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The Lever #042 - Every Day Is A Sheet Of Paper


Every morning your life starts over.


What you choose to do with it defines who you are today

 

But first:


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The Blank Page

Imagine your day as a blank sheet of paper.


It could be a yellow sheet from a legal pad, a crisp white piece of copy paper, or a beat up sheet torn from a spiral note book. No matter the type of paper these all have one thing in common.


They all start empty.

This fresh page offers untold potential. And on this single piece of paper you will write the story of your life for this day.


There are no limits to what you put on that sheet. You can begin your masterpiece, doodle zentangle's in the margins, or write a single line that says "today I went to the gym".


It doesn't really matter what you write because in the grand scheme of things that single piece of paper is inconsequential. The day finishes and the sheet gets dropped in the "Completed" tray.


But then tomorrow comes and brings with it a fresh sheet of paper.

The Power of Persistence

Take a sheet of paper.


Crease it down the middle then tear it in half. Stack these two halves together and do it again. How many times can you tear and stack these halves until the stack is too thick to tear?


So it is with the accumulation of days.


What you write on your page today won't make a difference on it's own. But writing the same thing day after day will. If you write "I went to the gym today" on enough pages then eventually the stack will grow thick; just like your muscles. If you write a single line from a novel eventually you will have a finished novel.


All of the small steps you take towards your goal that eventually give the result you are working to achieve.


And it takes place one day at a time.

Do This Not That

What you don't write is important too.


Negativity spawns more negativity. Never write "I didn't do (insert bad habit here) today". Changing habits is difficult but the focus must always be on the positive and what you've accomplished, not on the negative and what you've managed to avoid.


Exchange "no beers" for "drank eight glasses of water", and "no snacking" for "walked 10,000 steps".


Much like the good habits, the bad ones stack up over time as well. The larger the stack, the harder it is to tear.


But you always get a fresh sheet of paper tomorrow.


A single sheet of paper is light enough to be inconsequential, yet holds the potential to change the world.


It is rare that a single sheet will create a change so large that the earth shifts on its axis - but it does happen.


More common is that a stack of pages bound together as thick as a phone book (remember those?) and has the same idea written across those pages from beginning to end. That will make a change.


Have you ever been hit with a phone book?

Day by Day

Take it slow. Books don't get written in a day. Just bring a positive outlook and a consistent message to that page each day and eventually you will have created an encyclopedia's worth of actions in the direction you want to go, without even realizing it.


Take out a blank sheet right now. Write something on it.


What will the story of your life look like?

 

When you are ready, here are a few ways I can help:


1. Subscribe to The Lever (if you haven't already)


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