Oatmeal Joey Arnold (@JoeyArnoldVN)

........Take it a day at a time and simply plan a day ahead. Tell yourself not tomorrow on any particular short-term item. Mentally prepare yourself. Spiritually and emotionally set yourself to saying yes to certain things and also no to certain things. It is not necessarily that you have to specifically say yes to a long list of things you must do for a particular day. Well, to some extent, that may already be built-in. You may already have a set of short-term and long-term responsibilities, meaning things you do and things should do and things you must do and things you tell yourself to do and things you choose to do and things you are told to do. . So, it can be common sense and self-explanatory to focus on responsibilities, obligations, duties, jobs, careers, chores, homework, school work, house work, yard work, errands, maintenance, laundry, dishes, garbage, cleaning, housekeeping, babysitting, etc. But at the same time, on top of that, it is important to plan ahead to say no to something every once in a while as a means of discipline. Your ability to grow as a person can come at a steady pace as opposed to sudden and radical change. You could reform how you live your life overnight. You could change a million things about how you live your life. You could make a list of thousands of things you want yourself to do and not do starting this very second. Now, I'm not going to tell you not to try that. You can do whatever you want. . But what good will it be if you are unable to maintain a major lifestyle shift long-term speaking? Habits can take 30 days to form. But you should take it a day at a time. And understand that there are certain short-term items on your lists which will always be there. Don't think you can make these items disappear forever. Think of these short-term items as weeds. So, say in your heart you will pluck a particular weed for a day. Just a day. Just pledge to yourself you will pluck out the weed for a day. Understand the weeds will continue to pop up again and again. Understand that the weeds may not necessarily be who you are. Don't be surprised when you see weeds grow from the garden of your soul. Just remember you're the gardener. . You're the farmer of your life. Farming takes a lot of work. Don't lie to yourself. It takes a lot of work to garden and to farm in general. So, therefore, take it a day at a time. But plan ahead. Tell yourself which things you will do and not do for a particular day. You don't have to make a plan for each day. And you don't have to say no each day. But as often as you can, try to plan on a coming No Day. As you prepare to sleep, write down a No Item on paper. Go to sleep thinking on how you will not do that one thing until the day after tomorrow. Wake up and look at that list you made yourself and keep looking at your list throughout the day......