Either the Day Runs You, or You Run the Day

Melissa Murray, the sounds of fallen bone, 2012
The most important plan of each day is how you decide to start your morning. How you start your day effects how you see the rest of your day and whether or not you or the day are in control.
Taking time at the beginning of your day, whether it’s fifteen minutes or an hour, to set the mood, pace, and success of our day can make all the difference in how you feel the rest of the day as well as at the end of the day.
Starting your morning rushing out of the door as quickly as possible, wearing whatever clean clothes are within reach, without having eaten and with no food with you, hoping you have everything you need for the day in the bag you grabbed as you quickly run out the door, is the type of energy that is only allowing you to survive and to be where you need to be on time. There is no thought, no purpose, and no self-love in it.

When we approach each day from the frame of running the day rather than letting it run us, we take control and choose to start our day being in control and driving the whole day toward our larger goals.

Jonathan Fields of the Good Life Project closes his interviews of podcast guests with the question, “What does it mean to you to live a good life?” His most recent guest responded, “It is knowing what you want and going after it.”
I also believe that is one of the most important aspects of leading a good life, and a life you want. If you don’t know what you want in life then why do you wake up? What do you want to accomplish? What do you hope to achieve?
If you leave your life up to chance it might bring you somewhere great or it might beach you on a terrible island from which you never move forward.
How fast you go after your goals is your choice. You can crawl, walk, or run toward them, but the speed with which you choose to do so is surely an indication of your commitment to the causes. And it’s important to reflect on the two-pronged importance of the statement from the Good Life Project podcast guest. Half the importance is just knowing that what you want. If you don’t even have the clarity to know what you what to attain, how are you ever going to get closer to it? That clarity of vision is the first and most important part. The second part is helping continually move yourself toward those goals. Sometimes you maybe able to move toward them more quickly than other times, but the speed with which you do so is much less important than the fact you are working toward them.
Commit to obtaining the clarity of vision to define what you want in life. Then, once you have that clearly defined, commit yourself to start working towards them no matter how long it takes.
We only live once, so this is your one chance to live the life you want. Don’t squander it. Take control of defining where your goals will lead you.