Pluck Today

Like a rotten fruit, yesterday has passed and can no longer be plucked. Tomorrow is not yet ready for our enjoyment. But today is ripe for the plucking. Carpe Diem!

Carpe Diem is typically translated as: seize the day. But I prefer the direct latin translation: pluck the day. Every day we start is a new opportunity to pluck the day and make the most of it. However, we don't get to choose which day we pluck. No day in the past is available and no day forthcoming is ready for plucking, only are we able to pluck today.

So, it's today, do you want to take this day for granted or as granted to you?

In his awesome book, Gratitude Works!, Robert Emmons makes the distinction that we can take things for granted or as granted. To be reading this article means that, gratefully, we’re alive and well and another day has been granted to us. In order to not take this day for granted, we must pluck it. Which begs the question, how can we pluck it well?

There are a lot of fun ways to make a day count. Depending on who you ask, you will receive different advice on what you must do to use the day well. But the only thing you must do is trust yourself in knowing or discovering how you like to pluck the day. Because just as we can't pluck yesterday or tomorrow, someone else can't pluck the day for you, only you hold that privilege.

How will you make today count?

As you consider how you answer that question, I would encourage you not to make this too complicated. It doesn't have to be a perfect day, it simply has to be a day in which we are proud of something. It has to be a day that we can consider as plucked. As Leonardo Da Vinci reminds us,

Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.

In determining how to make each day count I keep it simple. I like to write out:

I'm grateful for this day, this opportunity. In order to make today count I will_____.

I make it as easy as possible to pluck the day, to consider the day a win. I choose one thing. Sometimes the morning of, sometimes the night before. Some of the ways in which I have completed that sentence:

• write in the morning.
• workout for at least 15 minutes.
• go for a walk.
• share gratitude for a friend.
• bring my full presence to a work project.

So to you I ask, what one thing are you going to do today to make the day a win?

How will you pluck today?