There’s a popular phrase that goes something like this:

How you do anything is how you do everything.

While the phrase long predates anything I’ve come up with, by the time I heard it I already had a phrase of my own: Today is every day.

I would say this phrase to myself when I was having an internal debate over whether or not I should go work out, clean up the kitchen, or do any one of the many other things I know I should do, but do not feel like doing.

The phrase means that you should act as though today’s behavior is also repeated for all future days. Is the way you are acting right now the way you want to act, every single day, for the rest of your life?

There are no magical tomorrows

If you relent and decide not to follow through with the thing you know you should do, what makes you think the struggle will be any different tomorrow? There is nothing magical about any future day that will make the thing you are resisting today any easier.

There is something magical, however, about doing something consistently and repeatedly so that it becomes automatic. And it works for good as well as for bad.

If you make it a habit to make excuses and delay doing something, it doesn’t matter what the specific thing is, you will soon find yourself procrastinating and making excuses to avoid all manner of things.

I’ll start caring when I’m doing something meaningful

Do not fall into the trap of not caring about the task at hand because you believe it to be unimportant or insignificant. Do work that you are proud of. Everything you do is a reflection of you as a person. How will anyone trust you with more if you cannot do well with what you have been given?

More important than what other think of you is the person you are crafting yourself to be. It is about building the habit for yourself of doing excellent work, no matter the task, so that it becomes automatic.