It’s critically important to see the connection between things you do today and the big picture of where you’re going. You can’t let today just to feel like 24 hours. A few meals and a few things you do out of routine.

That isn’t what today is. The most grand things you will ever accomplish in your life happen one day at a time, in small pieces. The biggest things you’ve done so far in your life were not single heroic acts. Walking across a stage at graduation is not earning a degree, it’s all the hours of study and tests over years that came before. Cutting the ribbon on a bridge is not building a bridge, it’s all the months or years of dreaming and planning and work and construction and all the things that didn’t go as planned. 

You have goals right now. You have dreams, things you want. Everyone is running their own race. And I’m sure you have plans and victory speeches for when you cross the finish line. That’s great, but don’t you dare underestimate the importance of today.

Today is the only thing you can control right now. Your goals are accomplished through consistent effort and persistence. Through doing the right thing over and over again. You only have 24 hours today. It’s impossible to do the whole race today, but you absolutely have to take one step today.

Maybe your goal is losing 50 pounds, or 175,000 calories. Today you just have to burn 500 calories of fat. That’s it, you only have to take one step in the marathon right now.

Maybe your goal is finishing a 10 hour audiobook. Today you listen to 15 minutes. That’s it. Today we can chisel down a little bit of the mountain.

Today is the day you send that email you’re nervous about, you do the research for the project, you write one page for your book, or you start the routine you’ve been meaning to start.

Your goals are beautiful. The vision of yourself you have is inspiring and you have everything you need to get there. Best of all you have an incredibly gift: you have today. Today is all you need to take a step forward. Don’t look at how far away the goal is. Don’t compare yourself to other people who have been running the race for longer. You can control today. You can make a decision to move closer to your goals today. You have been given a choice to take a step forward or to stay at the start line. 

You don’t have to boil the ocean, you don’t have to move a mountain, you don’t have to lose 50 pounds today. You’re not a failure because you can’t do the impossible. You’re a success if you use today as the opportunity it is. You’re victorious if you get back on the horse after falling off. You’re a champion if you decide that crossing the finishline someday is more important than staying in your comfort zone today.

I can’t put it more plain than this. The only two choices you have today are 1) try to move forward or 2) put off your dreams one more day. DO NOT INTIMIDATE YOURSELF WITH NOT KNOWING THE ENTIRE JOURNEY. The complications you’ll run into down the road and what people will say and all the ways this could possibly go wrong are irrelevant – all that matters is what you can control: today.

You have one choice. Will you take one step forward or will you not? What you’ll do tomorrow doesn’t matter. How long it will take you to get to your goal doesn’t matter.

You have today. You have one choice. Today is the day that you take one step forward. Today is the day that you build momentum. Today is one dollar bill in a stack of cash you’ll have at the finish line. It might not look like much now, but every victory that was ever worth anything was made of days like today.

So don’t write off today. Don’t say “My goal is so far away it doesn’t matter if I start tomorrow.”

Today is the only thing that can get you closer to your goal. Today is the only thing you can control. Cherish it, respect it, use it. Days like today built every dream of every successful person you’ve ever heard of. Days like today will build every dream you have. Days like today will create the life you want. Days like today are the steps in your evolution into your best self. Days like today are a gift and we have no idea how many of them we will get. 

Every goal you have, every dream that excites you, every experience you want is connected to you by today. You can pull them one step closer, but only if you use today. I know it can be scary. I know we can’t see the future and we don’t know how long it will take. But you can’t get closer without taking this step today. Don’t let fear hold you back. Don’t let today join the blurry haze of “days I didn’t get closer to my dream.”  You can’t get today back. Once it is gone you’re standing in the same spot and you have one less chance to get closer to your dreams. You deserve so much more.

Days like today are what dreams are made of. What are you waiting for?

Further reading: Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. This book absolutely changed my life and it taught me how to reserve a small slice of every day for getting the most important stuff done. The biggest goals have to be worked on a little bit every day because they are too hard and too important to do all at once. This book will show you how to start that momentum and pull your dreams closer to you every single day without fail.