Start Your Morning Right and Change Your World

Start Your Morning Right and Change Your World

“Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.”~ Meister Eckhart

 

When I was a little kid, you could buy “magic slates,” sometimes called paper savers, in grocery stores and dime stores everywhere. They consisted of a clear plastic film layered on top of a sturdy backboard with a special coating. I could write or draw on the film to my heart’s content with the handy stylus and if I wasn’t pleased with my creation I simply lifted the film and poof! Immediately, I had a clean page and could start over. (By the way, it’s interesting to note the vintage ones are quite collectible today!)

 

Then in the early 1960’s,  Etch-a-Sketch was introduced and the process of writing or drawing got a little more sophisticated. It used two knobs to create an image or words on the screen by scraping the silvery coating off from the inside. Darn it, your masterpiece didn’t turn out right? No worries, just turn it face down and shake it. Everything disappeared, the screen went blank again and you could begin anew. The iconic gadget has turned up in movies like Toy Story and even weaseled its way into political memes hinting at flip-flopping candidates.

 

Later, personal computers found their way into our homes with “magic” delete keys and control-alt-delete capabilities! Awesome!! No white-out or special correction ribbons needed. We could quickly erase everything we didn’t like with the swipe of a mouse or click of the keyboard. Power! And now, the same ability to comment and edit our comments is in almost everyone’s pocket.

 

What’s going on here? Why do we like undos so much?

 

It’s very simple really. We love reboots, do-overs, rewinds, and take-backs because we make mistakes and missteps every day. We’re human, that’s why. And, that’s exactly why life is divvied up into 24 hour segments and we’re afforded the ultimate “refresh” key every day at sunrise. It’s precisely because it is freely given to us shiny clean and new every morning that it’s critical for us to use this precious, tender moment of every new day. Use it to get up, get going, get on track or back on track because we can! Life moves in just one direction, forward. That’s it. So if I messed up yesterday I can try again today.

 

Think of it like stringing beads. Every right choice, every step in the right direction, every wise decision, can make a long strand of good days, good weeks and over time, a great life. It’s cumulative. Progress always trumps perfection. Matthew Kelly simply calls it “doing the next right thing” and “creating holy moments” on a path to a positive legacy.

 

Why we should learn to love morning

 

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.” ~Plato

 

One of the most common threads in all advice about becoming our best and getting the most out of life is getting up early. Mary Poppins wisely taught us “well begun is half done.” Research has proved beyond any reasonable doubt that we set the tone for the whole day in the first minutes of being awake each morning. Mel Robbins, International best-selling author of The 5 Second Rule suggests a simple 5-4-3-2-1 go! countdown process.  Jump start your day! Launch yourself out of bed without stopping to think about it and just get up.

 

I challenge you to take just 1 minute and forty-two seconds to watch a snippet from Navy Seal Admiral William H. McRaven’s 2014 commencement address at the University of Texas at Austin. The title? To Change the World, Start by Making Your Bed.  Here you go. You’re welcome.

 

 

Enjoy everything about your Fourth of July celebration and I’ll see you next week! I’m delighted by your comments and feedback. You are the ping to my pong and the Marco to my Polo. :) Thanks so much for reading! Remember to subscribe so you don’t miss a post and share with your friends!