Morning Mindset

 

“Man starts over again every day, in spite of all he knows, against all he knows.” ~ Emil Cioran 

On what footing does your day start?

Snooze the alarm countless times then jump out and straight into the shower with just a few minutes to spare? Get up in good time but spend a whole hour walking around in circles trying to focus on what needs to get done, until you’re running late and just do the necessary to get out? Or, do you have a routine that sets you up for success before you interact with the world?

I’ve tried the first two strategies with dismal results. Those are the days you forget to pick up your phone as you walk out, you realize when it’s time to pay for transport that your wallet was left by your bedside, you carry the wrong documents for the tasks of the day, wear different socks, forget to switch off the iron box . . . and other crazy morning stories.

Every morning does not have to be a crazy Monday morning and you can walk out of home with an aura of peace, calm, and serenity every-single-day!

I start my day with the S.A.V.E.R.S. – silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing. More importantly, I start my year with an annual compass that sets the highlights of the direction I want my year to go in. This planner informs the affirmations and visualization I will be doing for any given season. My reading material will also be informed by my annual goals, as will my workout and fasting plans. My silence sessions are for prayer and meditation – the basic form of grounding I practice because I am cognizant of the fact that I cannot do much on my own, and I certainly do not want to be running my day in the opposite direction of what God would prefer it to be.

The silence, affirmations, and visualization exercises also set the tone for how I choose to respond to my day and any eventualities that will arise. I have lived long enough to know that some days there seems to be a conspiracy against all of you right from the moment you step out of your house. You stub your toe on the way out, a stray dog almost runs you over on its rabid flight to you-know-not-where, just as you round the last corner to the bus stop, the vehicle leaves you and all attempts to run after it are futile or it’s the day some rusty matatu decides to give your vehicle a morning kiss! By the time you get to work, your day is a shade of grey-navy blue, and it only gets worse from there. On such a day, if you had not decided your response ahead of time, enough expletives would have left your mouth in 2 hours and all your nerves would look like a well-used scratching post for a household of 7 cats!!

Serenity is the reason why I prefer to tailor my morning mindset. At this stage of life, I don’t have the bandwidth to handle an infinite amount of externally induced stress. I choose my battles carefully and only feed my monkeys, in my forest. Most of what would send someone screaming is stuff I already deemed unworthy of my time so I brush it off and move on or sidestep the drama. Self-care is of absolute necessity to me, so I prioritize it every time the choice comes up.

Choosing to join the 5 am club was a decision I have always celebrated. It gives me the ability to spend some time in absolute silence, within and without. When I choose to watch the sunrise, I arrive early enough to also view the transition from dusk to dawn – a glorious sight. Most of my development activities happen in that silent hour, undistracted, especially by electronic noise.

Choose to start your day organized and prepared to win. Direct your morning mindset going forward. My way was borrowed from Hal Elrod with a few tweaks from Robin Sharma. Yours can be an innovative system or you can borrow from the thousands of other systems out there. There’s just no excuse to be starting your day unprepared.

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” ~ Marcus Aurelius