Inspiration can show up any time, and from unlikely sources! That is certainly true for the message I have adopted as my mantra for some time:
Live today like you want tomorrow to be. Live well.
It was a personal breakthrough when I recognized the power of that statement. When I first read the words, they were an invitation (and inspiration!) to stop waiting.
Chasing the proverbial carrot and never quite able to catch it. Always telling myself to keep pushing and striving and the pay-off would come. Sound familiar? Paying your dues, doing the work, climbing, always climbing. And perhaps feeling as I did at times that the summit we were working to reach was moving at the same pace we were! That carrot on a string! So the initial inspiration was to stop waiting. Start doing today what I wanted for my future. Heady stuff when you think about it.
When we ask ourselves what we are working toward it also reveals to us what we truly want to be experiencing now. Even if on a different scale, the genesis of that realization must be here and now. What is it you wish you had time for? Recognize you have time for it now if you choose to make time for it. What I have come to realize is that if I do not want it badly enough to make time for it now, there is very little chance I will make time for it later. We choose our future now.
What was the source of that inspiration? A bad day, a car wash and a lady bug. I was having a very frustrating day. My car needed detailed for an upcoming road trip and so I was sitting outside the car wash, working to try and keep all the plates in the air. A new grand-girl had arrived! I would be visiting her soon and I was tap-dancing through my must-do-list to be able to get on the road. I had been looking for a special memento for my daughter with a lady bug on it since that was already becoming her newest daughter’s nick name. When I went inside to pay for the service, a silver mirror bangle charm caught my eye because it had both a butterfly (Lauren’s favorite) and a lady bug on it. Perfect!
When I got home and looked at it closely, there was an inscription on it: Live today like you want tomorrow to be. Live well. The precise message I needed at that moment. We have to choose to live our priorities today. Don’t wait. That became my mantra. And the mirror charm became a gift I gave myself.
Fast forward now several years and the phrase still stands but today it’s taken on a different meaning.
Every goal I have for myself this year requires one thing: Daily discipline!
Not my greatest skill. But it is my greatest need. A significant health goal, an aggressive financial goal and an important creative life goal. Each of them require that I honor my commitment to them every day.
What does that mean? It means I must LIVE TODAY like I want TOMORROW to be. It’s now a mantra of living tomorrow today. That’s the essence of personal leadership. Jim Rohn taught that when the promise is clear, the price is easy. What I think is important to recognize is that when the promise is clear, the price isn’t just easy, it is part of the privilege. It’s part of the miracle.
There are no small choices. It may seem like something we ignore or decide we’ll get to later isn’t of consequence, but it is. Taking a “day off” from the plan may seem like a reward but it’s anything but that. Those thoughts rob us of the true reward and achieving what we want for and from our lives. There are no small choices. Every choice matters. Every day matters.
We are living our tomorrows today. Let’s pay attention and create tomorrows that honor our promise as well as our promises.
