“One today is worth two tomorrows.”

– Benjamin Franklin

 Success-Minded People often struggle with living in today.  We can be so focused on our goals and the future that we miss what is going on today.  Where, having a vision for the future is important, it is not where things happen.  The future and the past have one thing in common, you cannot live there.  You can only live and act in today.

TODAY MATTERS

In 2004, author and leadership expert Dr. John C. Maxwell published what I believe was a landmark book titled, Today Matters.  I feel no one understands leadership and the thinking of Success-Minded People as much as Dr. Maxwell.  “You will never change your life until you change something you do daily.” He wrote, “You see, success doesn’t just suddenly occur one day in someone’s life.  For that matter, neither does failure.  Each is a process.  Every day of your life is merely preparation for the next.  What you become is the result of what you do today.”

THE FUTURE BECOMES THE PAST

It is what you will do today that will bring you closer or farther away from your goal.  Newspaper Editor and Pulitzer Prize-Winner, William Allen White said, “Multitudes of people have failed to live for today.  They have spent their lives reaching for the future.  What they have had within their grasp today they have missed entirely, because only the future has intrigued them and the first thing they know the future becomes the past.”  How many times have you been waiting for something so long that when it finial gets here you miss it?  It happens to all of us at one time or another.

 KEY TO ACHIEVEMENT

Success-Minded People know that achievement is only possible for those who act in the present.  It is good to learn from the past and if you do not plan for the future you will not reach your goals.  But it is in the actions of today that the real victories are won.  Success-Minded People prepare for the future by doing the right thing today, learning the right lessons and developing the right skills – today.  If your life is based on what you will do, you will do nothing.  Today is the time for action so that when tomorrow comes you are already moving toward your goals.

 ONLY HAPPENS ONCE

We talk a lot about planning and goal setting, but always remember that the action steps needed to achieve that goal can only be taken today.  If you miss today you will never get it back.  All the joy and wonders the Lord has for you to discover all are within the borders of today.  Do not miss a moment trying to hold on to the past, it can never change or return.  Do not allow the achievements of today to be missed while you wait for a tomorrow that will never come.  There is only today and today is good.

 © 2011 John Patrick Hickey