Morning And Night
“Inhale, exhale. Our lungs fill with air and we are alive. The simple act of breathing is often taken for granted, but it’s a miracle nonetheless.” – Cristina Marrero
Clarify your ultimate goals. Model the people who achieved them starting where you are. Ask what kind of person you would need to, every day, do the things they would do to optimize their chances. IF the goal is close to your heart, and you realize you would LIKE to be that sort of person, meditate until you find the seed of that person within you.
Then…nurture that seed all day long.
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There once was a young lumberjack who wanted to prove himself at the new camp. He was paired with an old pro, and together they went out into the forest. The young man chopped wood like a maniac. The old guy chopped at a steady pace, but kept taking breaks. The young guy, seeing an opportunity to impress, chopped even harder. The old guy would chop, and then take a break.
And at the end of the day…the old man had chopped twice as much wood. The young man was confused. "How in the world did you do that? You seemed to do nothing but take breaks!"
The old man smiled. "Well, yes. But you didn't see what I was doing while I took those breaks."
"What?"
"I was sharpening my axe."
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Every day, and EVERY day, people complain g about overwhelm. Hard to blame them: there's a lot happening. But there is also, always, an eye of the storm, and the very fact that they are complaining tells me they've not found it. I can tell that they don't breathe properly. Don't have a morning ritual that connects them to gratitude and purpose. Don't know the specific things they will do today to move their lives forward (always to do with physical health/fitness, emotional connection, or money. That's 99% of what is out there. And frankly…money is probably 60% all by itself).
Every day, waking up focus on getting 1% better. The first step is the breathing: sixty seconds of deep, slow, diaphragmatic breathing at the top of the hour, at least five times a day.
AFTER you have integrated that habit, what would be next? Well…I think reviewing (or better still, reWRITING) your goals. And if you want to use the mindstorming technique taught in LIFEWRITING, you want to do this morning AND night. Its like taking a cross-country drive. Every morning you look at your map. Then, you drive. At the end of the day, check your position on the map. Evaluate what went right, where you went wrong. Plan out the next day. Then you can go to sleep! Rest well, wake up, wash and repeat.
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Check your goals in the morning. See how they connect to your ultimate destiny, just as a day's driving connects to your final destination. Get into your day, being sure to take five breathing breaks during the day. Try to do the top three things BEFORE ONE O'CLOCK. By the end of the first half of the day. Then at night, check your schedule to see how you did.
And if you END the day with clarity and gratitude, you have a fantastic possibility: focus on a single question, and ask your unconscious mind to work on it over night. When you awaken in the morning, don't get out of bed immediately. In that state between sleep and waking, the "hypnogogic state", fantasize about having an amazing day, and gently ask your mind for an answer to the question you asked the night before.
Namaste
Steve
