Living Life One Day At A Time or 3?

Living Life One Day At A Time or 3?


This is a fairly simple concept and one that is bandied about so easily by many different people from all walks of life. Whenever we are faced with trauma or uncertainty this phrase gets thrown into the mix quickly. You have to live life one day at a time.

Simple yet almost impossible to manifest. How can anyone live their life one day at a time? I have used this for myself many times and as a way to get others to accept certain aspects of their lives, but I have come to the realization that it a very difficult task to complete.

Live my life one day at a time? Really? Okay, how? I mean the statement itself implies that it is simple, but when each day has certain elements involved, how can it be all about today. Yesterday some things happened that affected today. And today, some things happened that will affect tomorrow. So maybe the correct way to phrase it would be live life 3 days at a time at the minimum.

Past, present and future. Our past always affects our present and our present always affects our future. This is relative to all aspects of our lives. It can be a bit confusing. I get it, really I do. The phrase is intended to suggest we only have one day to live, so make that day the best.

This part is true. None of us have any guarantees that when we go to sleep tonight that we will wake to see tomorrow, at least the possibility exists as far as this dimension is concerned. We may awaken in another dimension and not really be aware that we left the other world behind. None of us have any guarantees that when we say goodbye to our loved ones on the way out the door that we will ever see them again.

We take so much for granted everyday, that living life one day at a time becomes silly. Ever wonder why it takes something catastrophic to happen for us to change this outlook? We get medical diagnosis and out comes the bucket list. We find out someone died and the mourning begins. We suffer a traumatic injury and finally we are thankful for what we lost; an arm, a leg, an eye. We get fired from our crappy job and that peanut butter and jelly doesn’t quite do the trick anymore, sure wish we had that crappy job, now.

I will live my life 3 days at a time from now on, but I do not take for granted what or who I have that matters the most to me. Still, no matter what time is for any of us, the past, present and future are connected. We make decisions today based on what happened yesterday that will certainly shape the future. The most important aspect to me is not taking for granted one very important part; the people in our lives that we love the most, they can be gone in a moment and that part of your future will cease except in your heart, brain and soul.

Yes, living life one day at a time is ultimately the only way to live because the decisions we make today have the most impact on tomorrow, but it is equally important to remember the past lessons that impact us. As long as those lessons do not become the albatross that keeps you from living for today and restricting the future.

a reply to: forthelove

Interesting post
The older I get, more and more I find myself having a "light bulb" moment surrounding phrases that have rolled off my tongue many times before without actually thinking about what it truly can mean. Where I think " wow, that phrase truly has meaning to me now..I get it!" For me one of those was the phrase "live life one day at a time"

Several years ago my life was turned upside down and to varying degrees has been ever since. The only way I could survive was to live life one day at a time. Otherwise, the weight and enormity of what tomorrow and the next day and the next might bring etc completely crushed me and made me ineffective in dealing with what life presented to me in the moment. For me it truly was a survival tactic. I suppose it could be argued that that isn't living each day but surviving it but for some people living and survival become the same thing.

This said...I do look to the past to find positivity in my situation today. The past is a useful tool if it can show you how far you have come. I do find that whilst living life one day at a time can help one survive it can also strip you of your hopes and dreams. I hope one day I pick those back up somewhere down the road

a reply to: forthelove

From a practical standpoint, of course planning for the future, and realizing your actions have persistent outcomes "down the line" is necessary. From a platitudinal standpoint, I think your "at least 3 days at a time" is excellent, and better advice for someone having a difficult time getting through their days.

"Take it one day at a time", I believe, is reserved for people who aren't certain whether they can make it to the next day. It's for extreme cases, for people who are best served by realizing they just have to make it through the day and then they can get up and try again tomorrow. In other words, people at the absolute brink of suicide. The next step, is realizing that "just surviving" isn't fulfilling, and it's time to expand to ">/= 3 days at a time."

a reply to: forthelove

Live my life one day at a time? Really? Okay, how? I mean the statement itself implies that it is simple, but when each day has certain elements involved, how can it be all about today. Yesterday some things happened that affected today. And today, some things happened that will affect tomorrow. So maybe the correct way to phrase it would be live life 3 days at a time at the minimum.

There's nothing else you can do except live in the present moment. To live this moment, is all you can ever do. Your stream of thoughts and other phenomenon arise and you act according to your own conditioning until you get tired and fall to sleep. Period. We don't act on multiple thoughts simultaneously, it's one after the other. So in reality, you're not even living one DAY at a time, you're never outside of the present moment, be it an experience in the external world, or within the projections of your mind where thoughts of past and future arise.

It is the attention to the PRESENT moment, which affects the soon-to-be-written past, and the future. Because the present is the only opportunity you have to affect the past and the future. the power to influence those can only reside in the now.

Living in tomorrow, is like falling asleep at the wheel. Yes, you have to look further down the road to steer the car where you want it to go, and occasionally check the rear view mirror, but the steering in the present moment is the only control you have over the desired result. So the more present you are at the wheel, the better.

Today isn't the result of the past, like some kind of after effect. Although causality does seem to be the operating factor, the causal factor doesn't reside in the past at all, it resides and operates only in the present moment. The past AND the future are "caused" by the present. This is why, living in awareness of the present moment is so strongly urged. It is where your only true source of power resides.