Years ago, I heard someone pass on this thought of Lee Iacocca—
Every day in America, 242 million people wake up, and if everyone would say when he gets up that he’s going to do some classy, quality thing today that he didn’t do yesterday, we’d be world beaters. Unfortunately, most people swing out of bed, yawn, and figure, “Oh hell, I’ve got to make it through another day of drudgery.” The attitude is they’re going to do what they’re told and not one thing more. Now how can you ever improve anything that way? If a person’s going to do a good job, he’s got to like coming to work. He’s got to say to himself “I’m going to help produce something great today” and he’s got to say that every day.
I think I was stunned when I saw this succinct and powerful reformulation in a talk by Todd Henry for Creative Mornings—
Nobody wakes up in the morning thinking, "I can’t wait to crank out a steaming pile of crap today." And yet it happens.
Either way, the thought holds.