Focus on Today

Thoughtful planning and preparation for the future is part of the recipe for a happy life and indeed an unregretful old age. It helps you understand where you are headed, properly manage your time and other resources, know the things to focus on and cut off distractions.

Many times, however, we slump into overthinking and worry for the future that it affects us negatively – we become paralysed both psychologically and socially. It affects our today and jeopardizes the blissful future we so deeply desire.

On the other extreme are people who spare no thoughts whatsoever for the future. They’re so concerned about today that they don’t mind selling their birthright for a pottage, thus jeopardizing their future. 

So, to avoid both extremes, we need to find a balance that allows us to get the best of our day and still have the glorious future we desire.

You need to understand that your future is determined by the little decisions you make today. Like drops of water, each effort you pour in today will make the river of tomorrow.

5 Reasons you should focus on today

Here are a few reasons you should focus on today strategically:

1. Focusing on your today is working on your future.

The future is a product of your daily habits or little things you do every day. Your little acts of discipline, diligence and consistency eventually build that future you desire. Furthermore, focusing on your day helps you cross off the little tasks in your daily to-do list which in turn improves confidence in yourself. It also ignites faith that you can accomplish more difficult tasks tomorrow. 

2. You’ll have fewer things to plan for and manage.

Going through the day usually involves several activities, ranging from work or school-related projects to personal tasks you need to manage. So, focusing on today reduces the number of things to plan for and to handle. And to have a few things to plan for and manage is better than worrying about a whole galaxy of things that you may not have control over.

3. It’s a Cure for anxiety. 

Most often than not worries and anxiety are byproducts of excessive thoughts of what the future might hold. We’re mostly bothered about meeting the needs of tomorrow. Also, when the future you imagine seems so far and unreachable, you might get stuck and paralysed.

Every day comes with its evil, so Jesus counsels us not to worry about the evils of tomorrow. Today’s evil is enough trouble already.

4. Focus on today because tomorrow is not guaranteed.

There’s a story of the rich fool in the Bible (Luke 12:16-20) who accumulated so much wealth and felt that he had arrived. And at the height of his pride and arrogance, God made him realise that his tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.

James 4:13-15 says “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”  You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring — what your life will be! For you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

5. Each new day is an opportunity to right the wrong of yesterday.

God gives us a fresh day as an opportunity for a fresh start. It’s like a new page, blank and ready for us to write whatever good thing we desire.

So, focus on today and do have a lovely one.

Make sure to check out other articles on this blog. 

• The danger of leaving your city open| Ai left her city open
• Spices on the anointing oil
• Jericho is past. AI is next| Prepare for your next challenge
• Why Moses wanted Hobab to stay
• Moses’s rod, which became Aaron’s rod
• How to have an intentional week
• Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to stink