Good morning everyone. We are in the final weeks before we end another year and start off a new one. This is the time that most people start reflecting how they did the past year, what their focus was, and how they will want to make changes in the future.
For todays’ blog post I want to focus on the topic of starting the day. How do you start your day? Hit the alarm clock snooze button, do you roll out of bed before the alarm clock, grab coffee, read the paper, meditate, etc? Do you focus on your morning routine?
Over the past week or so I have started a new program of meditation. Now I am not someone that can sit in the leg crossed position and clear my mind while saying “oooohhhhmmm.” Meditation is still new to me and I am trying to learn about it. I have started doing Headspace for 3 minutes each morning. Mainly I have been just breathing in deep breathes and letting them out.
Prior to this when I would start my morning routine which is usually jumping out of bed at 5:30 a.m. feeding the dog, and then finding a quiet place to read my bible app. I am reading the one story app which really helps you grasp the whole bible in sequential order and not with all of the extra stuff that always through me off. It has really helped me to understand the bible better over this past year.
The issue I was having is that while I would read, my mind would be racing thinking of all of the things that I needed to do that day and get my mind racing. It was starting to get in the way of me learning so I had to make a change. Now I am trying the meditation thing to calm my mind and relax before reading. It is helping me not get too far ahead of myself and focused on the moment which has been hard seeing I have been so busy lately.
From there I do review emails and do hop on Facebook to see updates from friends and how their kids are doing. Then I have to get in the shower and get ready for the day.
This morning is a little different as my son has decided to wake up early and is doing his Spanish training as I am writing this blog. I will try not to convert into Spanish as I type while trying to negotiate for more tablet time to watch Minecraft videos. I typically like to do my morning routine in silence, but hey it is Saturday and I don’t usually get much time with him in the mornings so I will accept it today.
The main point is to review your morning routine to see if there are areas that need to be improved and if there is anything that is getting in the way of you becoming more efficient. We all need to stop and review our routines from time to time to see if we are letting noise creep in to slow us down. With only a certain amount of time each day we need to make sure we are maximizing our potential.
I am also thinking about getting rid of Facebook all together to stop me from taking my 10 minutes from me each morning. That is 10 minutes every morning, multiplied by 365 days using up almost 61 hours per year of inefficiency. As you can see a few minutes each day does add up though the year.
Take time and review your morning routine and see if there is any areas that are getting in the way.
Until next time, have a great weekend everyone!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Sales and Leadership Enterprises