In this article I’m looking at another of my quote images, and it’s time for some early bird thinking…
Your thoughts first thing in the morning can affect your whole day. So make them good ones.
I took that picture looking at Ailsa Craig in Scotland, where all the curling stones come from. The sport of curling is a passion of mine, so it was a trip I made deliberately, and after driving up overnight, this picture was just after 4am, and I knew I’d be going out over to the rock itself later.
It was a gorgeous sunrise, and that time of day, with the freshness in the air, gives you a real sense of the day ahead, the possibilities, and it’s a great time to get things in perspective.
That’s why I thought the words would go well over the top.
Of course you don’t *have* to get up before sunrise for it to work, and I know the grammar is a bit dodgy punctuation wise with the quote, but I did that on purpose. Using a full stop instead of a comma tends to create a bigger pause between the two points of the quote when you take it in, and that’s what I wanted.
It may seem obvious that our thoughts in the morning can affect the day, but it may also seem a corny way of looking at things, so I think it’s worth taking a closer look at *why* it has such an affect, and *how*we can be in control of the process…
If we think of another phrase – I got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning – then we can get an idea of how it works. It’s a visual concept we can relate to, and when we think of it, we think of being in a bad mood all day, as a result of how we started the day. Anything and everyone that crosses our path had better watch out, because when the bad things come, it will end in tears.
What’s happening there is that we are simply setting our brain up to think that way, without realising it. We are focusing on the neural connections that view things in a negative way, without realising it. We are leaning towards an internal brain model of the world where things go wrong, that people are out to ‘get’ us, without realising we are doing it.
The fact that we aren’t realising we’re doing it is a key point, but you might have gathered I think that!
If we tell our brain that our internal model for the day is a negative one, we will interpret the feedback going into our brain from the world around us in a way that verifies the model. It’s self perpetuating – we think the negative, so view the input as negative, which make us think the negative view was right, only reinforcing it for the rest of the day.
Not only do we not realise we are doing this, even when we get a rough idea of it, maybe using the ‘wrong side of the bed’ phrase, we have a good laugh about it, and think it’s comical!
It isn’t comical.
It’s damaging. It’s damaging for the day, and it can be damaging for the future, depending on what actions we take in that frame of mind.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Since it can be such a negative and damaging influence on us, and it’s something we mostly don’t know we’re doing, isn’t it better to use techniques, to apply a *different* model, and be proactive about it..?
Well, once we accept the fact that we are doing it to *ourselves* and realise the damage it can cause, that in itself is the first step to changing it.
Then we can look at how to have different thoughts in the morning, and this comes down to focus.
When we focus on our goals, our purpose, our direction, we can start to plan our days to move forwards in these areas.
This has the double advantage, of taking action which *will* move us forward, plus setting our mind to think of the positives in life. It drive our motivation, which has us setting up the internal model of looking for the positives.
Even if we know full well we have specific challenges ahead of us in the day, because we have set ourselves to applying a positive internal model, guess which way we will interpret the day?
Yep, just as the ‘wrong side of the bed’ model works, this focused choice positive model works exactly the same.
That’s not just wishy washy philosophy, that’s brain science to go with it.
Now, you might say that you don’t have time in the morning, that it’s all too rushed…
I can understand that, but there are solutions to that – get up earlier, (even a few minutes is enough), and set aside that time to be deliberate about setting your mind.
You can use prompt cards to help with this That may sound really old school, but it’s powerfully effective because once you have set these cards up with your goals and positive mindsets written down, you can simply read them and the impact will work.
You can also do this, and in fact I’d recommend this, the night before. Using the cards, and some deliberately set aside time, think about what you have planned for the next day, and how you will approach it.
Then when your brain has spent the sleeping time mulling over what you told yourself right before sleeping, your brain will *already* be set to the positive when you wake up.
If we look at the image again, I knew I would be tired after driving up overnight, with a long day planned ahead, but I wasn’t letting that drag me to a negative mindset. Rather I was excited, looking forward to enjoying the sights I had planned, and looking forward to whatever else might come my way – and it turned out to be a lovely day!
So, look to your own mornings. Do you find yourself approaching the day with random thoughts, or find yourself setting out with negativity? If so, then you’ll find it amazing to use the techniques I’ve mentioned, to be proactive, to make your thoughts good one, and then watch how it affects your whole day, and again when you do it the next day, and the next, you get the idea!
Try it. Seriously, try it – it can change your life, it can *transform* it!
Ok, I’d love to hear what you think – do leave a comment!
‘Til Next Time,
Health & happiness,
Gordon
P.S. You’ll see this technique fair and square in my free 8 step goal achievement formula – watch the free videos to see the other steps
