To Create The Life You Want, Each Day Must Be A Little Better Than The Last

Why we need to remember to enjoy our one wild and precious lives on the journey to becoming better versions of ourselves.

“”For the great doesn’t happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together.”

— Vincent Van Gogh —

The other day I realized that I’m so caught up in tracking my habits and making sure I check them off each day that I’m not really enjoying my life.

Not truly.

I’m obsessed with getting one percent better each day — but I wonder is my life getting one percent better each day?

If the project of becoming who we want to be is a life-long endeavour — because the goal post is always moving — I wondered:

Will I ever get to the point of being able to just enjoy life?

And what about fun? Where does that fit in?

“Don’t be afraid your life will end. Be afraid it will never begin.” — Grace Hansen

The honest answer is that it didn’t. I was so caught up in improving myself with daily habits that I wasn’t enjoying who I am right now.

We can enjoy life now as we create the building blocks of a new life

Developing strong habits take us in the direction of a better life, definitely. But we need to enjoy living life right now while we’re creating the building blocks of a new life.

I love the example that James Clear gives in Atomic Habits of two planes leaving the same place bound for New York. By deviating by just a few degrees one plane ends up in Washington, D.C., hundreds of kilometres away from its original destination.

“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.”

— James Clear —

Building habits that make our lives better over time and letting go of those that make it worse is essential if we want to change our lives. The key is change our lives.

The reason we want to build better habits — be healthier, do more and so on — is because we want to live better lives. But why do we have to wait? Can’t we live better lives now too?

Curating each day based on how we want to feel brings that reality to us

I’ve decided that I can and I will enjoy the journey towards the life I’m creating. As part of this work, I’ve started curating my days based on how I want to feel each day.

I first learned this concept from Danielle Laporte. Her book The Desire Map outlines her philosophy on goal setting which is to base your goals on how you want to feel. The idea is that we want certain things in our lives because of how we think they will make us feel.

So why not feel that way now?

Every night I now have a ritual of curating the next day. I write down a few things I need to get done. I also spend some time thinking about how I want to feel. And then think of a few things I could do to feel that way and write them down. Then in the morning I conjure up that feeling during my meditation and visualization. And I try to do things that will keep that feeling alive.

“What will you do with your one wild and precious life?”

— Mary Oliver —

Being the version of ourselves who already has the life we envision

Curating each day puts me in the state of being my future self now — something Joe Dispenza stresses in his work. It puts me in the state of not striving because I’m the person who already has the life I’ve been striving for.

It’s not out of reach. If we can imagine the life, we can be the person who has it.

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”

— Helen Keller —

Setting intentions that each day will be better than the last

I’ve started setting an intention each night that tomorrow will be better than today. Then I follow through with things that make that intention a reality.

Building the habits and stepping into the emotions of my future self my life takes incremental change to the next level. And that has a cascading effect on my expectations.

In a sense my intentions have become the compound interest in creating a life that gets better and better.

It’s not always perfect. It feels awkward and probably looks awkward too. But I’ll take looking awkward over being stuck any day.

I’ve still got a ways to go but I’m definitely enjoying the journey more. It’s progress. And I’ll take it.

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