T is for Today

I am (STILL!) blogging, along with my dad, all the way through the alphabet. Check out how the idea started and get the rules here.

When I first started this (longer than expected) process, all the way back in November, there were only a few posts that I was absolutely certain about. Over seven months later, before sitting down to write this post, I honestly believed that my T post would be written about tomorrows. Something along the lines of “things may be bad today, but there is always the gift of tomorrow.” However, as I was writing the post in my head I realized that there is a chance that tomorrow your world can completely change. Tomorrow is never guaranteed, and today is the real gift.

For such a long time I was focused on tomorrows. How much better I could make my tomorrows. This idea was especially enticing during my personal pity parties when I was having a bad day and didn’t feel like doing anything about it. However, I think it is crucial to emphasize the fact that your today is what you make of it. And that it will never be tomorrow, really; for you cannot live in the past nor can you live in the future. It will always be today. So you might as well get started on making your today worthwhile. Today is all you have.

So how do we do this? The same way we should accomplish anything. We can do this by a process which my dad calls “finding, facing, and following the truth.” Finding the truth is being shown something. Voila, I’ve already laid that out for you. Facing the truth is when you acknowledge that this knowledge is real and it affects your life. Following the truth is when you do something about it. So lets do something.

Tomorrows can turn into an excuse. Not just for putting off chores, but also for putting off happiness. For example, put yourself in the place of having a rough morning. I’m sure you can relate. You slept through your alarm, showed up late to work or school, and realize that you forgot something that was due today. The easy thing to do is throw a nice pity party where you can mope for the rest of the day about your bad morning. You can say “ho hum, I guess I’ll try to make tomorrow better.” But if you’re going to make tomorrow better, why can’t you start right now? Do something to better your day right now. Make today worthwhile. It may be difficult sometimes, but it is far more rewarding. After all, today is what you get, and today is what you make it.

Tomorrows are dreadfully important, for they give us something to look forward to. However, don’t ever let yourself make the mistake of wasting all of your todays by being blinded by the brilliance of a tomorrow that will never arrive.

View my dad’s “T” post here.

Advertisement