What Makes a Successful Day

What does a successful day look like?

I’ve heard a few great ideas recently. Mark Zuckerberg gave 3 keys to a successful day on Lex Fridman’s podcast: doing something to better yourself, doing something to help people, and having something to look forward to.

Then there’s the writings of Marcus Aurelius. He wrote in Meditations “at dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?’”

The huddling under the blankets part always stuck with me. Blankets are what a passive day looks like. 

If I had to ask myself whether today was successful, I’d think “did I bend the day to my will, or did the day bend me?”