situation. Always seek the good.
Today is Your Day
There isn’t a secret elixir to happiness. Life is tough. It’s exhausting and it’s rarely simple. But, it’s all we know and, as far as anyone is certain of, it’s all we have right now.
If nothing else is going right in your life, take control of today. Today is your chance to start fresh. It’s your opportunity to get this one thing right. Win today. Make today a great day. You are ready for anything.
Checklist: Repeat tomorrow.