I open my eyes to another beautiful day that my Creator has given me.
I stare at the ceiling aimlessly for about five minutes.
No phone. No notifications. No rushing.
Just five quiet minutes to realize that I’m here.
Then I say something I don’t normally say first thing in the morning:
“Thank You, God, for blessing me with another day, another chance, and another opportunity to become a better person than I was yesterday.”
I let that thought sit with me for a moment.
Then I get up.
I reach for my phone.
Then stop.
Not because I’m disciplined.
Because the phone isn’t there.
For the first time in years, I had left it across the room.
I stood up to get it.
But before I did, I opened the window.
Cold air hit my face.
That was one.
Wake your senses before you wake your notifications.
Feel something real. Hear something real. Let your brain know the day has actually begun.
I didn’t check the phone.
Instead, I asked myself one strange question:
“What would make today worth remembering?”
Not What do I have to do?
Not What’s waiting for me?
What would make it worth remembering?
That was two.
Give your brain a destination before the world gives you one.
I picked one thing.
Just one.
Then I drank a glass of water and walked outside.
No headphones.
No scrolling.
No podcast telling me what to think.
Just ten minutes of walking while paying attention to everything I normally ignored.
A bird on a wire.
A delivery truck.
The smell of someone’s coffee.
My own footsteps.
That was three.
Give your brain new information before feeding it old information.
Halfway down the block, I stopped.
I looked around and found something I’d never noticed before: a tiny crack in the sidewalk where a flower had pushed through.
I smiled.
Not because the flower changed my life.
Because I had finally noticed it.
That was four.
Practice finding something interesting instead of waiting for something interesting to happen.
Back inside, I grabbed a piece of paper.
At the top I wrote:
TODAY I CONTROL THREE THINGS.
Underneath, I wrote three things I could actually control.
My effort.
My attention.
My response.
That was five.
Separate what belongs to you from what doesn’t.
My phone finally came back into my hand.
There were messages.
Problems.
Opinions.
Requests.
Noise.
I didn’t answer any of them.
I set a ten-minute timer.
That was six.
Don’t let someone else’s urgency become your morning emergency.
For the next ten minutes, I worked on the one thing I’d been avoiding.
Not finished.
Not perfect.
Just started.
That was seven.
Create evidence that you’re moving before your mind has time to argue with you.
Then I did something that felt almost ridiculous.
I stood in front of the mirror.
Instead of telling myself I was going to conquer the world, I said:
“Let’s see what we can do with today.”
No hype.
No pretending.
Just possibility.
That was eight.
Use believable optimism. Your brain doesn’t need a speech. It needs a reason to participate.
Before leaving, I sent one message.
To someone who had helped me at a difficult point in my life.
Three words:
“I remember. Thank you.”
That was nine.
Give positive energy away before asking the world to give some back.
Then I reached the front door.
I stopped.
One final question.
“If today goes completely differently than expected, who do I want to be when it does?”
That was ten.
I didn’t know what the day would bring.
Nobody does.
But that was the point.
I wasn’t trying to control the day anymore.
I was deciding how I would enter it.
I opened the door.
And for the first time in a long time, I wasn’t waking up to start another day.
I was waking up to participate in one.
Sometimes the most powerful morning routine isn’t about doing more.
It’s about giving your mind the first word.
Audiobook version available on YouTube
If you like this be sure to follow-like-subscribe and also share as well as visit/shop my online store increasedcoins.com 🙏
No comments:
Post a Comment