What You Want Now Versus What You Want Most

By: D. A. Slinkard

We are all creatures of habit, and this goes for those people who are winning at life and those people who are struggling. Whether we want to admit it or not, the majority of people have a certain way of how they go about their day. I know I have my daily routine, and I guarantee those reading this article have established their daily routines as well. Have you taken the time to ask yourself whether or not your daily habits are adding value to your life or stripping value from you?

How we live our lives consistently is a determining factor for what we will and will not achieve. Sometimes our habits can be destructive and break down any success we could have potentially had. We have settled into a life of making bad decisions, and each bad decision keeps leading us to yet another bad decision. When we keep making the same mistakes over and over again expecting a different result, we are living out the true definition of insanity.

If your daily habits are something you feel like you could do better on, I want to encourage you right now to decide to change how each day goes for you. Too often when we think about the change we want to have in our lives, we fail to realize that the decision to change is instantaneous. We fail to realize this concept because most people do not believe they have truly changed until they achieve what it is they are looking for. True change does not come in the result, but the change occurs in the moment we decide to live our lives differently.

I oftentimes ask people if they can be one percent better today than they were yesterday, and I have yet to meet someone who told me they could not do this one percent improvement. I believe we all could because it is something we believe we could easily obtain in our minds. One percent is not that drastic of a change, so we have the confidence to say, “Yes, I can improve today by that one percent.” Now, if you were to take this mindset and improve over the course of the next ten days – we are talking about a ten percent improvement all because of one decision we make each day.

Some people say it takes twenty-one days to make a habit, others say twenty-eight days, while others say thirty days. No matter what you think it takes to build a habit, begin approaching your daily life to continually improve over who you were yesterday. Think about this – after 180 days we are talking about an improvement of 180 percent which would be a big turnaround from who you were compared to who you are. One decision is all it takes to start your lifelong journey of becoming who you want to be.

A simple exercise anyone can do is take the time to think about what your ideal day would look like and take the time to write it out. It will be important to map out each day, and be specific because the more specific you are, the more vivid your ideal day will become. I think too many people are too vague when it comes to the life they are after. Therefore, they struggle to achieve success because they have not properly demonstrated what they want themselves. When you aim for nothing, you will hit it every time.

Take the time to answer what your mornings will look like. What would the ideal day be for you? What would waking up look like? What would be the daily routine that is ideal for you? This answer is all dependent on the individual — because how I want my day to go is going to be different than how you want yours. This is the great thing about life, and it is called individuality. We have free will to pick and choose how our days are going to go, whether this is for the good or the bad.

After you finish your morning routine, proceed to your afternoon, your evening, and then your nighttime routine. Remember to carefully write out how your ideal day would go and be descriptive. Paint the picture for your habitual success, and you will be better off because of the newfound clarity you have. We all have our daily habits, but we must decide how each day will go for us and then take massive action now.

By: D. A. Slinkard

D.A. Slinkard would love your feedback. You can contact him at da.slinkard@gmail.com