Ten Minutes of GOLD!

What happens on Monday morning when you wake up early? A lot of people might say, “I have no idea. It’s never happened.” This is a very interesting position. Instead of dreading the work week and all there is to do, which is a very close minded approach, maybe flip the script a bit.

Set your alarm ten minutes earlier than normal. Getting ready in a rush has got to be the worst thing ever. But, ten minutes in the quiet hours of the morning, to yourself, for yourself  is gold!

You feel like a superhero. The possibilities are limitless. You’ve already won. You’re ahead of the week. You have enough time. You have time to get your coffee at the good place, you have time to get your thoughts together, you have time to take the dog out, you have time to skim the paper, you can meditate, or even stretch.

One thing that we are sure of is once the day and week starts, all bets are off. There will be a billion things to do, and to grab your attention. There seems to never be enough time.

This one simple thing can bring a calming change into your day, which slowly will start to change your outlook. This will slowly change how you feel and how you act. Before you know it, you will feel much more in control of your ship, and the direction it is headed.

When your late, it’s hard to not feel like time is in control of you. Like you’re out of place. All of these thoughts are negative, and go nowhere productive. Inversely when you are early, you feel as if your in control, you are the master of your destiny, you have the wheel. All is positive in this case. Starting off your day positive always beats the other.

I will throw myself under the bus on this one with a quick story. Only a few times since we started this beautiful community have I overslept. Class begins at 6:30am, which, for me, means I get up at five-ish to get my day started. If you know me, you know that I despise being late. It makes me ill. Mental anguish is a good reference to how I feel when I am late. I have gladly been over an hour early for an appointment before just to calm my nerves. Well the last time I was tardy, I was losing my proverbial s**t. I was truly a glass case of emotion. I woke up at 6:22am. I remember it like it was yesterday. There was no way I could be on time. People were going to be waiting! Things don’t happen unless I am there!

I immediately got on my phone to text one of our athletes. When I got there five minutes late, class was warming up outside the gate as if nothing was awry. Unbelievable! Yet, somehow it’s totally believable around here. I was a mental nightmare, an explosion of paint in a white room, all things were off, I was sweating, I was angry with myself, all of this emotion and the day was barely twelve minutes old.

I can tell you I would have rather paid the consequence of staying up all night later that day than being late that morning. Either way, there is a huge lesson here. Give yourself a chance. Everyone knows how it feels to be ill-prepared or late to something. Just put a bit of thought behind how you go about things. We are all much better when we are relaxed and when we are on time.

See you at the Pirate Ship… a little early!

 

Danny Lesslie

@dannylesslie