I started strong.

I got up at 5:40, meditated, planned my day, got the kids off to school, exercised, and was ready before 8 am.

This rarely happens, but when it does, my day goes well. ⠀

Just not this day.

This day, I crushed my morning routine but watched my afternoon suffocate slowly until, by 3 pm, it had died with no chance of revival.

I found myself procrastinating, skipping parts of my plan, and getting distracted.

The result was an ending that felt as if I’d left a lot on the table. It was a day that felt wasted.

Where did things go wrong?

Why was I able to have so much success in the morning, and so little in the afternoon? What did I do that killed my momentum?

Was it the decision to eat lunch with my wife?

Was it because I walked down to get the kids off the bus? ⠀

Should I have taken another break, meditated again, or eaten more protein?

If you’ve ever had a day like this, you may have also asked a dozen questions trying to figure out why.

Even if you start your day strong, ending it on a sour note feels as if you could have or should have done something else, something more, something different to keep the momentum and finish everything you’d set out to accomplish.

And while there may have been one distraction that derailed you, the problem is more fundamental than that.

After all, if you were truly committed to your tasks, if your job depended on getting them done, watching that cat video would have waited.

No, the problem isn’t the distractions themselves.

The problem is that your tasks aren't aligned with what matters. As such, the distractions beckon for your attention, and you can’t help but follow.

You can start strong with good intentions, but if you don’t have your why, your purpose, your end goal in mind, you’ll run out of steam and find yourself distracted by everyone and everything vying for your attention—a bunch of trivialities that seem important but are only urgent.

Every morning, or even the night before, take a moment to set your intention for the day. Remind yourself WHY you need to do what you plan to do.

Doing so will prevent you from starting strong, then going wrong.