Powerful.
Just powerful and I have no other way to describe it.
First, with the turning of a new year, we also talk about our resolutions and struggles and how this year will be better than last. Unfortunately, most of us will not reach our goal of losing weight or eating better but we still try. I wrote recently that when you are thinking about giving up, the words almost there should be on the front of your brain because you really are almost there.
Here is where a powerful story came across my timeline recently. This story is told by Ed Mylett. I had never heard of him but his short video had a huge impact on me. His dad was an alcoholic and decided enough was enough. He was going to get sober.
He sat down with his son and told him what he was going to do. His son asked, “How long do you plan on being sober? For the rest of your life? ” The dad paused, looked at his son and said, “Just one more day. I will be sober for just one more day.”
I paused and watched it probably twenty times.
Just one more day.
Lord, how many times have we wanted to stop doing something but if we had the mindset of “just one more day,” who knows what would have happened. We all too often set these unrealistic goals for ourselves that when we fall short, we get upset, dismayed, angry and everything else.
I love this approach. Not worried about what might happen three weeks from now or if I am not on target for that goal I sat for myself. Just do it for one more day. That is it.
I posted recently that I have lost nearly fifty pounds and it all started when I decided to stop drinking sodas. I wrote an article last summer where I had 66 diet cokes in a two week period and weighed more than I ever had in my life. I felt disgusting.
Just one more day. I got through day one without any sodas and immediately went to the mindset of just one more day. I was not going to stop drinking sodas for three months or forever, but simply for one more day. Then on and on and on. Eventually, you are three months in and the weight has fallen off and you feel better than you have in your entire life.
A friend reached out to me and said he was going to stop cold turkey on the sodas but he wasn’t sure he could do it. I told him the story of just one more day. Don’t do it with the goal of a month of not drinking them, but for just one more day. I am happy to report he is now a week in and he has stopped drinking all sodas.
If you are struggling with something, remember, just one more day. Get through the next twenty-four hours, then pat yourself on the back, and then work on the next twenty-four. Trust me, if I can do it, I know you can do it.
After all, it is for just one more day.