How to Make Every Day Your Best Day
My wife reminded me recently that I often used to sing the words to “Something Good is Going to Happen to You, Happen to You, This Very Day”1 before going to work. When I thought back, I realized that it seemed to help me start off the day with the right approach. It helped me make each day a good day! I probably stopped singing the song because I got tired of it, but upon realizing what a difference it makes in how my day begins, I started singing it to myself again each morning.
In his book entitled Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff—And It’s All Small Stuff, Dr. Richard Carlson has several important messages about making every day your best day.
One message is that daily problems in the world and in our own lives tend to take on a much bigger significance in darkening our day than they deserve.
Sometimes these little things can be allowed to, in effect, take over our lives. Rather than focusing on the important things like health, family, faith, friends, purpose, and the relative prosperity of not having to worry about your next meal or where you will sleep, people let the fairly small events of the day dictate how they feel. In my case, when the stock market drops repeatedly day after day, it tends to sour my day if I let it. Yet the message of Dr. Carlson’s book is that most of the things we worry and fret about are all small things. Consequently, if we can remember that the daily negative events are mostly small stuff, we won’t let them ruin our day. For me, singing that song starts my day off well and helps me focus on what’s really important.
Another technique that helps me with this relates to the book of John. When I was a teenager, the book of John from the New Testament played a significant role in my salvation. Then, several years ago during my prayer time, it became apparent that for me to avoid sweating the small stuff and to make every day my best day, my daily focus should be on four ideas that conveniently make the acronym JOHN. For me, JOHN stands for Joy, Organization, Helpfulness, and Negativity.
These four items help me focus on what is really important. Practicing being joyful every day can certainly by itself make every day a great day. If I don’t stay organized I become flustered and experience unnecessary anxiety. So staying organized keeps anxiety and frustration from creeping in and stealing my joy. Trying to help someone else keeps you from dwelling on your own problems and brightens your day. Finally, negativity, particularly as it relates to other people, will almost always lead you down the path of a bad day, so not allowing negativity to creep into your thoughts or actions can save the day. For me, focusing on JOHN makes it nearly impossible to have a bad day and, consequently, every day is more likely to be a best day.
One other thing you can do is come up with a list of things that make you happy. While traveling to our vacation destination one year, my family came up with what we called the “best of the best,” a list of life’s special little things that we each especially enjoyed. All of us came up with our own “best of the best” list. My middle child, Aaron, who was around twelve or thirteen at the time, included fireworks, the Chicago Bulls, dolphins, and Dippin’ Dots ice cream on his list. Mine included my mom’s sugar “kisses” that she makes every Christmas, cherry Dr. Pepper, playing tennis with my kids, special getaway vacations with my wife, and buying new running shoes. Taking the time to make these lists made us realize how life’s unique little pleasures can help make a day special.
Every day we each have a chance to let circumstances, pressures, other people, or events in the world get us down.
But choose to make every day a special day—your best day!
I’ve learned to enjoy life and make every day my best day. You can do the same!
Summary: Be enthusiastic, smile, be happy, and try to make every day the best day possible. An accumulation of “best days” will lead to a very happy life.
Workshop: Do you think this is an important truth? Why or why not? Think of the worst day you had in the past couple of months. What made it so bad? How might it have been different if you had approached it with the attitude that you were going to make it your best day? Can you think of anyone in your life who has a sunny outlook and seems to try to make each day their best day? If so, how do you think that affects their life? Do you make a conscious effort to make every day your best day? Why or why not? How can you start trying to make every day your best day? What will be difficult? What steps should you take to overcome those difficulties? (List plan or steps) What might change if you do this?____________________________1 Oral Roberts Ministries’ theme song