The Two Most Important Questions to Ask Yourself Each Day

“Every day is a new opportunity to become a better version of yourself.”

Every day is truly a gift. The fact that we even get to live it is something we should be grateful for.

A new day arrives every morning with new openings, opportunities, and potential. It also arrives with new challenges and decisions, for sure, but those are also gifts we should be grateful for.

Each day contains only 1440 minutes. And how we live each of them matters—for ourselves, the people around us, and the world.

So how do we make the most of them? Because at the end of the day, it can never be relived—we are left with only the results of how we lived it.

One great truth I have realized in my own life is the value of reflection. Living well tomorrow is largely based on the lessons we learned from yesterday. So making the most of our lives will always require us to look back and reflect, evaluate and learn.

But reflection to prompt your best life doesn’t necessarily need to be time-consuming or overwhelming. In fact, it can boil down to asking two simple questions at the end of the day:

1. Did I live to my fullest potential today?
2. Did I live with the right motives today?

These two specific questions are helpful for a number of reasons:

1. They can be asked by any person in any circumstance: regardless of your passion… regardless of the job you hold (or don’t hold)… regardless of your season in life… regardless of your circumstances.

2. They allow us to evaluate each day without comparison to others. We don’t measure our day compared to how it aligned with anyone else’s day. We’re asking whether we lived to our fullest potential.

3. They help us stay focused on the right things all day long, not just at the end of the day.

Let me dive deeper into each of these two questions.

1. Did I Live to My Fullest Potential Today?

This first question to ask ourselves is about our effort, our focus, our work, and our intentionality. It asks us to evaluate whether we made the most of the last 24 hours—whatever that might have looked like today.

It’s helpful to mention that “living to your fullest potential” doesn’t mean perfection, nor does it mean running yourself ragged without rest. In fact, over time, this question should help us realize the importance of weekly rest in living our fullest potential.

Nor does the question mean every day will look the same. Some days, your best will look different than other days. On a day when you’re healthy and energized, living to your potential might mean accomplishing a lot. On a day when you’re feeling unwell or facing challenges, living to your potential might simply mean showing up and staying positive and/or planning out your day tomorrow when your health has returned. Oftentimes, taking an entire day for rest might be the most productive thing you can do.

So, what does it look like to live to your fullest potential? Some things to think through might be:

• Did I manage my time wisely?
• Did I work hard with a good attitude?
• Did I learn and grow?
• Did I contribute what I intended to contribute?

When I lay my head on my pillow each night, can I sign my name to the day, proud of how I lived it?

2. Did I Live with the Right Motives Today?

Effort alone is not enough to live our most meaningful lives. As Francis Chan said, “Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”

The why, the motivations, and the desires behind our actions are equally important to consider and reflect upon.

Living with the right motives means evaluating not just what we did during the day, but why we did it and what we are spending our days in pursuit of. Were our actions driven by pride, greed, or envy? Or were they motivated by humility, love, and a desire to make a positive impact?

It’s so easy to get caught up in worldly measures of success—money, possessions, power, or fame. Keeping our motivations in check requires daily consideration.

Some motivations to consider:

• What motivated my work today?
• Did I focus on work that aligns with my values?
• Did I function and work with integrity?
• Was I selfless or selfish in my actions today?
• Did my life align with my faith (if appropriate)?

As we consider the scope of just these two questions, we begin to see why they are both essential to daily reflection. Reaching our fullest potential, but for all the wrong reasons, leads to a life filled with regret. On the other hand, having the right desires, but not working hard toward them, doesn’t result in a fulfilled life either.

On the plus side, these questions can be incredibly helpful in finding contentment. If I spent my day, to the best of my ability, pursuing all the right things, it matters less that someone else acquired more money or fame or possessions. I lived my best day, focused on what matters, and there is joy to be found in that realization.

I encourage you today, when you lay down in bed, to reflect on those questions: Did I live to my fullest potential today? And did I live with the right motives today?

If you answered yes—rest well. Tomorrow is an opportunity to do it all again.

If you answered no, reflect on what can change tomorrow, and then—rest well. Tomorrow is an opportunity to do it all over.