The Best Day

What would the world look like if everyone had their best day, every day?

By definition, to have the best day means we’ve had days that aren’t our best days. So I’ll start by saying having every day be the best day is a paradox within itself. Exponentially improving best days? It’s a nice idea, but is it realistic? 

Would the best day-everyday model be an unachievable, manipulative utopia, where someone pulls the strings of control but you’re blissfully unaware of the existence of the strings? Take the new Fallout series. You’re living blindly in a perfect box, while outside your box, the world moves. Albeit life in a post-nuclear war-ridden world isn’t all fairy lights and rainbows, but it’s life. Isolating yourself from this completely to create your own ideal pocket universe isn’t living. There are problems we all face, and continuing to face them and move past them is always going to be a part of life. Eventually, any self-created, self-limiting boxes of isolation in which you cultivate your own reality will shatter. Upon this occurrence, we have to face the music, and ourselves. 

Are we all striving for our best day, over and over again? Is this a deep-routed desire that controls us? As I write this, I’m sitting on the beach in Scotland; it's one of my favourite places in the world. It’s been a best day, but I think the fact it’s not repeatable is what makes it such. There are many days after this that won’t be spectacular. They’re just another day. It’s the existence of our best days that make life worth living. As we exist in the rest of our days, know you’re working towards your best days once again. If we’re lucky enough to live our days feeling free, and doing what we love, then every day can be the best it possibly can be, even in the mundanity of daily routine. We can have the best days for different reasons, every day.

Photo by Boston Public Library on Unsplash

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Rating The Day

Every day, I give the day, my mood, and my energy levels a rating out of 10. I find my best days are ones where I interact with those I love, even for a short time, while also enjoying a period of deep productivity. Not every day can be like this. Sometimes unexpected occurrences arise, and I know many people portion a part of their day as a contingency to manage these events, but I usually struggle to maintain this, filling these periods with what I deem productive tasks. 

My mood is largely driven by my interaction with those I love. I think it’s important to separate this from an overall day rating. I can experience a productive day, but talk to nobody, and as a result, my mood is often lower on these days. 

Photo by Astrid Schaffner on Unsplash

My energy levels are also lower. I’m an introvert and enjoy sitting alone with my thoughts more than most. But after talking with my loved ones, I feel energised. After a productive day, but not too productive, I feel energised. Eating good food, drinking lots of water, taking my vitamins. There are many practices that improve my energy, and all of them together in balance make for a great day. 

All this arises from experience. It’s enabled me to better know myself and to understand that one day, I’ll have the best day once again, but it can’t be every day. I can work towards making a day as great as possible, but this can never be perfected. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good - and you can do this by rating the day, even those that seem slow and boring. Sometimes I find they’re the best sort of days for different reasons.