Where to Go?

“Each morning when I open my eyes, I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it.”  - Groucho Marx

We have choices each day on where to go: the past, the present, or the future. Granted, we tend to bounce around in all three places and that’s okay, but it takes actual effort to determine where you spend the majority of your day. I know there is zero I can change in my past, and the future is solely a game of speculation. So, what does the logic tell me?  The present is where I need to focus. There are exactly 86,400 seconds a day with zero chance of any do-overs.

For instance, I can tell you where I spent all of my time this morning, prior to writing this message at 8:27 am on January 23, 2019. I woke up at 4:20, said a prayer of thanks for waking up and breathing, got dressed, headed to the gym and knocked out 5 miles on the bike and worked on range of motion exercises on my left arm while riding. I smiled and spoked to four people at the gym, and when I wrapped up the workout, I headed to Starbucks for some hot brown water.  I said good morning to both the girls working and sat down to enjoy the coffee and have some conversation with Doug and Randy. We left at 6:58, I headed home, spoke to my sister on the actual telephone, and then started writing.

The paragraph above describes the first 16,020 seconds of my day and I’m happy with the activities of said 16,020 seconds.  I’ve found over the years that working on striving to stay in the present makes for such a nicer day. That’s the very reason I chose Groucho’s quote to start off my writing today.” I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it.” 

What’s your choice?