Tomorrow isn't actually your friend.
It doesn't offer you a more perfect time or a more convenient opportunity.
Heck, you aren't even guaranteed to have a tomorrow. So why are you addicted to it?
“All of us are a little bit addicted to tomorrow. I’ll quit smoking tomorrow. I’ll go on a diet tomorrow. I’ll lose weight tomorrow. I’ll study tomorrow.“Making it happen TODAY is the way you improve & way you get better.”
Nick Saban
I’ve been there. I’m sure you’ve been there too.
We want to start something new but we feel like today just isn’t the best time. Tomorrow always sounds more…. convenient for us.
I created a poor habit during my mid-20s of having a drink at the end of the workday. One day became two. Became three. And on and on.
It wasn’t much – just one drink at the end of a day – but over time, I realized I was doing it every day. I would justify to myself that tomorrow was a better day to stop because I had to attend “this social event” or “that happy hour.”
If I had to be there, I had to have a drink, right?
Wrong.
I was simply making excuses to continue the behavior that I said I wanted to quit. I used “tomorrow” as my reasoning, only when tomorrow came, I’d use it again.
It’s easy to say tomorrow.
As Nick Saban said, we’re addicted to putting it off until tomorrow because putting it off removes the responsibility of our own actions. We justify to ourselves that we’ll be ready tomorrow, yet when tomorrow becomes today, we do it again.
The only way to break the (dangerous) addiction of “tomorrow” is to honor your commitment of today.
Because today is the only day you’re actually guaranteed. I talk a lot in my book about the importance of Controlling Your Controllables within a “Day One” perspective.
We would never commit to the first day of a new goal, start the work, and then suddenly just put it off for “tomorrow.”
No!
We’d get after it for the first day. We only lose our motivation and put off things for “tomorrow” and think we’ve got limitless amounts of time. We delay and delay and delay… and then wonder why we haven’t made progress.
It’s because we’re addicted to delaying instead of just focusing on today and doing the work.
Don’t keep putting off the work for tomorrow because the problem can become that one day you’ll realize that your opportunity has finally shown up and you’re not ready for it.
You don’t have to do everything today.
But you do have to do something.
- Watching one 7-min educational YouTube video > 7-min of Netflix
- Reading for just five minutes > not picking up the book.
- Working out for 15 minutes > no workout
You don’t have to do it all but you have to do something.
Break the addiction to “tomorrow” if you actually want to reach your goals tomorrow.
Do the work today. I’m cheering for you Competitor.