Do you know one mistake we’re all guilty of making? Thinking too far into the future. We get obsessed with long-term thinking, planning, strategizing, and worrying – yes, definitely worrying – about stuff. While a little bit of forward planning is required, all this obsessing about the future is often at the expense of the here and now. As you’re about to see in this list of the best one day at a time quotes, you’re often better off taking life day by day. After all, nobody knows if today will be their last.
1. “Live one day at a time and make it a masterpiece.” – Dale West
2. “One day at a time is all we do. One day at a time is good for you.” – John Lennon
3. “Take one day at a time. Allow yourself to change.” – Paul Henderson
4. “All we can do is try, do our best. Give as much time as we have to give, one day at a time. One breath at a time.” – Jasinda Wilder
5. “Happiness is achieved when you stop waiting for your life to begin and start making the most of the moment you are in.” – Germany Kent
6. “How do you shoot a 150-day movie? You shoot it one day at a time.” – David Fincher
7. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Grant me the patience with changes that take time, appreciation of all that I have, tolerance of those with different struggles, and the strength to get up and try again, one day at a time.” – Reinhold Niebuhr
8. “I’m like a recovering perfectionist. For me it’s one day at a time.” – Brene Brown
9. “I’m just taking it one day at a time. Actually, that’s a total lie. I always think about what’s in front of me.” – Julianne Hough
10. “I’m trying to stay as calm as possible and focus one day at a time, but when reality sets in, I feel everything: anxiety, excitement, nerves, pressure, and joy.” – Shawn Johnson
11. “Life’s so full that you just take it one day at a time.” – Sheryl Crow
12. “I have a passion for helping others and making a difference in the world. I take life one day at a time and make the best of it every chance that I get.” – Lizzie Velasquez
13. “Each day means a new twenty-four hours. Each day means everything’s possible again. You live in the moment, you die in the moment, you take it all one day at a time.” – Day Marie Lu
14. “Take life one day at a time because every day is a different day with new challenges.” – Penny Streeter
15. “Don’t look too far into the future, just look at tomorrow. One day at a time. Can you win tomorrow? Can you make progress? The answer is yes, you have a choice and tomorrow you’re going to win.” – Joe Wicks
16. “Live one day at a time emphasizing ethics rather than rules.” – Wayne Dyer
17. “I’m just taking it one day at a time. Actually, one night at a time. I’m not usually up during the day.” – William Belli
18. “My philosophy is to take one day at a time. I don’t worry about the future. Tomorrow is even out of sight for me.” – Bobby Darin
19. “The one thing we know about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.” – Jeff Rich
20. “I’ve been sober now for a couple of years and I’m taking my sobriety very seriously – one day at a time and I am moving forward in my career.” – Daniel Baldwin
21. “Take life on life’s terms – one day at a time. And have fun while you’re doing it.” – Joe Perry
22. “Live one day at a time; better yet, make the most of this moment.” – Joel Osteen
23. “I’m taking each day one day at a time, and building up my strength and endurance. It’s crazy because it takes no time at all to lose everything you have and then so much time to gain it back.” – Michelle McCool
24. “Thirty days might not sound like a long time but let me tell you, it only takes one day to change the rest of your life, so do not be fooled by the duration of the days. What really matters is what today looks like. Shape your day, and the world will mould itself to fit within your mind.” – Jay Ibrahim
25. “I try not to worry about the future – so I take each day just one anxiety attack at a time.” – Tom Wilson
26. “You just try to take it one day at a time, … You step on the basketball floor and just play. It’s fun. I’m comfortable with it.” – Kobe Bryant
27. “Big things are built one brick at a time. Victories are achieved one choice at a time. A life well-lived is chosen one day at a time.” – Lysa TerKeurst
28. “I take one day at a time. I’ve always been like that.” – Katherine Kelly
29. “Live one day at a time. Keep your attention in present time. Have no expectations. Make no judgments. And give up the need to know why things happen as they do. Give it up!” – Caroline Myss
30. “A lot of things have been thrown at me in life, and I’ve got through it all without a rule book, taking it one day at a time.” – Yoko Ono
31. “I think there are always phases in life when things get intense or difficult, whether it’s the sheer volume of work or personal circumstances. And I’ve definitely had tough moments. The way I approach them is just to tell myself that this, too, will pass, and take it one day at a time.” – Marianne Lake
32. “The whole idea is you can’t sit around and do nothing. You have to get up and start living one day at a time.” – Darlene Love
33. “Now I’m starting, relatively, to think straight again. I live one day at a time, one hour at a time. What makes it all worthwhile is my children.” – Paula Yates
