“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
The preceding quote would ideally be read right before bed, or right at the end of the work day.
There was a time in my younger years when I would stay up into the wee hours of the morning to finish a project, whether it was painting a room or completing a sewing project or reading the last page of a novel through bleary eyes. It didn’t matter that I would be exhausted the next day, because the task was done.
I don’t know if it’s a side effect of age, or having too many things piled on my plate, but these days I have projects I couldn’t complete if I went weeks without sleep. It has been a challenge to discipline myself to do what I can, when I can, and then walk away at the end of the day without feeling guilty or like I failed.
Emerson’s quote reads like a permission slip…
Permission to stop.
Permission to accept that today’s efforts were enough, even if today’s results feel incomplete.
Permission to acknowledge mistakes without turning them into a life sentence.
Permission to rest without earning it first.
The older I get, the more I suspect that maturity isn’t learning how to do more. It’s learning how to put things down. Learning the difference between responsibility and obsession; between service and martyrdom. Acknowledging that exhaustion is not a virtue and that there will always be unfinished work waiting for us tomorrow.
Some days I’m better at this than others. Some days I win, and some days the list wins. And those are the days I need to apply Emerson’s wise words.
Finish each day and be done with it.
Not because everything is finished.
Because you are.
