Make Today A Masterpiece

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Most of us think our lives accumulate. We think they are adding up to something. We think of our lives as being strung together like a long smoky train, so that we can add new freight cards when we're feeling right, and dump the others when we're not.

But when basketball legend John Wooden's father said to him, "Make each day your masterpiece," Wooden knew something profound: Life is now. Life is not later on. And the more we hypnotise ourselves into thinking we have all the time in the world to do what we want to do, the more we sleepwalk past life's finest opportunities. Self-motivation flows from the importance we attach to today.

Most of us, however, don't want it to be this way. If someone asks us if today can be used as a model to judge our entire life by, we would shriek, "Oh no! It isn't one of my better days. Give me a year or two and I'll live a day, I'm certain of it, that you can use to represent my life."

The key to personal transformation is in your willingness to do very ting things-but to do them today.

Transformation is not an all-or-nothing game, it's a work in progress. A little touch here and there is what makes your day (and, therefore, your life) great. Today is a microcosm of your entire life. It is your whole life in miniature. You were "born" when you woke up, and you'll "die" when you go to sleep. It was designed this way so that you could live your whole life in a day.


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