First, this isn’t a fluff piece on your future. Hopefully it’s evident by now that we don’t do anything to motivate our community without the strategies, grit, and perseverance to back it up. You’ve heard us say “best day ever” so many times that it gets redundant to the point of being ridiculous, but that’s exactly the point.

It is consistently building the “best day ever” so that you may repeat it. It is choosing optimism over pessimism because your thoughts, behaviors, and actions are yours to make. The goal is to build a better future…one (best) day at a time.

Our current climate (in so many more ways than one) is volatile. We feel like life is out of our control; our new normal still doesn’t feel normal at all, and maybe it’s a present that we don’t like very much. We’re wishing things would return back to the way they were or that things will be different tomorrow — we’re here to tell you that some of them can be should you choose for them to change.

Four Steps to Build a Better Future

The following is a quick list of pieces of advice and food for thought:

1) Make the next best choice available.

We like to frame this statement in the context of nutrition when we are speaking about mindful eating. We know you won’t always eat the healthiest food available to you, however, you can always get back on track by making the next best choice available. You can dive deeper into this statement when thinking about finding growth in anything; outcomes will not always be positive – how will you respond?

2) Reverse engineer your big goal to actions you can take today.

Why do New Year’s Resolutions fail for most people? People get drunk on 12/31 and wake up hungover, which makes it extremely difficult to find motivation on the very first day they believe their life will change. Alcohol notwithstanding, usually it boils down to a lack of micro focus.

If you want to run a marathon in 6 months, what run are you planning to do today? This must be reverse engineered (i.e. work backwards) to figure out benchmarks along the way, which eventually give you a daily goal / plan.

3) What challenges are you currently facing or that may arise in the future?

If a bright future was easy, everyone would have one. The choice you must be willing to make is the one to work through the difficult times to earn the peaceful and fruitful times. Sacrifices must be made. Resilience must be developed. The trick is to predict and prepare for some of those challenges right now. Are they environmental? Are they personal and individual to you? These are great questions to discuss with a coach or mentor.

4) Consider how you measure success.

It isn’t all about money. There are plenty of rich people who are miserable. In fact, money can be blinding and distracting in a sense that you might do things for money that really don’t build the future you want. Creating monetary wealth can certainly be a value you hold, but it’s not the only way to keep score (as many people quickly figure out after college). What other things do you value that may contribute towards a better future?

We’ll say it again:

“It is consistently building the “best day ever” so that you may repeat it. It is choosing optimism over pessimism because your thoughts, behaviors, and actions are yours to make. The goal is to build a better future…one (best) day at a time.“