The Best Day in the Year
By Samuel Patrick Smith
The Best Day in the Year. "One of the illusions of life," wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson, "is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."
Perfectionists - and I know one very well - want to to wait until all the lights are green before starting out. The problem is that all of the lights are never green at the same time. Therefore, we can't reach our destination unless we start. We can make course corrections along the way, but there's no substitute for being gripped with the realization that the present hour is the critical, decisive hour.
There's an old story about three frogs who were sitting on a log. Two of them decided to jump off. How many were left? Three! The frogs only decided to jump - they never actually took the leap. I guess they had never read Emerson or heard that the present hour is the critical, decisive hour.
Of course, we don't want to be like the confused cowboy who mounted his horse and rode off in all directions at once. We can't do everything at the same time But we don't have to do everything - we need only to do something, the something that is most important to us to achieve.
But how does one find the time to pursue his goals? After all, there are only one hundred and sixty-eight hours in a week. The answer is simple: know what we want and want it enough to take action. Business philospoher Jim Rohn says, "Reasons come first, answers come later." If we have a strong enough desire to get organized, master the routine, develop the relationship, write the book, or learn the subject, some of the ordinary, everyday time-wasters in our lives will lose their grip on us and start to fall away."
I once heard a story about a famous sculptor who was asked by a gawking admirer, "Is it difficult to sculpt?"
The great man replied, "Not at all, madam. You simply buy a block of marble and chip away what you don't want."
For most of us, there may be as much truth as humor to that statement. Looking at the block of time known as the immediate future, what do we want to chip away? Excess television or Internet time? Feuding with a neighbor or colleague? Procrastination, preoccupation, or a cluttered desk? If we look around we can easily find some time-wasters to chip away, but it's not enough to simply eliminate thing from our lives, master a difficult skill, or do something constructive, new ways to fritter away our time will take the place of the old ones.
When we understand that "getting around to it" is one of the illusions of life, today becomes the ideal time to tackle our goals and objectives.
And if my perfectionistic mind says, "When would be the best time to start cleaning off my desk?" Emerson, in a voice remarkably clear for a 206-year-old, says, "Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."
The Best Day in the Year. "One of the illusions of life," wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson, "is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."
Perfectionists - and I know one very well - want to to wait until all the lights are green before starting out. The problem is that all of the lights are never green at the same time. Therefore, we can't reach our destination unless we start. We can make course corrections along the way, but there's no substitute for being gripped with the realization that the present hour is the critical, decisive hour.
There's an old story about three frogs who were sitting on a log. Two of them decided to jump off. How many were left? Three! The frogs only decided to jump - they never actually took the leap. I guess they had never read Emerson or heard that the present hour is the critical, decisive hour.
Of course, we don't want to be like the confused cowboy who mounted his horse and rode off in all directions at once. We can't do everything at the same time But we don't have to do everything - we need only to do something, the something that is most important to us to achieve.
But how does one find the time to pursue his goals? After all, there are only one hundred and sixty-eight hours in a week. The answer is simple: know what we want and want it enough to take action. Business philospoher Jim Rohn says, "Reasons come first, answers come later." If we have a strong enough desire to get organized, master the routine, develop the relationship, write the book, or learn the subject, some of the ordinary, everyday time-wasters in our lives will lose their grip on us and start to fall away."
I once heard a story about a famous sculptor who was asked by a gawking admirer, "Is it difficult to sculpt?"
The great man replied, "Not at all, madam. You simply buy a block of marble and chip away what you don't want."
For most of us, there may be as much truth as humor to that statement. Looking at the block of time known as the immediate future, what do we want to chip away? Excess television or Internet time? Feuding with a neighbor or colleague? Procrastination, preoccupation, or a cluttered desk? If we look around we can easily find some time-wasters to chip away, but it's not enough to simply eliminate thing from our lives, master a difficult skill, or do something constructive, new ways to fritter away our time will take the place of the old ones.
When we understand that "getting around to it" is one of the illusions of life, today becomes the ideal time to tackle our goals and objectives.
And if my perfectionistic mind says, "When would be the best time to start cleaning off my desk?" Emerson, in a voice remarkably clear for a 206-year-old, says, "Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."
The following article was the "From the Editor" column piece of the May 2009 issue of The Linking Ring.
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