"At some moment in time,, we transition from the shame of who we once became, into pride for who we have become!"- Futurist Jim Carroll
Let me explain.
This is post number 2,582 in this series. After ten years, nearly 1.4 million words, and one quote at a time, every working day, since August 26, 2016. I have not missed one single working day. I showed up EVERY SINGLE DAY.
To explain why it ends today, I have to finally tell you why it began.
Yesterday - July 26, 2026 - marked ten years since I got sober. The photo above is my 10-year chip - one I ordered on Amazon and which I've carried with me over the last few days. I'll get my actual chip at a small get together of many of my closet friends tomorrow night.
I've never said that out loud - "I got sober," in this space. But some of you may have sensed it was there, hiding in plain sight. Every year, on July 26, the quote was never really about business at all:
One year in, 2017: "Freedom, achieved, needs ongoing innovation to be sustained!"
Two years, 2018: "If it's broken you can always fix it - you just need to know where to start!"
Three years, 2019: "Expect miracles - once you decide to stop being your own worst enemy!"
Five years, 2021: "You will always have the opportunity to turn the worst day of your life into the rest of your life!"
Six years, 2022: "Some of your worst days can always become the first days of some of the best days of the rest of your life!"
Seven years, 2023: "Be a hero. Just for one day!"
Eight years, 2024: "You'll never regret the gift of change!"
Those were my anniversary messages. Little things I wrote to myself each July 26. You just didn't know it. I was writing them to you - but I was also writing them to myself.
That's the truth of this entire series. It began as a personal journey in which I was sharing my mind with myself. It just turned into something where I was sharing it with others.
Here's what happened and how my Daily Inspiration came about - one month into sobriety, I needed something to anchor my mornings. Structure. Routine. A reason to get up and put one thought in front of the other. And something to get into words all the ideas and actions and goals and aspirations and motivation that were running through my head.
So I started writing a daily quote about the future - because the future was the thing I had just gotten back.
And here is what is interesting - the recovery community talks about living one day at a time. It turns out a futurist can do both: live one day at a time while thinking thirty years ahead. In fact, I'd argue that's the only way anyone can think clearly about the future - from a place of clarity in the present.
Writing this series every morning is what gave me that clarity.
Piece by piece, post by post, it gave me back my voice, and gave my voyage its purpose.
One daily inspiration at a time, one day at a time.
Along the way, the numbers added up: 2,581 posts before this one. Nearly 1.4 million words. I wrote through travels to hundreds of presentations. I wrote it on my deck and before the ski hill and while I was in airports and early mornings in hotel. I wrote it while recovering from a brutal back injury and just before I teed off at the Old Course in St. Andrews. Heck, I wrote through a pandemic (when I briefly considered abandoning writing it!) - 350 posts carrying my audience, and me, through some of the most challenging days of our lifetime.
And I carried the words that I wrote with me every single day. When I opened 2026 with my "10 Great Words," the first one was Gratitude. Another was Serenity.
Now you know why.
Here's what I learned along the way, and it applies whether you're rebuilding a company or rebuilding a life: transformation isn't a single bold act. It's a sustained series of small steps - what I once called "a sustained series of stressful small steps - then suddenly, some sweet surprise!"
Today I'd revise it: then suddenly, a seismic shift.
You don't reinvent yourself at the moment of crisis.
You reinvent yourself in the 3,652 ordinary mornings that follow it.
So why stop?
Because milestones, as I wrote in 2022, are "valuable markers of progress made but also reminders of goals yet to be achieved."
Ten years and 2,582 posts became enough. The daily discipline did its job - it carried me here, to my 10 year marker. I now have other things to keep my sobriety intact. 'm now a granddad; I'm slowly easing into some sort of weird retirement - a few speaking gigs here and there, and all the other work that goes with being in this workspace. I'm golfing a heck of a lot more. I'm finding my daily inspiration in all the spaces all around me in the beauty of life that is this moment.
And to be honest, it's become difficult to sustain interest in the series - both mine and yours. Through the deluge that is AI, the swamp that is social media, and the competitive space that is the personal brand industry, it's just become a herculean effort to try to keep your interest.
With that being the case, it's just time to let the Daily Inspiration go while I do all the other important things that keep my sobriety intact - such as spending many special moments with my new little grandson who will be 1 year old tomorrow.
And look, my inspiration and my blog isn't going anywhere; I'll still write when there's something worth saying.
It just won't arrive on a daily schedule anymore - it won't appear in your mailbox, your Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram feed each every workday morning. Other things will as I figure out what's next.
To everyone who read these over the years, who wrote to tell me a quote arrived on exactly the day they needed it - thank you.
You were part of my recovery and never knew it.
And I want you, right now, to think about you. Do you know I was originally going to start this post? The quote I was going to use? It was this: "Some of your worst days can become the first days of the best days of the rest of your life. I know, because I lived it."
With that in mind, if you're reading this on one of your worst days: I wrote 2,582 posts that were all, in one way or another, about you. Start with this one truth - at some moment in time, we transition from the shame of who we once became, into pride for who we have become.
I know it, because I lived it.
If you ever want to escape from one of your worse days, contact me.
I'll talk, I'll share, I'll motivate, I'll inspire. I'll guide you.
One day at a time - with my eyes, as ever, on tomorrow.
Futurist Jim Carroll
The best way to live a life is to fully embrace the moment, one day at a time.
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