One of my all-time favorite Smashing Pumpkins songs is Today. I’ve been listening to it since I was in middle school.
I rediscovered this song a few days ago when I was digging through the CDs in my car, and for the first time in my life, the lyrics hit me DEEP:
“Today is the greatest day I’ve ever known. Can’t wait for tomorrow. I might not have that long.”
I’m always talking about living in the now and being present, and these lyrics just reminded me of that.
And the reason I harp so much on living for today and not putting your priorities and dreams off for “one day” is because “one day” isn’t a real thing.
One day exists in a theoretical sense, but it’s not real. Not yet. Not until the day actually comes.
And I’ve heard of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but I’ve never heard of a day called “one day”… have you? Of course you haven’t because it’s not a real thing.
What are you going to choose to do with YOUR today? That’s what matters. That’s the only thing that matters.
I think the thing people don’t think enough about is that whatever you’re doing today, in the now, in the present, is what’s creating your future.
There’s nothing you can do about the past. It’s over. It’s done with. It’s old news.
So spending your precious mind-space and energy dwelling on the past is the biggest waste of your time. You can’t change it. You can’t go back. You can’t make it any different than it was.
But you can avoid recreating the past in your future by how you spend your NOW.
See, most people unconsciously live the same day/week/month/year over and over and over again. Things may change slightly, but for the most part, things stay the same.
And this is simply because they’re using their time in the NOW thinking about the past, regretting the past, convincing themselves the past could’ve been different if they had just done something different, etc.
All of this past-focus is robbing you of receiving the joy in TODAY. It’s also creating more of the same in your future.
People spend so much time worrying about the future, but what they don’t realize is they’re actually creating their future right now, in this moment, with how they’re thinking, feeling, believing, acting and living today.
Because today is all you ever have. The past is over and tomorrow isn’t here yet.
Which means the past is history and the future is an illusion.
You don’t have the future until it arrives. Until then, all you have is hope. Hope that it will be what you want it to be. Hope that things will change. Hope that you really can have the life you desire and dream of.
But you don’t need hope when you’re being intentional about how you live right now, today.
When you’re present and living in the moment and focused on how you can feel good right now, regardless of what your current circumstances are, you are powerfully creating your future. You’re aligning yourself right now with a future that feels good and that’s different than the patterns of the past.
Today truly is the greatest day you’ve ever known because today is the only thing that’s real. And what you do with today is creating all of your tomorrows.
It’s time to stop living in the past. It’s time to stop worrying about the future. It’s time to start being present in the moment and living for right now.
Today is guaranteed, tomorrow never is.
