Are You Living in Yesterday, Today, or Tomorrow?

February 18, 2011 By 5 Comments

Are you still working on yesterday?

Are you so busy today that you can’t even think about the future?

Or are you hopeless dreaming of a tomorrow that has not yet come?

Which day are you living in?

Yesterday? Today? or Tomorrow?

Yesterday

Still working on yesterday?

You’re not the only one.

Some people never catch up.

Late tasks. Overdue deadlines. Yesterday’s news.

They are living in the past. In a frame of reference that is behind everyone else.

They never get to today’s activities.

And they certainly have no time to look to the future.

Today

Today is a good day.

It is the only one that you have.

To do what needs to be done. To make things better. To prepare and build for the future.

Today gets it done.

But, are you working so hard today that you forgot what happened yesterday? And are bound to repeat it?

Or is your head down in your work so much that you don’t dream of what could be?

Working only on today and failing to look forward?

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is a promise.

It is dream of what could be. What might be possible.

In its purest form, it can be a path to your future.

But, if you live in the future without any basis in the present, you are not living in the real world.

You may be living a fantasy. You may make bad choices based on your imagined future.

Awaiting a tomorrow that you are not taking any steps to make happen.

Balance and a Little Luck

The truth is that it takes balance.

You have learn from the past. So that you are not bound to repeat your mistakes. So that you can leverage skills and lessons learned.

You have to live in the present. To get things done. To be in the now.

And you have to look forward to the future. To have a plan. And dream of what you want to achieve.

It is a balance. One cannot serve you fully.

You need all three.

And of course, a little luck is always good.

Or as one of my mentors once said…

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, dream for tomorrow.

…and May the Force be with you.”

Which day are you living in? Yesterday? Today? or Tomorrow?

Filed Under: Time Management

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  • MikeGusky

    Thanks for the reminder Craig. As always you are right on the mark. The balance is important and at times that balance will be an aggregate of a longer span of time. I have in the past spent an enormous amount of energy attempting to keep that balance daily without total success. I have learned over the years that its better to plan the balance across a weekly or even monthly time frame. I think anything larger than monthly can become dangerous. For the last few weeks I have been straddling the “yesterday” and “today” buckets. Its a very busy time with large time commitments but I have some “tomorrow” focus time in the plan over the next couple weeks which will bring it all into balance. Sometimes we have to accept that its a “yesterday” day today and “tomorrow” day tomorrow. Does that sentence even make sense? :)

    • TMNinja

      @MikeGusky Thanks, Mike… like your analogy.

      Also, agree that the monthly time frame is one of the best horizons for most people to focus on. Anything more can be too much and anything less is usually not strategic enough.

      (I am not saying you shouldn’t have goals bigger than one month… just that one month is the near future to focus on…)

  • birdandherworm

    Love it!