My number one value is self-development. I go through every day with one goal: to go to sleep as a better person than I was when I woke up. Instead of focusing solely on lofty New Year’s resolutions and BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) to drive my growth, I focus on the small steps I can take every day. I use BHAGs to set my direction, but my journey lies within what I do every day.
Today, my victory was finishing a swimming set with a pace I haven’t done since high school*. While my body was exhausted at the end of the set, my spirit was uplifted by the accomplishment. What made it even better was that I swam in the morning, starting my day off positively with a victory.
It’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of life. Days, even weeks go by where you feel like you’re spinning your wheels and not making progress. Had I not began this mentality of everyday improvement, I surely wouldn’t be where I am today. Call me girly, but a significant part of this mindset is developing the habit of journaling every night. It really helps put things into perspective and surely helps me sleep peacefully. Something I also do is record a magical moment. These are the highlights of my days; no matter how terrible of a day I had I can always find at least one thing to be thankful for. (more on these later)
As Lao-Tzu said, A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
* For those of you who are curious, the set was 100 IMs on the 1:45
