You weren’t perfect yesterday. If you’re honest with yourself, you might still be beating yourself up for something you forgot or messed up.

But it’s a new day. It’s time to move on. There’s a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson that I come back to often, especially on the day after something doesn’t go the way I hoped.

Emerson gets it right. He doesn’t pretend you got everything right the day before; in fact, he assumes you didn’t. You made a mistake. You said things you shouldn’t have said. You let your emotions win.

Then he gives you permission to move on. To remind you, it’s a new day.

My experience has been that most people don’t struggle because the work of today is hard. They struggle because they’re carrying the weight of previous days into today. They replay mistakes, rehearse regrets, and carry guilt, frustration, and disappointment from yesterday forward.

Today doesn’t need you to be perfect, but it does need you to show up fresh. Willing to move on to what I tell my middle school football team, “the next play.”

This doesn’t mean you don’t learn from yesterday. It just means you don’t live there.

You and I are lucky to wake up and get the opportunity to attack a new day.

Make the most of it.

P.S. The Optimistic Outlook is a Podcast! Leaving a rating or review wherever you listen to podcasts would mean a lot.