Over the past year, I’ve learned more about life than previously learned over the other 17 years, but one of the most important tasks I’ve taught myself to do everyday is learn from yesterday, live for today, and plan for tomorrow. Previously, I was focusing too much of my energy on making things right from the past and preparing for the future, but through all of that, I forgot some things. I forgot to live. I forgot to smile, and I forgot to be happy. Not only do I have an incredible life already, but I have so many opportunities that I didn’t even think existed three years ago. And it’s my obligation to take those opportunities and make something of them. Want to know something? The same applies for you. Therefore, focusing on the past is just a waste of time, and worrying about tomorrow won’t change a thing.

For far too many years, I focused on fixing things from the past and trying to make the future better, and it became a vicious cycle of mistakes in the present. I would focus too much on yesterday and worry so much about tomorrow, that I would push aside everything important in life that needed to be taken care of today. It’s a strange way to live, but unfortunately, it’s a way of life that too many people are stuck in.

All throughout life, we are taught that history repeats itself. And for the most part, that’s correct. It matches up in everything from wars, to politics, education, sales, stocks, forex, everything. So essentially, we are taught that the past is going to happen in the future, and when you think about it, that seems to be quite a phenomenon. But what if this is only true due to the fact that we accept it as true? What if everyone focused on making today better than yesterday? Would history still repeat itself? In truth, there is no way of telling, because that would involve changing the mindset of billions of people at once. By the time person 7,104,302,403 understood to think this way, person 103,402 would have a new mindset. Therefore, we’ll never know if history repeats itself because we let it, but your history doesn’t have to.

By focusing so much on my past, I allowed new things to happen in the present that I would only have to fix tomorrow. So I asked myself, how does this make sense? Not only am I stopping myself from moving on from the past, I’m stopping myself from moving on with life. How can I make today better if I’m focused on fixing yesterday? How can I expect to plan for tomorrow if I’m thinking about yesterday? I can’t. The only way to make this happen is to focus on today. Because that is the only day that matters.

I understand there may be things you’re stressed about. For our target audience, that’s probably a test, a relationship, college, school, etc. But it applies to everything. If you’re going to let one small aspect of your life affect you, you’ll fail. I was on a track to fail by having that mindset, and it had to change. Why in the world would you let one of your thousands of days you could live be ruined by something so small? Let’s say you’re 17. That would mean you’ve lived around 6,200+ days. So explain to me why ONE of those days is going to affect the rest of them?

How about another example? Average life expectancy is about 78 years, which is ~28,470 days. When you think about it, that’s not a lot, as by the time you’re 17, 6,205 of those are gone. So why would you let another one of those short days go? Why would you let one thing determine your day as “bad” to the point where you can’t focus on making tomorrow better? I never want for a day to just “suck” again, because it’s not worth letting one of those limited days go.

You were given life to live, not worry or fix. The only way to ensure tomorrow is better is to make sure you learn from yesterday, live for today, and make a plan for tomorrow. That plan doesn’t have to be detailed. In fact, it can be as simple as saying tomorrow WILL be a good day. A positive outlook will set your life apart from millions of others, no matter what you’re thrown into today, because tomorrow have the opportunity to be better. There’s a positive aspect to everything, and sometimes it can be down to just learning something.

So I challenge you to ask yourself if you’re willing to lose a day that has the potential to be good due to one thing. Is it worth it? Learn from yesterday, and plan for tomorrow. Live for today. You will see a huge change in your work life, school life, relationships, friendships, and family. It may be impossible for 7 billion people to see the world the same way, but it’s not impossible for you to influence those around you.