One Day at at Time

Today is neglected, it doesn't get its just rewards.

It is squashed between yesterday and tomorrow, and we're in a rush to get through it. We revel in the memories of Yesterday, and put our hope in Tomorrow. Today gets relegated to some arena of insignificance, with Yesterday and Tomorrow plumped up like big, fluffy pillows: soft and comfortable, great for sleeping and dreaming, but holding lots of fluff with little substance. Yesterday was the fluff, Tomorrow is the dream. The substance of life lives in Today, and it's easy to let it slip by unnoticed.

Tomorrow begins Today. One day at a time, we build our Tomorrow. We call Tomorrow the future, and we each are the directors of our own future. Maybe you don't think about Today, or think that Today doesn't matter, and, by default, you don't direct your Tomorrow. If you neglect Today, Tomorrow will be a mishmash of what you did, or didn't do, Today.

Begin each day one day at a time. You'll need a calendar with big areas to write in, separate from your other calendar that holds your To-Dos, appointments, ball games, birthdays and everything else.

Get ready to begin, One Day at a Time!

1 the Problem

If you didn't define your Life or prepare the day, you may find one of the following painfully familiar: You hop out of bed with zest for the new day, do fifty pushups and twenty Hail-Mary's, brush your teeth and gulp a cup of coffee before you dash out the door; Or maybe you drag yourself out of bed with barely enough time for a sip of scalding coffee as you race to meet the gridlock on the freeway, which gives you time to spit-clean the front of your yesterday's-spaghetti shirt, run your fingers through your hair and finger-brush your teeth.

You've not taken the steps to define your life and prepare, so your calendar with the to-dos and birthdays and such, zaps your zest into haste, and you dread the day. Each day you want new hope, but only live only the same old rat race in the same old drag.

You want your life to be what you know it can be. You want the inner peace and outward reward of your life lived with purpose. You need to live one day at a time. Please, begin.

2 the Story

As a child, I would awaken in the morning without a bounce out of bed, as some do. I'd keep my eyes closed long enough for the dreams to finish their delightful tales. Then I'd race out to meet whatever adventures the day would bring. My mother, father and brothers were always up at dawn, but not I. I would savor the unknown day before greeting it, which I was sure would be nothing short of wonderful.

By the time the teenage years found me, I was so excited and anxious about Life, I wanted it to happen all in one day. Plan? No, thank you. I just want everything, all the excitement, anticipation and romance of Life, built into Today. I wanted Life to be lived all at once, not one day at a time.

Know what I found out? The todays of Yesterday have become Today. That which was unplanned Yesterday isn't usually what I would choose for Today. The choices I make today create Tomorrow, and I ought not be so flippant about it.

I've found that all the excitement, anticipation and romance of Life, all her wonderful events, if built into one day, that one day would be Yesterday or Tomorrow, but not Today. But Today holds Tomorrow, one day at a time.

Life brings wonderful challenges and difficult burdens, fond friendships and in-laws. We worry about yesterday, hope tomorrow will be better, and somehow, we forget about today. While we are not privileged to change yesterday, or know tomorrow, we can shape today, to make it be what we want Tomorrow. Yesterday held the first day of your life. Today is the day that holds Yesterday's hopes, with which you shape Tomorrow.

Take control of your Tomorrow, mix with the dreams you hold of Yesterday, and create Today, one day at a time.

3 Live in Today

Yesterday brings Today, Tomorrow is the result of Today.

Yesterday was the day of golden dreams, or black nightmares, pleasant memories or painful regrets. Yesterday holds wonder and tantalizing anticipation.

Tomorrow hasn't arrived yet, with her loads of everything perfect, all just right, untarnished from the mess of today. We won't arrive in the brightness of Tomorrow without the purposely planned reality of Today.

Sometimes, we define our Tomorrow by what we neglect to plan, and, sadly, end up with what we don't want in our lives. In other words, if we do not direct our Today, then Tomorrow will be whatever it turns out to be, or what some Mundane Demon Monster will make of it. It's okay to not plan for Today, which will be Tomorrow, if you love the odor of refuse that must be picked up, or thrill at the flip of hamburger patty.

