how to find fulfillment in each day

I realize the title of the post might be a little misleading, like I'm going to be giving you the answer. But really all I'm doing is asking the question: how do you find fulfillment in each day?

This is definitely something I struggle with. I'm a very future minded person. I have lots of goals and ideals I'm always trying to reach. While this enables me to have forward motion, it does mean that I tend to view the every day as something just to get through. For the longest time, I've felt as if I'm waiting for my life to begin. What I'm doing now, this isn't life. This is life's preparation. Once I accomplish this, well, then my life will have begun.

I was always very good at school. I didn't have to try very hard, so I filled up my days with other things. I had rehearsals and tournaments and class meetings. I practiced instruments and did homework and read and wrote. I filled up my days so they would go faster so I could get on to what was next. No matter what I was doing at the moment, what was coming next was going to be even better. In college I started working on top of all the other things, and with a life with no school looming around the corner, I came to accept that once I graduated it would happen. Life would start. It was taking longer than I had originally accounted for, but that would be it.

Obviously these are not thoughts I was completely aware of. I didn't sit around sadly, dreaming about what it would be like. I just never invested much in the day to day, because I was more focused on getting to what was really important. The future. As I've matured (and my life has progressed), I've become more aware of this facet of my personality. I'm certainly not naive enough to think I'm the only one who deals with things this way, which is one reason I chose to write about it today. It's become very important to me to find the importance of each day. To find something enjoyable or fun or what-have-you. To find fulfillment. All this waiting around I've been doing, it's not good for me. I don't think it's good for anyone. Each day is a gift and we are promised not even that. The people around us are a delight. And our futures, well of course those are important. But there's no way to get to the future but through the days that lead to them. Those are important too.

So, I'm going to ask the question again, only this time with slightly different inflection. How do you find fulfillment in each day? Like I said, this is something I struggle with. If anyone out there has any wisdom to share, I welcome it.