“We control what we look at.  Start looking at what you can control.” ~ Brook Noel

Good Morning!  

Often, we desire change in our lives during those times when we feel completely overwhelmed!  Because we feel weighed down by life, we desire change.  It is a catch-22:  The change we desire is hard to reach because we feel so overwhelmed.  Welcome to the number-one reason that people start to change, and the number-one reason most people fall off the wagon.

To honor the self, we begin each day with a simple good-morning.  We begin by learning to complete steps that build us up instead of tear us down.

There is a great story in Level Six Performance by Stephen Long, about how a hammer isn’t actually a tool until someone picks it up.  Until that point, it is just a funny-looking shape; it may as well be an art object.  The hammer doesn’t derive purpose as a tool until someone uses it.  I have heard a similar analogy about a postage stamp.  Until you put it on something, it is just a little square piece of sticky paper.  We can buy all the tools in the world, look at them, and study them, but they don’t actually become tools until we start using them.

Imagine that you had never properly used a hammer before, so you sign up for a building class.  Oddly, the first assignment the instructor gives is to build a house.  How do you think you would do?  I don’t think it would work real well.  Why?  Well, not only do you not have any practice with the hammer, but a house would also require many other tools that you likely don’t have experience with.  How would you master the hammer and all the other tools?  I don’t know about you, but I think I would drop out of that class.

While the hammer and house story may sound silly, many of us are trying to build something even bigger – our lives – without first mastering the simplest tools.

On any given day, if any of us were to look at the whole picture of life, surely it would be overwhelming.  So, why look at it?  It only paralyzes us and stops us from making any progress in the place where we can be effective – today – right now!  You don’t need to build your entire life right now: just build today.  Make today matter.

Your Turn:  Instead of looking at the whole picture, focus in on a single area.  Ask: What can I do right now that makes a difference? And then take that little step, and another little step, and another little step.  There will always be things that aren’t done – but today we both have twenty-four hours (less sleep time) to do what matters.  Let’s get it done.

Today’s Affirmation:  I focus my attention and energies on making today matter.