One day at a time, we reach toward our goals, fulfilling our purpose, recognizing where we are Today in our trek to the future of Tomorrow. Today, one day at a time, each day in its place, we live who we are, reaching toward who we are meant to be, the how and why of who we are, that define Tomorrow. One day at a time.

Get a calendar with big squares you can write in. This will begin your Life Calendar which you will use as a tool to plan your days. It is not a To-Do or Appointment calendar.
Find yesterday, and cross it off.

Review your purpose, arrival goals and guideposts. There are ebooks and tapes aplenty to choose from that will help you establish yourself, if you haven't already definded you life.

4
Prepare the Day

Where there is no vision, the people perish

Today has brought you whatever you put into it Yesterday. Maybe you dreamed of going to the beach today (it's July in Hawaii as I write this). Yesterday you hemmed and hawed, and didn't take the day off, there's just too much to do! In the rush of getting through the day with the overwhelming demands, you went to bed, tired from the mess of things that must be done, the responsibility and difficulties swirling around you. Or maybe you day was a party, too full of frills to step in thought of the morrow.

Today, you awakened to the "real world" of another day like the one just past. Once again, you find yourself doing the most mundate tasks of your job instead of brushing the grains of sand off of your nicely tanning body. Your dream of yesterday, a day at the beach, doesn't match the reality of today at the same-old, same-old.

Time and again, for as many scenarios as reasons, we put off unpleasant tasks, and planning is one that seems unattainalbe when we've not clarified just what we're to plan. Planning is unwritten at the top of your Life page, so the page is really a To-Do list. While a To-Do list is easy (you can check off things as you do them), planning isn't such a breeze, as it requires more thought, and rethinking, than To-Dos do.

You can do it! Plan Tomorrow with your dreams of Yesterday, which you will act on Today. You can't do everything, all bunched in Today. But you can do everything, one day at a time.

Make a commitment to yourself: You will take the time to plan your day, one day at a time, with your purpose in in front of you, to guide your tasks.

On your Life Calendar, choose one of your Life's purpose, and in today's square, determine one steps towards it.

5
Decide the Day

If you think it's good or you think it's bad, your' right!

If you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, go back and get up from the right side

Today is the day to begin to decide the day. What it will be, is up to you. Whether is it good, or bad, you're right. Something may go wrong? Decide to make something worth while from it. Can't have what you want? Be content with what you have. Attitude. It's yours to govern, yours to decide. What the day will be, is up to you!

Decide the day before it begins. When a strong wind blows, stand in your decision to wear the attitude you've chosen, you've the strenght. Don't let yourself be knocked down and tread upon, and don't cast blame on others. Whatever happens, the attitude is yours, own it.

Decide each day of your life, one day at a time.

You've identified your Life's purpose, and know the steps to get there. You know what's on your Life calendar for Today, and you've written one thing on it that will suit your purpose.

Decide the day. Today, before you get out of bed, decide the attitude(s) that you will wear. Let the day be of your choosing. Be aware of your attitude and its effects, it is, after all, your decision.

6
Live the Day

Today is but a moment of time, but, oh! how it impacts the future!

Have you ever watched people walking around who are just existing, not living? I'm not meaning the people without money, facing a life dilemma, or on vacation. I'm talking about people who, day in and day out, do the same things, over and over, without thought, without direction, without a vision of a way to change the direction of their lives, or even know that they can. They're the ones with the vapid expressions and hopeless, listless demeanors. You do not want to be one of their numbers, people who are always hoping for something different. They, too, live one day at a time, hopeless days, without the benefit of having taken the steps to define their lives.

While we cannot control each aspect of every day, we can decide the attitudes we wear. AA's mantra to accept the things we cannot change, change the things we can, and to ask for wisdom to know the difference is well worth adoption into any life, alcohol related or not. I am writing from, and directing this to, those of us fortunate enough to live in a free society. I have been inspired by the writings of some who came out from under very bad, not free situations, and do you know what? Their attitudes brought them through some very ugly days, months, even decades.

