The alarm goes off. You wake up. The cell phone screen shoots you in the eye. Check out your notifications. That’s what “happens” to you first thing ever every morning, right?
Believe me, there are many ways to improve this situation:
- Put your cell phone out of the room (and use a regular alarm clock)
- Wait a few minutes before looking at the screens
- Waking up at the same time every morning
- Get out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off
- Have a healthy and light breakfast (fresh fruit and vegetables)…
And stuff like that. Ever heard of these things? I tell you the truth, I already tried. And they work. They work a lot. I feel more awake, more recharged, more rested, especially the thing of putting the cell phone outside the room is really useful. Now, the problem here is still the same.
The alarm goes off. I wake up. The cell phone screen shoots me in the eye (after I wake up and do all those things). I take a look at the notifications. And as you can see, this is what “happens” to me too. At the end of the day, we are all still there in front of our social media notifications, our results, our news (not me), our site statistics, our investment percentages…
What is the problem with this approach? Is that our brain looks at the cell phone, and our subconscious interprets the oracle. Black mirror of my cravings, light up! Tell me now, how is today going to be? Huh? Will it be very positive? Someone wrote to us, maybe? Did they wish us well, maybe late? What happened on the stock market? Has Bitcoin finally gone down? Huh? Tell me mirror, tell me my destiny. Should I be happy today, or will it be a bad day?
The problem with this approach, as you have already understood, is that in the show of life, notifications and updates have become the real protagonists, and we have become only bystanders, spectators so passive that we don’t even applaud anymore.
My suggestion is this, taking back that role is possible. Yes, I’m telling you that you really can decide if a day is going to be good or not. It’s very simple.
A small action
First thing in the morning, you can look at your notifications. Or not, you do. The important thing is that immediately after you start and conclude at least one single constructive, proactive, assertive action, or one that will in any case direct your day or that of others in some positive direction of your choice.
Here are some examples:
- Meditatefor 10 minutes
- Runfor at least 30 minutes (lately I’ve been doing 45, but if you’ve just started 30 is fine)
- Write an article (today I chose this one)
- Write a positive email to someone you love
- Open your dreamjournal and record your dreams from the night
- Write something in your gratitude journal, or wish journal (or buy one if you don’t have one yet)
- Write an email to your customers thanking them for something
- Greet someone warmly (either around you or online), and wish them a good day
- Take out the rubbish
- Go shopping or buy something good and fresh (perhaps for breakfast)
- Write 1000 words for your novel
- Listen to a transformational audiobook
- Read something you like and that makes you feel good (hey you’re going strong!)
- Write 3 pages of “vent”, throwing down everything that comes to you
- Practice typing (I use and recommend gtypist, dry and complete)
- Do a few minutes of yoga
- Do 10 push-ups
- Stretch (I like neck exercises )
- Open Ankiand immediately do the day’s reviews
- You decide to change your life in some way (no more caffeine, running every day, meditation, etc.) and tell someone about your decision
And so on. Beyond the points that I have left here as inspiration, you can find yourself something active that makes you feel better immediately and that sets your day in a constructive way, don’t limit yourself!
You don’t need to do everything at once, of course, just one of these actions will do just fine, especially to start with. You can also do something as simple as watching an inspiring video, or reciting a small prayer or affirmation (depending on your taste). Make it an intentional, deliberate gesture, don’t take the first video that comes your way, don’t say the first thing you have on the list, make a small conscious choice in order to transform it into a powerful creative gesture.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget but everything we do in life, every little thing, will always accompany us on our journey. And other times, however, we remember it well but want to overdo it, or we feel too helpless in the face of the fury of everything that unfolds (especially in the morning) and so we let our screens act, we let our notifications happen.
Conscious days
But it’s much simpler than that, and there’s no excuse. Especially in the morning , it’s very important to make a small conscious choice, to slightly change the trajectory of our day.
It’s an approach that I really like because this way I can guarantee victory, regardless of what’s going on around me. Even if the screen doesn’t tell me anything interesting, even if things don’t “go” as I would like today, I like doing something positive because it allows me to have control over events. I can choose, whether today I will have a good day or not, it is no longer a passive thing. It’s no longer something I discover by opening the window: “Oh, today life is going to suck. Too bad, I’ll try again tomorrow… Toh, today I’m fine instead.”
There are no good days or bad days. Your day can be as bad as you like, and yet you will always, always, always have the choice and the power to do something. Not so much doing something “in reaction” to events, to correct them or defend yourself. I’m telling you that you can do something to create these events, to make them happen. Things don’t happen to you, you make them happen.