34. “Drink life one sip at a time. This moment is brand new. Let it pour it’s newness into you.” – Hiral Nagda
35. “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” – Mitch Albom
36. “There’s no straighter road to success than exceeding expectations one day at a time.” – Robin Crow
37. “No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if you don’t look too far into the future, and focus on the present moment. You can get through anything one day at a time.” – Bob Parsons
38. “Always remember that the future comes one day at a time.” – Dean Acheson
39. “I just wrote one song at a time. Kinda like an alcoholic. One day at a time.” – Neil Young
40. “I only think day by day. I’ve no huge plans for the future, I live one day at a time.” – Rui Patricio
41. “I still find it almost impossible to relax for more than one day at a time.” – Gene Kelly
42. “We do the best we can in life, we take things one day at a time and sometimes we all just need a simple reminder of that.” – Demi Lovato
43. “I try to take it one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.” – Ashleigh Brilliant
44. “I keep my life to one day at a time.” – Paul Merson
45. “I’m not a legend or a hero, I don’t slay dragons, I don’t do any of the things that a real hero can. But I can make things better, one day at a time, for most of the kingdom.” – Mercedes Lackey
46. “I learned that, with grief, you have to take it one day at a time and learn how to find the happiness amid the heartbreak.” – Adrienne C. Moore
47. “Do only one thing at a time. It is lazy people who want to do everything at once.” – Vikrant Parsai
48. “There’s only one day at a time here, then it’s tonight and then tomorrow will be today again.” – Bob Dylan
49. “Everybody is looking for instant success, but it doesn’t work that way. You build a successful life one day at a time.” – Lou Holtz
50. “You never know where life is going to take you. So everything I do, I just take it one day at a time, and it always leads you to the right place.” – Kyle Massey
51. “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” – Abraham Lincoln
52. “I believe everything has a solution, and I take it one day at a time or one thing at a time.” – Lisa Vidal
53. “Dream big, my friend, and never give up. We all make mistakes, but none of us are mistakes. Take one day at a time. Embrace the positive attitudes, perspectives, principles, and truths I share, and you, too, will overcome.” – Nick Vujicic
54. “We can’t rewind the past, nor fast-forward the future, so today, all we can do is play, record, pause and keep moving, until something should press the stop button.” – Anthony Liccione
55. “There is magic in knocking down your most important domino day after day. All you have to do is avoid breaking the chain, one day at a time until you generate a powerful new habit in your life.” – Gary W. Keller
56. “Big achievements come one small advantage at a time, one step at a time, one day at a time.” – Jim Rohn
57. “Do one thing at a time and do that one thing as if your life depended upon it.” – Eugene Grace
58. “It’s a waste of time to think about what I should have done and what I didn’t… I live my life one day at a time.” – Liza Minnelli
59. “Do your best, one day at a time. That’s good enough.” – Donna Goddard
60. “Life at its essence boils down to one day at a time. Today is the day!” – Jim Stovall
61. “You can only do things one day at a time, sport. Sometimes life is so bloody that’s the only way you can get through it. But the good bit about living one day at a time is that when nice things happen, you enjoy them more than people who are always thinking about the past or the future.” – Deborah Crombie
62. “I live one day at a time, one day at a time. Yesterday’s gone and tomorrow is blind, so I live one day at a time.” – Willie Nelson
63. “You never know the plan. You never know what’s going to happen. We are not even promised tomorrow. I just try to focus on one day at a time.” – Morgan Wallen
64. “Now is now, and I live everything one day at a time. The fact that I’m still on the planet and able to still make music is such a miracle.” – Ronnie Milsap
65. “Wholeheartedly do what it takes to awaken your clear-seeing intelligence, but one day at a time, one moment at a time. If we live that way, we will benefit this earth.” – Pema Chodron
66. “Who knows, I have always lived one day at a time. Probably more adventure and excitement.” – Rob Mariano
67. “Some people are solving major world problems, and I’m over here all excited because I found a missing sock inside a pair of my underwear.” – Dan Pearce
68. “Take one day at a time. Today, after all, is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.” – Billy Graham
69. “I remind myself every day just how lucky I am to do what I love! I feel so fortunate and I’m just trying to take my life one day at a time.” – Misty Copeland
70. “Time is what prevents everything from happening at once.” – John Archibald Wheeler
71. “Everyone is lonely, we have to remember that life is to be lived one day at a time. You cannot worry about the past or future. Happiness is in the now.” – Claudia Gray
72. “The road to recovery will not always be easy, but I will take it one day at a time, focusing on the moments I’ve dreamed about for so long.” – Amanda Lindhout