1 God, I thank you for this day. I know I have not accomplished as yet all you expect of me, and if that is the reason for being bathed in the fresh dew of another dawn. I am most grateful. I am prepared, at last, to make you proud of me.
2 I will forget yesterday, with all its trials and tribulations, aggravations and setbacks, angers and frustrations. The past is but a dream from which I can neither retrieve a single word nor erase any foolish deeds. I will resolve, however, that if I have injured anyone yesterday through my thoughtlessness. I will not let this day’s sun set before I make amends, and nothing I do today will be of greater importance.
3 I will not fret the future. My success and happiness does not depend on straining to see what lurks dimly on the horizon but to do, this day, what lies clearly at hand.
4 I will treasure this day, for it is all I have. I know its rushing hours cannot be accumulated or stored, like precious grain, for future use.
5 I will live as all good actors do when they are onstage—only in the moment. I cannot perform at my best today by regretting my past act’s mistakes or worrying about the scene to come.
6 I will embrace today’s difficult tasks, take off my coat, and make dust in the world. I know that the busier I am, the less harm I am apt to suffer, the tastier will be my coffee, the sweeter my sleep, and the better satisfied I will be with my place in the world.
7 I will free myself today from slavery to the clock and calendar. Although I will plan this day in order to conserve my steps and energy; I will begin to measure my life in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not seasons; in feelings, not figures on a dial.
8 I will remain aware of how little it takes to make this a happy day. Never will I pursue happiness, because it is not a goal, just a by-product, and there is no happiness in having or in getting, only in giving.
9 I will run from no danger I encounter today, because I am positive nothing can happen to me that I am not equipped to handle. Just as any gem is polished by friction. I too am certain to become more valuable through this day’s adversities, and if one door closes, another always opens for me.
10 I will live this day as if it were Christmas and I will be a giver of gifts. To my enemies will deliver the gift of forgiveness. To my opponents, tolerance. To my friends, a smile; and to my children, a good example. I will wrap each gift in unconditional love.
11 I will waste not even a precious second today in anger, or hate, or jealousy, or selfishness. I know that the seeds I sow I will harvest, because every action, good or bad, is always followed by an equal reaction. I will plant only good seeds this day.
12 I will treat today as a priceless violin. One may draw harmony from it and another, discord, yet none can blame the instrument. Life is the same in that if I play it well, it will give forth beauty, but if I play it poorly, it will produce ugliness.
13 I will condition myself to look at every problem I face today as no more than a pebble in my shoe. I remember the pain so harsh I could hardly walk and recall my surprise when I removed my shoe and found only a grain of sand.
14 I will work convinced that nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. To do anything today that is truly worth doing. I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger but jump in with gusto and scramble through as best as I can.
15 I will face the world with goals set for this day, but they will be attainable ones, not the vague, impossible variety declared by those who make a career of failure. I realize I am always tried with a little, to see what I might do with a lot.
16 I will never hide my talents. If I am silent, I am forgotten. If I do not advance, I fall back. If I walk away from any challenge today, my self-esteem will be forever scarred, and if I cease to grow, even a little, I will become smaller. I reject the stationary position because it is always the beginning of the end.
17 I will keep a smile on my face and in my heart even when it hurts today. I know that the world is a looking glass and gives back to me the reflection of my own soul. I now understand the secret of correcting the attitude of others and that is to first correct my own.
18 I will turn away from any temptation today that might cause me to break my word or lose my self-respect. I am positive that the only thing I possess more valuable than my life is my honor.
19 I will work this day with all my strength, content in the knowledge that life does not consist of wallowing in the past or peering anxiously into the future. It is appalling to consider the great number of painful steps taken to arrive at a truth so old, so obvious, and so frequently expressed. Whatever it offers, little or much, my life is now.
20 I will pause whenever I am feeling sorry for myself today and remember that this is the only day I have, and I must play it to the fullest. What my part may signify in the great whole, I may not understand, but I am here to play it and now is the time.
21 I will count this day a separate life. I will remember that those who have fewest regrets are those who take each moment as it comes and for all that it’s worth.
This is my day.
These are my seeds.
Thank you, Momma, for this precious garden of time!
~ Og Mandino (revised by RHM²)
From MISSION SUCCESS