I’m breaking away from yesterday one day at a time and building my best tomorrow. That does not mean that my days are free and clear of cow pies along the way. Somedays, I feel knee deep in the manure. It’ hard to move and it stinks. My emotional side says “it’s all a pile of sh*t, and I’m tired of shoveling it.”, But my intellectual side knows that it is just fertilizer, and I must spread it around if I want things to grow. I got to work digging, and my garden has taken root and is starting to produce some fruit on the vine.

I can measure this success because I have my “best day” written down and posted on the refrigerator. I see it multiple times during the day, and it is a powerful reminder to help me stay connected to my dreams. It also holds me accountable for the choices, responses, and actions that are going to help me create a life filled with the people, places, and activities that I love.

I’ll share an example with you about how this changed things for me. One of my activities listed on my perfect day is to spend time outdoors doing things like walking, exploring, gardening, fishing, or kayaking. That sounds so simple, right? But it is so easy to get caught up working, doing chores, taking care of the kids, making phone calls, and the list goes on that I can look up, and it is dinner time and night is quickly bringing a close to the day.

With my perfect day posted, I am reminded to go outside. I may take my shoes off and plant my feet in the grass for ten minutes, or sit on the porch and watch the rain, or maybe I’ll pull a few weeds. It may not be a hike in the woods, but it is still a few minutes in natural light and breathing fresh air. It feels good to get outside and to choose the time for myself.  Even just ten minutes.

You may be thinking “What is the big deal? Anyone can take ten minutes for themselves.” Yep. They can take ten anytime. The problem was when I did, it wasn’t on things that energized me or were important to me.  I was letting my days fill up with my responsibilities, and when I had ten minutes, I crashed, or had a glass of wine, or vegged on social media and just checked out because I was overwhelmed with the never-ending list of things that had to be done.

I still have those same responsibilities. Actually, I have more responsibility than I’ve ever had before because I’ve finally added myself to the list. That is an “Ah-Ha!” moment for me, I’ve added myself to the list.

Once I wrote down what I wanted my life to look like, who I wanted to spend it with, and how I wanted to fund it, I could begin to incorporate those things into my life a little more each day. I wasn’t just writing in a private journal, dreaming and asking the universe to send me the life I was seeking. I stopped waiting for the right time or opportunity and started doing. I booked trips, went to the theater, started eating differently, began walking and enjoying the outdoors, started writing, crafting and spending more time with my friends.

The next part of this adventure is that I’ve started working on my coaching programs again. I’m developing my signature boot camp into a new online workshop, Lisa Dempsey’s Break Out Sales Success System: How to amplify your business to create a life filled with the people, places, and activities that you love. I’ll keep you posted when I ready to go live.

It is gratifying to know that while I’m breaking away from the habits of yesterday, today I can live out more of my best day and generate good stuff for tomorrow, cow pies and all.  Cheers to better days ahead.