Life is better when you live one day at a time

A couple of days ago, we had an orientation session after a long time. I usually engage the new team members just for few minutes during the introduction and ask them fun and reflective questions. 

This time I asked them something that crossed my mind that morning. How deeply are we connected to our own reality? I rephrased this and put it in very simple terms. How many of us know how many more days we have left this year?

They all stared at me and started counting. 

I don’t think many of us can answer this question immediately. Most of us live for our goals. Goals that we have for our lives and for our careers. Those goals are measured in achievements and when we measure these against temporal landmarks, it is about a year, a month or weeks. It is on rare occasions that we break life down into days and moments.

Much has been written about being mindful, living in the moment or living in the present. These may be cliches but there is a certain meditative and satisfying feeling when you start “living” every day of your life.

While BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals or Beehags) work at an organizational level, big goals help individuals dream of big things. While big dreams are helpful in some ways, they tend to steer individuals away from their inner selves creating dissonance between what they want and how they feel while working towards that target. Daily reflection and taking stock of the good things in your life could help stop comparing oneself to your peers.

Count your blessings today, look forward to a better tomorrow and be that better version of yourself like you always said to others. Stop dreaming and start living.