Must We Seize the Day?

I started the day as I often do: a cup of tea, reading, and journaling. On this day, the tea and caffeine energized me, and I wrote in my journal that “I am feeling ready to tackle the day.”

But then I stopped and looked at what I’d written.

Tackle the day.

What did the day ever do to deserve such treatment?

Consider the words we use to celebrate an accomplishment. People regularly congratulate one another for “crushing it” and “killing it.”

If you’d hunted a deer to feed your family, that would make sense. And metaphorically, I get it. There are obstacles to be overcome, challenges to defeat, and tasks demanding your inner warrior.

But when the day is an enemy to be tackled, crushed, or knocked out, that limits our options. It’s also a recipe for frustration.

If I seize the day, taking hold of it with the intent of bending it to my will, I can only be disappointed when that squirrely day squirms out of my grip and does something unexpected (as days are prone to do).

What if, instead of violenting the day, we tried to expand the day?

Appreciate the day?

Explore the day?

Each intention creates a different opportunity and way to experience all that happens. If you’ve been a seizer of days, consider approaching your day differently and see what happens.