Today Is The Best Day Of Your Life (so stop procrastinating)

by DARIUS FOROUX

Tomorrow has the potential to be better than today. But this day is the only day you have. And it’s the best day of your life.

“I’ll start tomorrow.” I’ve said that hundreds of times. I’ve said it when I talked about running, writing, working, eating healthier, saying thank you, or any other habit that I wanted to start/improve.

And did that behavior help me? You know the answer to that.

Procrastinating is a bad habit. Research shows that the best way to get rid of a habit is to replace it with another habit.

“What day is it?”

It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.

My favorite day,” said Pooh.”

― A.A. Milne

The best way to replace procrastination is by adopting a habit of taking action.

So how does that look like in real life? It can be as simple as replacing the word ‘later’ with ‘now’ in your vocabulary.

That’s exactly what I did. I don’t even use the word ‘later’ anymore. I always do it now.

You know why? There’s no ‘later’, and there’s also not a ‘tomorrow’. Not because you will die, that chance is very little. No, tomorrow doesn’t exist because time doesn’t exist.

“..for us physicists believe the separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one.” — Albert Einstein

I don’t believe in later because it’s an illusion. As Einstein said, it’s a very convincing one.

We all think that we have seas of time. “There’s always tomorrow.” Nope—I’m sorry to disappoint you.

Today is the only day you have. And if you only have one thing, don’t you want to make it your best thing?

The email that you have to send. The unpleasant conversation that you are dodging for weeks. The family trip that you have to plan. The sheets that you have to change. The gift you have to buy for your partner.

Make it count by doing it now.

What About Chasing Your Dreams?

Don’t confuse this concept of ‘your best day’ with the pressure of ‘living your dream’. Don’t get impatient because your life is not exactly the way you want it.

When it comes to chasing your dreams, I’ve adopted Steve Job’s philosophy:

“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

I don’t make rash decisions or think I should party all night and get wasted, just because this ‘might’ be my last day. Job’s philosophy is about the long term.

And yes, when you wake up every day and think ‘this is not what I want to do,’ it’s time to do something about it. The answer is not procrastination, but action.

That’s what I did almost a year ago when I decided to quit my corporate job — my answer to Steve Job’s question was ‘No’ for years. Not days.

Every day you are lazy, you’re wasting your best day. That doesn’t mean you have to change your whole life in one day. People who believe that are delusional.

Instead, you can build a habit of doing stuff — take action, solve problems, create something.

Just take one micro action every day. Don’t postpone anything you have to do, don’t even think about it too long. Like Bruce Lee said:

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”

This reminds me…It’s time to go for a run. Shall I do it lat..? Shit, I almost said it. No, I’ll do it now.