“Enjoy life Today because Yesterday is in the past and Tomorrow is never promised…”

“Enjoy life Today because Yesterday is in the past and Tomorrow is never promised…”

These words are what I’ve been saying to myself on a continuous basis since a few days ago. I am a natural worry-head, procrastinator and generally think too far ahead into the future. I will be the first to admit, this has driven my stress levels up and on one too many occasions, has threatened to leave me on the brink of insanity. If I can’t predict the outcome of a situation, then I don’t feel comfortable. (With that said, I haven’t been too far off the mark quite a few times…just saying).

I normally analyze things to death purely because I feel like I need to be prepared for whatever comes my way (or might come my way).

I recently reminded myself of the words on the topic of today’s post. Why?…well I don’t really know. Maybe it’s God speaking to me or maybe I’ve just reached a point where I’ve really just had enough of the lemons life is handing me and simply can’t take it anymore.

Whichever it is, I’m going to give it a go.

So, here’s what I decided and what repeating these words to myself means:

Yesterday…it’s done and dusted. Nothing I try will bring it back and there’s no changing what did or didn’t happen…I need to accept that. I close my mind’s door on it and move on. Besides, dwelling on it might just deliver way too much regret for me to live with…leading to a constant downward spiral as I would have added some more baggage from all the yesterday’s gone before. Having this approach reminds me of the movie 50 first dates with Drew Barrymore. She woke up each day having totally no recollection of the day before because it “never happened“. Imagine that!

Tomorrow
…well that hasn’t happened yet and it’s quite possibly in the “Too far ahead to think about” category. So I’m making a conscious decision not to think about it or plan for it. I might not even make it to tomorrow for all I know, which is why I accept that “Tomorrow is never promised“.

Today…now here’s the exciting part for me. It’s the start of a new yesterday. No matter what I didn’t manage to do yesterday, today gives me an opportunity to start all over. I get to try again or start something new. The way I see it, Today is filled with so many possibilities and opportunities. If I get to do at least one thing of value, then I will feel as if I have achieved something. At the moment, I’m trying to do this with at least every aspect of my life. For example:

At work

I try to do at least one thing that will add value to either the business or one of my colleagues. For instance, I ended up giving my laptop to a colleague as he will be working off-site for the next 2-3 weeks and we only had a Tablet spare. (For context, part of my job is providing IT support/Admin to the members of our greater team). It helps him to do what he needs to for the time that he’ll be away. It also solves a problem for management, no matter how big, small or insignificant.

As an example, I got this, this morning: “Morning, I have to compliment you. Wanted to do it before, but got busy and forgot. When you were handling the phones, I got my new one in two days. Every time I ask something you give a quick and proper response/advice. Thanks for that.
It’s these little “surprises” in my day that adds the value for me. It really doesn’t matter who I helped or what it is that I’ve done but a thank you such as this…warms my heart and nourishes my soul.

My family

I’ve been working on a new idea to improve our lives. It requires that I put in some time, energy and effort from my side to make sure I give it the best chance of success. It’s work in progress though…(I know it sounds a bit vague but if you were to try this, I’m sure you will be able to find something that will be relevant to your own situation). It might be that you do a small act for each member of your household to help them out. The best part is, you don’t even need to be creative when doing this because it’s all about making the next persons’ life a little easier through an act of love.

Myself

Even though I’ve put this last, it’s by no means least. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Because of this new way of thinking, I’m putting my own well-being first. I am important and as I said before, “I will be the first to admit, this has driven my stress levels up and on one too many occasions, has threatened to leave me at the brink of insanity“. By all accounts, reaching this point is not worth it…EVER!

It requires me to do some much-needed evaluation of my life in general and make the required changes for the better.

This doesn’t come so easy to me right now but I believe that I can get back on track by purely showing myself some much needed TLC. How often don’t we go through life putting others first and skimping on the love and care WE so rightly deserve? One thing that sticks in my mind is having heard people say “I’ve lost myself in the process” or “I don’t know who I am” or “I need to find myself“. I don’t want to be that person…

The way I see it, I’ve got nothing to lose and only myself to gain in the process.

What do you do to maintain balance and a level of sanity? Have you been successful in holding onto who YOU are?  More importantly, are you enjoying life Today?

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