An hour to spend on you and the betterment of you. Your time, for you.
Now this is something I have been doing for a while now and it is something that has become critical to my well-being.
Getting up early means that I give myself time to spend on mebefore I hand myself over to the jobs of the day. Time to prepare myself for what is ahead of me that day. Time to breathand time to think.
If you are serious about investing in yourself to grow, to be a more effective leader, more productive and to be truly well, you need to be giving that first hour of the day over to the service and betterment of you, and not to others.
So for me I get up at 5.00am each week day and how I spend that hour might differ from day to day, but what I spend it doing matters.
Some days I spend it on a meditation and journaling. Some mornings might be spent taking a walk or just sitting quietly planning out what I want to achieve that day, week or year.
I might use it to think about those things that make me happy, and how I can do more of those things. I might use it to write down the things I am grateful for and the many blessings I have.
I might use it to send a random act of kindness to someone important to me. To do something nice to someone else that I would like done to me.
I might use it to journal or write. To examine my behaviours and my motivations to understand they are serving my best interests or the interests of other. To re-examine whether my behaviours and actions are still reflective of my core beliefs about myself.
A lot of people use that first hour for exercise which is another great way to start the day. Or use it to stop and listen to a great piece of music, spend time in the quiet of your yard or just listen to nature as it wakes up for the day.
There are so many things you can do in that first hour. You can spend it learning something new or reading a book.
It doesn’t matter what it is you do. All that matters is that it is something that involves an investment in youand your well-being.
Now to be clear, there are a few things you should not do in that first hour.
If I am feeling under the pump, I have been known to use this time to do some meal prep for that night, bake a banana bread for the boys or even some ironing. Now whilst this might sound ok on the surface I can tell you that doing “jobs” during this time is a bad idea and bad habit to get into. None of this contributes to your wellbeing.
Also, don’t check your overnight emails, voicemails or messages. Try and not make these the first thing you fill your mind with in the morning. You will find that if you can make your work day wait until you have fuelled yourself for the day, you will find that your ability to execute against those emails and messages will be so much more effective.
And honesty, unless your job deals in life or death situations, your work can wait for an hour.
And whilst we are at it stay away from all of your socials. Snapchat, Facebook or Instagram. Stay away from your news feeds. Don’t make any of these things the first thing to fill your mind each day.
Now what I have found over the last 12 months, is that if I spend that first hour of the day investing in meand my wellness, and doing those things that fuel my body, mind and spirit, my effectiveness and productivity across ever dimension of my life improves dramatically.
I am more calm, less anxious and more in control of my situation. I perform better at my job and I am more effective and impactful in business.
My day is simply better.
I also found that when I spend that first hour focussing on my job or housework, my effectiveness over that day was greatly diminished; as was my ability to operate at a high performing level for the entire day. By the mid-afternoon I found myself becoming more agitated, frustrated and less tolerant which made me less effective and more inwardly focussed.
It also meant that I ended up finishing my day feeling pretty average about things.
So, no matter what “stuff” needs to get done for the day, spend that first hour doing the things that fuel you and make you better. And if you do this, it will mean that at the end of the day, you will have achieved more, accomplished more, delivered more and been a better person and leader.
And who doesn’t want to feel that as they place their head on the pillow.
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