The pursuit of the “perfect day” is something that does more harm than good. To most of us, the perfect day is something that happens on vacation or at least the weekend. You have more free time and aren’t tethered to normal responsibilities (mostly work). You sit back at the end of a day spent in recreation with great food and people you enjoy then say “Ah, that was a perfect day”.
The problem is that even if you spent every weekend and every vacation day perfectly, that’s only 33% of your year AT BEST. We all know that sometimes weekends are hectic, sometimes you work, and vacations are anything but perfect. So what do we do with the other 67% (likely more) of our weeks, months, and years that aren’t made up of weekends and vacations?
Make them perfect(ly normal)
The majority of your life will always be constituted by “normal” days. Work, family, errands, and the list goes on. You know what makes up your days and the responsibilities you have (if not you should try the 5 day time track challenge). I challenge you to make those days, and consequently your life, “perfect” even though it’s very normal. Let me explain.
As I was going through my time tracking and journal practice this year, I noticed that I was having more positive days when I did a few simple things that I knew would make my day better. Practices like exercising, reading, journaling, working with focus, playing with my son, and eating good food. When I did a majority of those things in a day, I felt great! It felt like a “perfect” normal day. When I strung together several perfect days in a row, my week was perfect. Do them enough times in a month, a year, and my life is totally different.
I’m going to make a video about this, so keep an eye on YouTube for it. But my challenge to you this week is to plan out a “perfect” normal day. Then focus on doing ONE aspect of that perfect day, maybe even two! By the end of the week you might feel like you had a perfect day even though it was very normal. At the very least you’ll have a little more understanding of parts of your day feel better than others, and can try some different strategies on how to improve the parts that are causing stress.
I’ve started asking myself a question…
“What could I do, that I would do, to make this thing better?”
It’s an important question, borrowed from the book 12 Rules for Life, that really challenges me to think about what small action I could take to improve a situation that is causing me stress, that is keeping me from a perfect day.
For example, America had tax day recently. I had been putting it off and the day to submit was drawing close. It was causing me stress! After all, it would take me hours to do everything. What could I do, that I would do, to make it better? I could gather all the W-2 documents and 1099’s, that would help. Great, do that. That might be enough for the day, but it’s something! I made progress, which is more than I could say for previous days.
There are all kinds of ways to apply this question and pursue a perfect day. If you need to exercise more, maybe you go for a laughably short walk to start. If you want to write more, start with one sentence, or outline the essay and leave it alone for the day. The next day you can write one part of the outline.
If you continue to steadily progress on the little things that make your day happier and more productive, soon you’ll have a perfect day. String enough of them together and your month will feel totally different. Do it for a year and your entire life will change, and what appeared normal for so long will feel absolutely perfect every day.
This week plan out your perfect normal day and let me know how it goes. I’m on Instagram and Twitter or you can comment below!
Have a great week,
Matt