As I’ve grown up, one thing has become clear to me. Nobody lies their head on the pillow every night and thinks, “Yep, I was perfect today. Let’s go to sleep and be perfect tomorrow, too.”

Yes, we all have good days and bad days, but for the most part, we all regret something we do each day. Some of us can just ignore it, and others lay and replay the day over and regret this or that and think of ways we could have done something better. I’m kind of an expert on that one. I have replayed one minute of my life so many times in my head I can’t pull reality from dream anymore.

The truth is we all know we aren’t the perfect father, mother, Christian, child, player, or coach. We all know we fail daily, and it haunts every single one of us. Some of us are better at dealing with our failures, and some get wrecked by the feeling of failure.

I learned a very valuable lesson in the hospital that when I follow it myself helps me get through each day. I followed a very simple live for today motto. It’s not a free from consequences life, but one of the failures of yesterday should not be brought to today, and the worry of tomorrow’s failures shouldn’t bother me today.

This is not a nothing matters mindset, but a failure and success of a different day shouldn’t affect the road we walk today. I started living this in the hospital because it was really easy to get super depressed over a failed physical therapy day or be afraid of the next days surgery that it could ruin entire weeks. So I decided that when I woke up each day, I would focus on that day and the tasks in front of me. At the end of the day, I could decide if the day was a success or failure, but no matter what, I couldn’t take it into my next day.

Again, this is not a thought pattern of I can do whatever I want to without a lasting consequence. It’s a way of starting your day with a quote on quote blank page. Yesterday you didn’t follow your diet perfectly. Guess what? You can’t fix that, but you can follow it today. Yesterday, you yelled at your kid for something dumb. Guess what? You can’t unyell those words. You can, however, work today on not yelling. You got anxious yesterday. Oh well, today you can try not to be anxious. Yesterday, you smoked that cigarette you were trying to quit. Can’t stop it today. You can just try harder today.

Yesterday, I found myself staring at beer. Guess what? Today, I can just not go near those aisles. Living life with a blank page mentality means learning to separate those failures and successes from your mind, and instead of being sad, you messed up or ride a high of a good day just live to be better today than yesterday.

For those wondering, is it truly okay not to dwell on the failures.  I ask you how do you think the most successful men and women made it there? By focusing on the failures or by erasing them and striving to be better each day

We will all win some days, and we will all lose some days. All we can do is wake up each morning and say I will be a better me today. Whether you had a good day the day before or a bad one being better is a goal we can all get behind.

No matter your own personal demons. Whether you battle PTSD, anxiety, depression, addiction, or weight loss. It doesn’t matter what you as a person see as your major flaw. All that matters is waking up each morning and realizing that for today, you have a blank page to write your day on. If you pull the weight of the day before, then that page is already dirty and marked up. 

I challenge you to just try this for a week and see if it helps you accomplish more in life and see how your mentality changes when you wake up with a blank page the world is your each day. 

I always imagine that a book on success starts with a page, and that page could be on day 500 or day 3 of life. So, each day could be the first blank page of a success story. You never know which page that will be so wake up and start it like it’s page 1 every day. Become your own success story, and when you slip up and mess up, wake up the next day on page 1 again. Life is yours to win, and you will never win if you don’t let go of the past.