As my friend Brian Gault says, "Own your morning, own your day." I say as well, own your day, own your week. You get the idea.
The morning routine is my anchor. I don't always follow it to the letter. But when I do, I live with less stress and higher effectivity.
"The Miracle Morning" by Hal Elrod, is the basis for what I practice. And it is a practice. He introduced the acronym S.A.V.E.R.S.
S - Silence or Meditation
A - Affirmations - Stuart Smalley? I think not.
V - Visualization - All the greats do this.
E - Exercise - Early morning aerobics launches your brain.
R - Reading - One must feed the now activated brain
S - Scribe - Time to write. Time to reflect. Time to plan
Last week, I was hemming and hawing. I was sore from my recent surgery. I was foggy-brained from Oxycodone withdrawal (For the pain, people! Total knee replacement, especially for me, is a long road to wellness). Nope, didn't want to do it. Yet I forced my self to do it. And it launched me into the best day of my week. My exercise portion, documented with the video below, was capped with a close encounter behind my house that makes me smile every time I watch. Check it out! It's my first nature vid.
https://bit.ly/Magnolia_Morning
Let's focus on the first step; Silence. Starting your day with quiet seems contrarian. I mean, you just had, hopefully, 7-8 hours of restful, R.E.M. rooted rest. Restful rest? Ok, over-alliteration. But I digress. First thing, meditation is a powerful use of your opening moments. In fact, short meditations punctuate my day. The ultimate transition is from sleep to waking. When I remember, I transition everything with a meditation. I RELEASE TENSION, and then I SET INTENTION. Setting an intention for the activity you are transitioning to; wow! This is one of the3 most useful habits I've built in the last three years.
So what is Django's Meditation? Django Reinhardt is a hero of mine. He invented a whole genre of music called "Gypsy Jazz." Django lost the ability to use all the fingers on his left hand due to a fire at an early age. He was not limited by this limitation. He leveraged it.
Early on, I found it hard to meditate. I have an artificial heart valve, and that sucker is LOUD. Imagine sitting in repose, and you hear, "THUD< THUD, THUD." Yes, it's that bad. After a while, 24 years to be exact, I've learning to ignore the thud. But then I started to FOCUS on it. And do you know what I found? I discovered how mediation can lower your heart rate. I literally listen to my heart slow down in real-time as I go deeper. I leveraged my limitation. I listen to my heart, literally, and figuratively.
Here is a short movie clip about Django.
https://bit.ly/Three_Fingered_Lightning
And here is the music video of a modern Parisian Gypsy Jazz band, Caravan Palace.
https://bit.ly/Caravan_Dramaphone
Thank you, Django!
Next week's Influencer Interview series will feature Gary Magnant. Gary is a member of my C.E.O. roundtable group called The Tech Hub Executive Leadership Roundtable. He is a highly successful biotech entrepreneur, and an all-around brilliant and giving fellow. We will be talking about building a network. Be sure to check it out!
