Finding Consistency: Work Today to Work Tomorrow

When most of us set out on a new mission in life, be it a health goal to run a marathon, a professional goal to get promoted, a hobby goal to learn a new language—anything—we tend to get super fixated on two things:

1. The finish lineone day reaching the glorious pedestal of finishing the thing
2. The work right in front of uswhat’s at our fingertips today

Thinking about crossing that marathon finish line (arms in the air, family cheering, music pumping), imagining getting that new job title (the accolades, the money), dreaming about being bilingual (foreign friendships and adventures), these thoughts create energy… powerful energy. And with that energy bubbling inside of us we think to ourselves:

“I could use this energy to get a lot done today.”

It’s intoxicating, actually. Motivation enables you to work at the peak of your potential. Is there anything more intoxicating and miraculous than feeling what it’s like to be at your potential?

But, that motivation fades. The fire from the initial excitement burns out.

…then what?

Once the fire goes cold, it doesn’t just leave us back at zero. It leaves a crater. And that crater has its own sort of gravity, pulling us down. Even worse is what that force does to how we see ourselves. That amazing, potential version of you vanishes, and reality clobbers you over the head with thoughts like:

• “That was never really you.”
• “You’re a quitter.”
• “You’re lazy.”

Those thoughts aren’t actually the truth. They show up because we stretched so far from reality that life snapped us back in the opposite direction.

~ Shift in Perspective ~

What if instead of focusing on the finish line and instead of lasering in on the work at our fingertips we shifted where we set our gaze to somewhere else… somewhere in the middle?

Tomorrow.

What would happen if we simply worked today to ensure we can keep working tomorrow? What if we took this smaller task seriously and allowed ourselves to feel proud of accomplishing it?

To be clear, this has nothing to do with procrastination. This method is actually the antithesis of procrastination!

When you honestly focus on tomorrow, two things happen:

1. The daily work becomes lighter and more sustainable (you avoid burnout and injury)
2. The small accomplishment becomes a daily mini-boost of motivation that helps kickstart the next day

Does this mean you never really push yourself or work hard at anything?

Not at all!

Part of the message nested inside of “work today to work tomorrow” is the fact that you need to work hard now in order to progress. If you’re not progressing, you’re regressing. And when you regress long enough, you actually fail the mission to be able to work tomorrow.

The key difference is that now you notice when you’re pushing too hard, and stop before injury and before burnout with absolutely no self judgement or envy of people who may be going faster today. You prioritize rest, and see rest as an essential kind of “work” in itself. But also recognize when “rest” turns into laziness (which isn’t going to help you work tomorrow!).

This might not look or feel quite as epic as the earlier story where we went all-in riding the tidal wave of motivation and felt like we were peaking on day 1. But it’s the quietly consistent people who ultimately are the ones who have the most epic lives.

Wouldn’t you rather have an epic life rather than just an epic day?

Quietly consistent people are the ones who get sh*t done and accomplish astonishing things… they’re the ones who keep consistent when things get hard… and after they accomplish the marathon, turn their sights on to ultra-marathons… once they get promoted, leave the 9–5 to start their own business… once they learn a language, take on another new hobby to further enrich their life.

It’s the quiet and balanced life that wins over the long journey, and being able to work tomorrow is the key.