Leave Space to Plan (The Perfect Day Series, Pt. 6 of 6)

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
—Dwight D. Eisenhower

Every night you die and every morning you inherit the choices your “Yesterself” made. You live in circles, and when it’s bad circles looping over and over, a sense of hopelessness can set in. But…

You can live in good circles, too! (:

I was never a schedule person; I became one out of necessity. For years, I kept waking up and repeating the same mistakes, so I decided to start spending fifteen minutes at the end of every day planning my next 24 hours.

Practice Self-Patriotism

Weirdly, most people (except psychopaths) are more willing to support others than to help themselves. We provide advice and encouragement to a stressed-out friend in one breath, then beat ourselves up in another.

It helps, instead, to think of your future self as a separate person who you want to do right by. I call this “Self-Patriotism.”

When you avoid junk food, or go to the gym, or take the time to make a to-do list, think of it as making a heroic sacrifice. Picture your future self appreciating the choices you made and say…

“I hope you have an amazing day tomorrow.”

— Andrew