The Power of Today; The Pitfall of Tomorrow

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. Abraham Lincoln

“I need to get to the gym tomorrow.”

I was looking at the small but growing paunch while getting ready to go into the the office. I’d said the same thing for the past month and a half, and I was no closer to the gym than I was yesterday.

The problem for us is that there is always tomorrow.

As a small business owner, I’ve learned all too well the power of today and the pitfall of tomorrow. Unlike the collective inertia of a large company, if things aren’t done today, they don’t get done. That bill doesn’t get paid. That marketing plan doesn’t get executed. That employee still makes the same mistake. And I see it in the top and bottom line at the end of the day, not the months quarters or years it might take in a larger company.

More importantly is what it does to me.

Living a life of integrity doesn’t mean just honoring the commitments and obligations that you’ve made to others. It means honoring the commitments and obligations you have to yourself.

Every “tomorrow” that never comes is a piece of you at your best lost to yesterday.

The weight I didn’t lift today, the mile I didn’t run, the plant I didn’t plant, the prayer I didn’t make, are the promises I broke to myself. With a track record like that, why would I have the confidence, the trust, to go for the really big things in life. Starting that company, teaching those children, making that difference?

To trust myself in the big things, I need to earn my trust in the small things - every day, every minute. That makes me the best version of myself for myself and for others.

There is a seafood restaurant close to my home. It has a sign out front - “Free crab tomorrow.”

You can probably guess how much they’ve given away.