I wanted to share with you a 15-minute exercise I do to prepare for the day in the morning. It’s not a physical exercise, it’s a mental or thought exercise and so you can do it while you’re doing other things, and that’s what I do.
The first five minutes I spend thinking about all the people that I’m grateful for in my life; I get a mental image of the person and remind myself of why I’m grateful to have that person in my life, what impact they have on me. If you even stop right there it’s pretty hard to have a bad day after you’ve just spent some time thinking about the people that you’re grateful for.
The second five minutes I spend thinking about the future… usually about 10 years from now. Where do I see myself in the ideal world that I’ve created for myself? Who am I with? Where am I spending my time? And that looks almost like a video, I see that almost as moving pictures of where I wish to be, and the lifestyle that I hope to have, and the people that I’m surrounded with, and what’s important to me.
The last five minutes of the exercise I think about the things that I have to do that day and how I want them to turn out. So if that day I’m doing a seminar for a group or a client, I think about how I want it to go and how I want people to feel at the end of the seminar. If I have calls or meetings that day with coaching clients or other people, I think about that as well and how I want those outcomes … what I what I want people to feel at the end of those interactions with me.
At the end of that 15 minutes I kind of shut it off and go on with the rest of my day. When you’ve sort of thought about those three things … the people you’re grateful for, where you see yourself in the future in the ideal setting, and how you want your day to go, it really is a tremendous way to start the day.
Question: What other ways do you prepare yourself for the day?