John C. Maxwell - Today Matters: 12 Daily Practices to Guarantee Tomorrows Success

2004 by John C. Maxwell.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Warner Faith

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue

New York, NY 1017

Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

The Warner Faith name and logo are registered trademarks of Hachette Book Group.

First eBook Edition: May 2004

ISBN: 978-1-599-95206-2

Scriptures noted NKJV are taken from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION.

Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

Scriptures noted NRSV are taken from THE NEW REVISED STANDARD

VERSION of the Bible. Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education

of the National Council of The Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.

Scriptures noted NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible,

Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman

Foundation. Used by permission.

Scriptures noted NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW

INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by

International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scriptures noted The Message are taken from The Message: The New Testament in Contemporary English. Copyright 1993 by Eugene H. Peterson.

Today Matters is dedicated to Madeline Elizabeth Miller, our first grandchild. Her mother is the apple of my eye, and Madeline is our sunshine. As she grows, it is our desire that she value the potential of each of her days.

Id like to say thank you to:

Margaret Maxwell, who makes every day of my life a masterpiece;

Charlie Wetzel, my writer;

Kathie Wheat, who does my research;

Stephanie Wetzel, who proofs and edits every manuscript page;

and Linda Eggers, my assistant.

Just for today... I will choose and display the right attitudes.

Just for today... I will determine and act on important priorities.

Just for today... I will know and follow healthy guidelines.

Just for today... I will communicate with and care for my family.

Just for today... I will practice and develop good thinking.

Just for today... I will make and keep proper commitments.

Just for today... I will earn and properly manage finances.

Just for today... I will deepen and live out my faith.

Just for today... I will initiate and invest in solid relationships.

Just for today... I will plan for and model generosity.

Just for today... I will embrace and practice good values.

Just for today... I will seek and experience improvements.

Just for today... I will act on these decisions and practice these disciplines, and

Then one day... I will see the compounding results of a day lived well.

Today Often Falls to Pieces What Is the Missing Piece?

A few weeks ago I was going through a box of old books in the basement looking for something to read to my grandchildren, and I came across a book my wife, Margaret, and I used to read to my daughter, Elizabeth, when she was little. Its called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. Its the story of a little boy whose day falls to pieces. It begins,

I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now theres gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard... and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

From there, Alexanders day just keeps getting worse as he goes to school, finds himself at the dentists office, and has to go shopping for clothes with his mother. He has a miserable day. Even the family cat seems to be against him.

What Is the Missing Piece?

Our kids always liked Viorsts book. And I think we adults had as much fun reading little Alexanders grumpy complaints as they did listening. But its no fun when your own day feels like Alexanders. Who looks forward to a day filled with obstacles, trials, and setbacks, where each bend in the road seems to hold something worse?

When it comes to approaching the day, we often are more like Alexander than we would care to admit. We may not wake up with gum in our hair or feel that our family and friends are out to get us, but our days often fall to pieces. And, as a result, they seem like very bad days.

How often do you have a great day? Is it the norm or the rare exception for you? Take today, for example. How would you rate it? So far, has today been a great day? Or has it been less than wonderful? Perhaps you havent even thought about it until now. If I asked you to rate today on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being perfect), would you even know how to score it? Upon what would you base your rating? Would it depend on how you feel? Would it be determined by how many items youve checked off your to-do list? Would you score your day according to how much time youve spent with someone you love? How do you define success for today?

How Does Today Impact Tomorrows Success?

Everyone wants to have a good day, but not many people know what a good day looks likemuch less how to create one. And even fewer people understand how the way you live today impacts your tomorrow. Why is that? The root of the problem is that most people misunderstand success. If we have a faulty view of success, we take a faulty approach to our day. As a result, today falls to pieces.

Look at these common misconceptions concerning success and the responses that often go with them:

WE BELIEVE SUCCESS IS IMPOSSIBLE SO WE CRITICIZE IT

Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck opened his best-selling book The Road Less Traveled with the words Life is difficult. He went on to say, Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead they moan more or less incessantly... about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy. Because we want to believe life should be easy, we sometimes assume anything thats difficult must be impossible. When success eludes us, we are tempted to throw in the towel and assume its unattainable.

Thats when we begin to criticize it. We say, Who wants success anyway?! And if success is achieved by anyone whom we consider less worthy than ourselves, then we really get steamed. Like journalist and short-story writer Ambrose Bierce, we see success as the one unpardonable sin against ones fellows.

WE BELIEVE SUCCESS IS MYSTICAL SO WE SEARCH FOR IT

If success has escaped us, yet we havent entirely given up on it, then we often see it as a big mystery. We believe that all we have to do to succeed is find the magic formula, silver bullet, or golden key that will solve all our problems. Thats why there are so many diet books on the best-seller lists and so many management fads employed in corporate offices each year.

The problem is that we want the rewards of success without paying the price. Seth Godin, author of Permission Marketing, recently wrote about this problem in the business world. He believes that business leaders frequently look for quick fixes for their companies. But he admonishes that we need to stop shopping for lightning bolts.

You dont win an Olympic gold medal with a few weeks of intensive training, says Godin. Theres no such thing as an overnight opera sensation. Great law firms or design companies dont spring up overnight.... Every great company, every great brand, and every great career has been built in exactly the same way: bit by bit, step by step, little by little. There is no magic solution to success.