A few days ago I read a post by Gretchen Rubin over at the Happiness Project.  She shared Pope John XXIII’s set of ten daily rules he sought to live by.

The rules are beautiful in and of themselves (they are listed at the end of this post).

But what also struck me was that each rule began with the words, ONLY FOR TODAY.

This focus on just today is tremendously powerful. So often our resolutions, rules, and goals hold the paralyzing weight of having to succeed or stay on track for a long stretch of time.

Instead of crumbling under the weight of feeling we’ll never keep this going over the long haul, we can set out day by day to do our best THAT day.

I know from my own experience, and from those I work with, this perspective TOTALLY breaks through feelings of overwhelm and fear of failure.

You do the work up front to get very clear what you want to accomplish, and then begin to slowly piece together baby steps, “rules”, that you will try to honor for one day at a time.

Here is a simple example:

What if, for TODAY, you had a goal to drink 8 glasses of water.

Then tomorrow comes and you had the goal to drink 8 glasses of water again…for that day only.

and you did that for a week.

And you had a good number of days where you actually met your goal.

Before you know it drinking the water is just making it’s way into your life without too much thought.

Now you may want to add another daily goal.

Only for today, I’ll ____ (fill in the blank).

Can you see how loving, gentle and generous this process is? Can you already feel the excitement that you are going to succeed?

When you read Pope John XXIII’s own rules below, you’ll find this is effective for any part of our life we want to elevate or aspect of our person we want to be better tomorrow than it is today.

As you know I’m working behind the scenes on a healthy living program I’ll be sharing details about very soon.  This is the exact model I use in my coaching programs. We work through finding a healthy solution that works FOR YOU.  Then I hold your hand…and step by step, day by day you begin to bring the good stuff in…at a pace that is right for you.

I invite you to read through the daily decalogue of Pope John XXIII (a “decalogue” is a set of rules having authoritative weight) below.  In fact, the first rule itself sums this all up perfectly.

1. Only for today, I will seek to live the livelong day positively without wishing to solve the problems of my life all at once.

2. Only for today, I will take the greatest care of my appearance: I will dress modestly; I will not raise my voice; I will be courteous in my behavior; I will not criticize anyone; I will not claim to improve or to discipline anyone except myself.

3. Only for today, I will be happy in the certainty that I was created to be happy, not only in the other world but also in this one.

4. Only for today, I will adapt to circumstances, without requiring all circumstances to be adapted to my own wishes.

5. Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul.

6. Only for today, I will do one good deed and not tell anyone about it.

7. Only for today, I will do at least one thing I do not like doing; and if my feelings are hurt, I will make sure that no one notices.

8. Only for today, I will make a plan for myself: I may not follow it to the letter, but I will make it. And I will be on guard against two evils: hastiness and indecision.

9. Only for today, I will firmly believe, despite appearances, that the good Providence of God cares for me as no one else who exists in this world.

10. Only for today, I will have no fears. In particular, I will not be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful and to believe in goodness. Indeed, for 12 hours I can certainly do what might cause me consternation were I to believe I had to do it all my life.

If you just started with one daily rule.  One small step that could bring you closer to who you want to be in a month, 6 months, a year from now.  What would it be?

**P.S.  I am thrilled with HOW MANY responses are pouring in already from my quickie-2-question survey I asked earlier this week.  If you haven’t yet click here to take survey.  I’ll be sharing the results soon!**