How Do You Start Your Day?

[Dien Rice]

I believe how you start your day can make a "big" difference to your success...

So how do you start your day?

I've recently been following a routine Ted Nicholas wrote about in his ezine (you can see some past issues here, and subscribe from www.tednicholas.com - this issue isn't on his website just yet...)

He called this issue "Increase Your Success Margin By How You Start Your Day"...

Here's a summary...

1. He spends a "quiet time period" of 30 minutes to an hour some time in the morning. That means turning off the phone, not reading emails, etc. He also spends 20 minutes of that time meditating (*).

2. He keeps a journal where every day he writes down:
A. What am I feeling? and
B. What do I want?

3. He next lists the things all the things, large and small, in which he is blessed, that he's grateful for. (This helps you to have an "attitude of gratitude" - which I think is very important. We're all "blessed" in various ways, but we often overlook them or take them for granted...)

4. He plays a CD of music he loves.

5. Then he identifies, lists, and prioritizes the things that are on his mind. He says, in general, don't put more than 7 things on your list, because you won't get them finished! Also, he recommends to do the toughest things first... Don't leave the toughest things till last, when you have no energy or time!

Anyway, I've been following this method (more or less) the last couple weeks or so... And it has been beneficial!

Here are some of the benefits from my experience...

- The "meditation" helps to clear your mind of extraneous worries - so you don't have too much on your mind, and you can more easily focus.

- Writing "What do I want?" every day helps you to keep an eye on the "big picture" - exactly what are you doing this for? It's sometimes easy to lose sight of this as we get lost in daily tasks...

- Listing what you're grateful for I think is something very powerful that everyone should do on a regular basis. It makes you realize that you do have many blessings (that we often forget about). It also helps you start your day in a very positive way.

- Then, creating the list of things "to do"... You do a much better job of this, I feel, after you've done the earlier activites - which help you focus, and help you keep an eye on the "big picture" of what you really want!

By the way, Bill Myers says he keeps an eye on the "big picture" by going on walks with his wife, and regularly talking about what their goals are and how they'll achieve them... http://www.bmyers.com/public/1114.cfm

What do you do every morning, that you feel helps you during your day?

Hope you find some use in this post... Your thoughts would also be very appreciated!

Dien

P.S. Here is how Gary Halbert would start his day, if you're interested... http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/..._every_day.htm (It starts around two-thirds of the way through the newsletter.)

(*) Ted Nicholas recommends learning meditation from a Transcendental Meditation class, or from the book "The Relaxation Response" by Herb Benson.