A couple of weeks ago strategist Hilda Fainsod told me that my “tomorrow starts today.” That it’s all there for me, for all of us, but we’ve got to start today.
It’s a catchy phrase “Your best tomorrow starts today” and I’ve heard similar things before. But when Fainsod said it, the gears in my brain clicked in and started churning in a new way.
Have you ever had this happen? You pick up a book that you’ve put down before, only now it speaks to you. Or you hear some old piece of advice delivered a new way, and it makes sense to the person you are now.
That’s what my conversation with Fainsod was like.
What I do today, creates tomorrow. If I want something different, then today is the time to get after it.
Scary Realization
This shook me because yesterday I spent a fair amount of time debating and deciding, worrying and wallowing about which project to do next. By the end of the day, I hadn’t finished any of them. So yeah, today looks quite a lot like yesterday.
How many days do I want to spend doing this? I can tell you, not one. Not one more day. I want to move toward my goals, not spend time thinking about moving toward them.
To change our future, we’ve got to change how we live today. That’s scary though, right? We associate change with worry, adversity, and discomfort. But it also feels scary to live a life where we are not living meaningful experiences, doing inspiring work, moving toward our dreamiest goals, or becoming who we want to become now.
Change, by its nature, is uncomfortable because we have to expand into it. Learn new things. But it’s also an asset because it moves us out of our most terrible moments and into something better. Hardship and discomfort then can be temporary.
At any moment, at any age, change is the mechanism behind our greatest life.
It Doesn’t Have to Be Scary
Life is dynamic. Fluid. And that kind of movement allows us to find our dream job after years of drudgery, enter into a loving relationship when we’ve been single, or taste ice cream for the first time.
It can be this simple. We don’t have to blow up everything and start over to transform our lives anymore than we need to burn down a house to redecorate it.
We can move the furniture around, paint the walls, and sit in a different chair. Those subtle shifts change our entire experience of the house.
Small changes today, transform our future.
Overwhelm Stops Momentum
Don’t overthink it. I’ve done that. I’m telling you now, it is not a success strategy. It’s a stay-stuck strategy.
Here’s how it plays out: We decide to write the book. Or lose 45 pounds. So, we write until 3 a.m. or spend three hours at the gym only to realize we have another 84,450 words to write or 45.75 more pounds to lose, and we are already exhausted and swamped in overwhelm by the magnitude of the task.
Relax. You don’t have to write the book today. Just write the first paragraph. Just feed the baby.
Feed the Baby
When our daughter was born, I worried about how I was ever going to take care of a teenager. I mean, after all, I didn’t even know how to care for a baby. My friend laughed. “Just feed the baby today,” she said. She assured me that I would learn what I needed to know about caring for a teenager by the time I had one. She was right. I did learn and I’m still learning. But none of now would matter if I hadn’t fed the baby back then.
If we don’t nourish the dream today, we won’t get there tomorrow.
Ready to lose weight? Start with a five-minute walk.
Want to get out of debt? Put five bucks in your savings account right now.
Strengthen your relationship? Send a love note to that person today.
One Line at a Time
The most masterful works of art started with a single stroke, and then another one, and another.
All those lines then came together and changed the canvas they were painted on, and the process changed the artist who painted them. Then, one day when we see all those individual strokes in the form of a picture, the art changes us too.
Your life is a work of art. Create it—one stroke, one step, one small action today to begin creating a different future tomorrow. This is how transformation happens. This is how we change. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming or daunting. It can be exhilarating. Interesting. Revitalizing.
What is it you want? What excites you? What do you desire? How do you want to feel? What have you always wanted to try?
OK, now, take a small step towards that. Give it five minutes. Then, do it again tomorrow.
Five minutes. Just start there.
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Hilda Fainsod, the author of Power Up: The Executive Roadmap to Transforming Life and Business talks about how to meet our greatest goals by taking small steps every day on Polly Campbell, Simply Said Ep. 259.
Transformation happens when we snap out of our default mode, Fainsod says. Let’s do it now.