Change Your Life By Living One Day At A Time

Living one day at a time means living your life in 24-hour blocks. You only focus on what you can do every 24 hours. Life is much more manageable when you only focus on each day.

Living one day at a time means having plans for the future; you learn from the past but focus on doing your best each day. You must believe you’ll get where you want to go if you do the right things daily.

I live in the past and the future. I obsess about all my mistakes, trying to justify them in some form. All this brings is misery.

I tend to worry about all the possible things that can happen. If X happens, what will I do? And what if X happening leads to Y happening? Then I’m in trouble. I essentially end up paralyzed by my thoughts and anxiety, achieving nothing daily besides losing my mind.

On the other hand, my dog Maya is an expert at living one day at a time, completely being in the present moment. Maya is the happiest creature I’ve ever met. She does not care that she pissed on my bed last week; the thought doesn’t even enter her mind. She does not feel ashamed of it. She does not care.

Maya also doesn’t constantly ruminate about the future. When we play fetch, she isn’t worrying about if we’ll play fetch again tomorrow. When eating, she isn’t worrying about what she will eat for dinner tomorrow. Maya doesn’t worry about what people will think if she walks around with a sock in her mouth 22 hours a day. She is completely zen. Happily living one day at a time.

These days I am putting some serious effort into living one day at a time. I have my goals for the long-term future, and I accept that I’ve made mistakes in the past; we all do.

Instead of constantly ruminating about the past and future, I wake up in the mornings and focus on what I need to do, what I can do, and what I want to do within the next 24 hours.

If I worry about a mistake or a possible future scenario, I will ask myself if there is anything I can do about it during this day. If the answer is yes, I do it. If the answer is no, I let it go.

Ultimately, all we have is each day, the past is gone, and the future is not guaranteed. So I do what I can each day and have faith that if I do my best each day, it will lead toward my future goals, and everything will work out.

So stop the analysis paralysis, accept the past, don’t ruminate about the future, and do everything you can in the next 24 hours. It makes life seem much more manageable and has greatly increased my happiness.

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