If a military person (let's call him Joe), captured by an enemy in a bygone war and confined to horrendous conditions, can decide to live his day the best it can be, then so can I, surrounded in my comfort. If this same person, Joe, accepting the condition he cannot change, can live each day as it comes, adjusted by his attitude to go forward, then so can I. And if Joe can determine, in the horror of his surroundings, to focus on his purpose for the day, then so can I. You can, too!

Your life is most likely a life enabled by a free society to be lived in the pursuit of happiness. Are you living it today?

Today, before you step out the door, or even check your appointment calendar or to-do list, look at your Life calendar. Your day will be directed toward what's written on it. Everything you do, everyone you see, will play a role in your choice of how you live Today.

You've chosen your attitude for the day. Now, decide, for Today, how you will live it.

7
Learn from the Day

A useful result of an error is a lesson well learned

Life is an experience. Some of us learn from it, others don't. It is our objective in the seven super simple steps one day at a time to be among the people who learn from the delights, and disappointments, each day brings.

Life is more than a single experience, it's a collection . What is your experience for the day? Did someone, or something, disappoint you? What can you gain from the unpleasant disappointment, and how does it enrich your day?

My mother would tell me, when I was a small child, that whether something would be good, or bad, was my decision. And, if a mishap occurred or I did a really bad thing, I could choose to either learn from the experience and gain, or feel bad, and loose. Growing up, I knew that whatever events would unfold in my day, I had the choice to make it good, or accept it as bad. And my days as a child were good, because that was the way I was taught to perceive things.

As an adult, I am quite aware of the need to differentiate between the event which that I can influence, and the happening which is unimpressed by my presence. I have learned that, in whatever state I am, to be content. When life is the time to learn. One day at a time, the lesson to learn.

What happened today that wasn't anticipated or planned?
If it was really bad, how can you benefit from the experience?
If something was really good, did you contribute to it, and if so, how?
What did you learn from Life today?

8
Forgive the Day

Be careful how you grudge the day, it may be back

We all have events in our lives we'd rather not know about, especially the unsettling kind. And, as you know, there are children who know their mothers shot and killed their fathers, brothers who molested and maimed a child, friends who murdered on a whim, and people galore who damage the brains of others with drugs of all sorts. These people generally don't consider their effect on others, except for gain or gloat.

But you're not one of the people, with a dark and dreary heart, to inflict misery on others. No, that's not you. Nor are you a willing victim to whatever befalls the day. But, maybe not.

The post office used to deliver the mail entrust to them through rain, sleet, dark of night, snow and wind, or some such. For the US Post Office in its pre-US Postal Service days, the delivery of US mail would take precedence over the weather, terrain or mishap. Their goal was to deliver the mail, not be victim to whatever would happen. And mail was delivered, sometimes commendably.

Like the US Post Office used to do, you, too, with an your identified aim set on your objective, can bypass a waylay and continue on the path to your destination. Stuff hits the fan. Junk happens. It's how we respond that sets the course for the day, and tomorrow.

The day has brought positive steps towards Tomorrow. You've made commendable decisions, have accepted the things you cannot change, and have learned from what the day has exposed. With the things left over, over which you have no influence or control, you must forgive.

What events of this day, over which you had no control, can negatively impact your Tomorrow? Identify it, trash it, and move on. Forgive the undesirable and unwanted of this day, one day at a time.

9
Rest for the Day

Sleep easy, the day is done

When the day is over, Old Glory is put in her bed for the night. Her task for the day, to fly proudly in the wind to represent one great nation built under God, has been accomplished. She has daily flown proudly, for over two hundred years, and continues her daily vigil over the land of the free without complaint of boredom.

While none of us represents the Stars and Stripes of our USA or anything close to her, we do represent our individual lives, and our contribution to Life in general. But, I waylay myself!

By day's end, I sometimes find rest. Those are the days that have been satisfying in being for the day who I need to be, when Tomorrow will be in its time. Othertimes I feel as though I have done nothing towards my purpose. Those nights are unsettled and sleepless.

You've followed your Live Calendar, and now is the time to rest, to replenish and restore your being, to gain new strength and new hope.

Rest for the day. Sleep softly to refresh for the morrow, the future, Tomorrow.
Pleasant dreams!

aloha!
......................myRant Index