God, I thank you for this day.
I know I have not accomplished as yet
all you expect of me, and if that is your reason for bathing me in the
fresh dew of another dawn, I am most grateful.
I am prepared, at last, to make you
proud of me.
I will forget yesterday, with all its
trials and tribulations, aggravations and setbacks, angers and
frustrations. The past is already a dream from which I can neither
retrieve a single word nor erase any foolish deeds.
I will resolve, however, that if I have
injured anyone yesterday through my thoughtlessness, I will not let this
day's sun set before I make amends, and nothing I do today will be of
greater importance.
I will not fret the future. My success
and happiness does not depend on straining to see what lurks dimly on the
horizon but to do, this day, what lies clearly at hand.
I will treasure this day, for it is all
I have. I know that its rushing hours cannot be accumulated or stored,
like precious grain, for future use.
I will live as all good actors do when
they are on stage - only in the moment. I cannot perform at my best today
by regretting my previous act's mistakes or worrying about the scene to
come.
I will embrace today's difficult tasks,
take off my coat, and make dust in the world. I will remember that the
busier I am, the less harm I am apt to suffer, the tastier will be my
food, the sweeter my sleep, and the better satisfied I will be with my
place in the world.
I will free myself today from slavery
to clock and calendar. Although I will plan this day in order to conserve
my steps and energy, I will begin to measure my life in deeds, not years;
in thoughts, not seasons; in feelings, not figures on a dial.
I will remain aware of how little it
takes to make this a happy day. Never will I pursue happiness, because it
is not a goal, just a by-product, and there is no happiness in having or
in getting, only in giving.
I will run from no danger I might
encounter today, because I am certain that nothing will happen to me that
I am not equipped to handle with your help. Just as any gem is polished by
friction, I am certain to become more valuable through this day's
adversities, and if you close one door, you always open another for me.
I will live this day as if it were
Christmas. I will be a giver of gifts and deliver to my enemies the gift
of forgiveness; my opponents, tolerance; my friends, a smile; my children,
a good example, and every gift will be wrapped with unconditional love.
I will waste not even a precious second
today in anger or hate or jealousy or selfishness. I know that the seeds I
sow I will harvest, because every action, good or bad, is always followed by
an equal reaction. I will plant only good seeds this day.
I will treat today as a priceless
violin. One may draw harmony from it and another, discord, yet no one will
blame the instrument. Life is the same, and if I play it correctly, it
will give forth beauty, but if I play it ignorantly, it will produce
ugliness.
I will condition myself to look on
every problem I encounter today as no more than a pebble in my shoe. I
remember the pain, so harsh I could hardly walk, and recall my surprise
when I removed my shoe and found only a grain of sand.
I will work convinced that nothing
great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. To do anything today that is
truly worth doing, I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the
cold and danger, but jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I
can.
I will face the world with goals set
for this day, but they will be attainable ones, not the vague, impossible
variety declared by those who make a career of failure. I realize that you
always try me with a little, first, to see what I would do with a lot.
I will never hide my talents. If I am
silent, I am forgotten, if I do not advance, I will fall back. If I walk
away from any challenge today, my self-esteem will be forever scarred, and
if I cease to grow, even a little, I will become smaller. I reject the
stationary position because it is always the beginning of the end.
I will keep a smile on my face and in
my heart even when it hurts today. I know that the world is a looking
glass and gives back to me the reflection of my own soul. Now I understand
the secret of correcting the attitude of others and that is to correct my
own.
I will turn away from any temptation
today that might cause me to break my word or my self-respect. I am
positive that the only thing I possess more valuable than my life is my
honor.
I will work this day with all my
strength, content in the knowledge that life does not consist of wallowing
in the past or peering anxiously at the future. It is appalling to
contemplate the great number of painful steps by which one arrives at a
truth so old, so obvious, and so frequently expressed. Whatever it offers,
little or much, my life is now.
I will pause whenever I am feeling
sorry for myself today, and remember that this is the only day I have and
I must play it to the fullest. What my part may signify in the great
whole, I may not recognize, but I am here to play it and now is the time.
I will count this day a separate life.
I will remember that those who have fewest regrets are those who take each
moment as it comes for all that it is worth.
This is my day! These are my seeds.
Thank you, God, for this precious
garden of time.
~ Og Mandino
It's the Bounce that
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