Today is Day One
A leadership philosophy built over 25 years in the field: act, behave, and conduct yourself every day as if it is your first day — at work, at home, and in every relationship.
The Idea
On day one, everyone shows up ready to solve. Seven months later, the same person complains about everything.
Alex watched this pattern for years, in every team and every role. A person arrives with full energy — solving problems, bringing solutions, eager to prove they belong. Then six or seven months pass. A year. And slowly, the drift sets in.
That is the moment he asks: where is the First Day Mentality? Where is the reset button that reconnects you with who you were on day one? First Day Mentality is that reset button — for any role, at work, at home, and in every relationship.
How everyone starts
What happens by month seven
First Day Mentality is a decision made daily, not once. Press the button and take today’s reset with you.
What would the day-one version of you do first today?
Three Arenas
On anyone’s first day, they show up early, dress like it matters, listen more than they talk, and run toward problems — because every problem is a chance to prove themselves.
Seven months later, the same person is on autopilot, complaining about the schedule, the system, the team. Nothing about the job changed. The mentality changed. For the guest in front of you and the teammate beside you, today is the first day they experience you.
Remember the first days of building a family. Everything was intentional. You were patient, present, and grateful for ordinary moments.
Then life gets busy, and home becomes where we bring what’s left of us instead of the best of us. The people who matter most get our most tired version. First Day Mentality at home means walking in like it’s day one — phone down, real questions, fully there.
Every relationship starts with First Day energy — in a marriage, with a son, with a daughter, with a friend. We listen to understand, assume the best, and make time.
Over time, familiarity quietly replaces appreciation. We keep score. We stop being curious about the person we think we already know. Never let “they already know I care” replace showing it.
Hand in Hand — Last Day Mentality
If today was the last day you spoke with your mother, would you be more patient with her?
Of course you would. You would listen longer. You would forgive faster. You would not waste the conversation on something small. That is Last Day Mentality — not fear, not sadness, but the clarity that no interaction is guaranteed a sequel.
When you press reset, your brain reconnects to daily solutions — to the things that do have a solution. A hard day at work has one. A tense conversation has one. Impatience, most of the time, is simply forgetting that both buttons exist.
Gives you the energy
Gives you the reason
The energy of a first day and the gratitude of a last one — in the same day.
The Reset, in Five Moves
Swipe
Start like it’s day one: early, prepared, and glad to be there.
Every complaint is a problem in disguise. Bring the solution with it.
Ask like a beginner, even after years — especially after years.
With the people you love, be fully there. First-day attention.
Last Day clarity: patience now, the kind word now. No someday.
Every Morning
Before the day starts pulling you toward the drift. This is how the reset button gets pressed on purpose.
Swipe
Remember your actual first day — the energy, the nerves, the promise you made yourself. Bring that person into today.
Pick the problem you’ve complained about most. Today it gets a solution attempt, not another complaint.
One person to lift up, one guest or loved one to make feel seen, one thing to do like it’s the first time.
Name one person you’d treat differently if today were the last interaction. Then treat them that way — today.
About
Alex Mariath da Silva is Area Vice President of Marketing for Florida and the Caribbean at Travel + Leisure, where he runs tour marketing in Orlando and leads marketing teams across the region. He brings more than twenty-five years of leadership experience in the vacation ownership industry, including national training and team leadership earlier in his career.
As Vice President of Marketing at Travel + Leisure / Wyndham Destinations since 2015, he has generated more than 390,000 tours and over $1.3 billion in gross volume.
Every morning, he opens the day by sending his leaders a motivation message — because the day is won by the mindset you bring into it.
First Day Mentality is the slogan his teams know him by — born from years of watching talented people drift from day-one energy into routine and complaint, and learning to press the reset button in himself first. His aspiration reaches beyond the office: to teach young people how to become differentiated leaders — the kind who show up on day one thousand with the heart of day one.
Outside of work, his world is family, travel, and sport. He travels with Fernanda and the kids, and he trains Brazilian jiu-jitsu — a brown belt who still steps on the mat like a white belt on day one: curious, humble, ready to learn.
Recognition
First Day Mentality isn’t theory from the sidelines. It was built — and proven — leading teams to the top of one of the most competitive sales industries in the U.S.
Industry-wide honor
2017 · 2018 · 2019 · 2020
2017 · 2018 · 2021 · 2022 · 2023 · 2024
2015 · 2016 · 2017 · 2019 · 2021 – 2024
In the Press
Profiled by Face Brasil magazine as a “bridge builder” — a Brazilian leader connecting people, teams, and opportunity in the U.S.
Speaking & Training
Keynotes and leadership training for teams, conferences, and organizations — the full theory, the reset ritual, and the stories behind it.
The theory, the drift, and the reset button. For any audience.
For leaders who set the temperature of their teams every morning.
Energy of beginnings, gratitude of endings — work and life together.
Hands-on sessions that install the Daily Reset Ritual in your team.
Today is Day One
Attitude and mindset is everything. Every day is our first day to perform and act.
Book Alex to speak