Power of Early Morning Routines

Well, here I am beginning of another week. It's Monday morning. It's actually 4:27 AM. This is a typical morning for me. I'm sitting in the parking lot of the gym that I come to, and it's doesn't open till 5.

Not a soul in the parking lot sitting here by myself, not one other car. On my drive in, I think, it's about a 20:20 minute drive to the gym. I don't know. Maybe saw 1 or 2 other cars. And maybe one of these days, I'll figure out why I'm doing this.

I keep asking myself that question. Why are you doing this? But it's the one thing I've I've somehow committed myself to. I look forward to it. I'm excited to get up in the morning and and exercise even though it's very painful and it hurts.

I think it's a positive thing to do that. I think it it helps in my life. Anyway, And usually as I'm driving in, I'm I'm listening to books on tape, sometimes I'll listen to scripture in the morning, I was trying to, gain a deeper understanding, and I'm I was thinking of the concept, and perhaps you've heard this before, the story of Jim Carey. Right? And the concept of faith and creating things to happen.

Why are we here? What is it? What is your unique mission in life? What is my mission in life? Why are we doing what we're doing?

What's the point? In a and all these inspiring stories the one of Jim Carrey where he wanted to become a professional actor. He wanted to be successful and For a number of years, he would drive up apparently and overlook Los Angeles, and and he would constantly be saying to himself that he's gonna be successful. And one Knight in particular, as the story goes, he wrote himself a check for $10,000,000, and he put a date on it. If I recall correctly, it was, you know, somewhere in 1985.

And in the check, he said for acting services rendered. And then he gave himself 5 years to accomplish that. And then Thanksgiving 1985, he received a check for $10,000,000 for his role in the movie Dumb and Dumber. When I hear stories like that, and I constantly am listening to other authors that are, have been extremely successful and they tell their stories, I really get frustrated and irritated, and I'm wondering why. I don't know if you're like me, but I I hear stories like that and I go, yeah.

That's like 1 in a 1000000 chance. How many other people have said and done the same thing and yet have not achieved that? Like, right now, I'm watching, the Olympic swimming trials, and the only ones all there's there's, I don't know, hundreds of athletes, elite athletes that have gotten to the point to even attempt to reach their dream of becoming an Olympian. And so I'm watching the races and then and then and and the ones who win, the first and second place, the first place in in a race, they are automatically on the team. And the second place, they most likely will get on the team as they have parameters in which they work in an order.

I think they can only take 26 males, 26 females to go to the Olympics. But what about what about the individual who has done exactly the scene the same thing like a Jim Carrey. They've they've written their dreams of being an Olympian. They've they've visualized. They've practiced.

The effort is the same as anyone else's effort, and they finish 3rd. A hundredth of a second behind the other person. There's tons of stories like that. What about those individuals? What what do what do we do with that?

And then in this concept of setting your goals, believing, exercising faith, we cannot ignore the reality that that is reality. That's a fact. And yet the media seems to only focus on the one who does it. And then we all compare ourselves to that. And and so that that leaves the only the only option of that is to leave one feeling discouraged, depressed that they're not not reaching their goals or had didn't reach their goals because there is a period of time when it's, like, your time's done.

It's the same thing as I mentioned in some of these podcasts before, like with the the Navy Seals or United States Special Forces, and you you hear the ones who make it through hell week and and that intense training. And one of the things that I've noticed over and over again, the only ones who didn't make it are the ones who quit. And and, like, it's, like, it's a terrible thing that they quit, that they're not one of us. And it's like, I'm just not so sure that's a super positive thing, and I'm not so sure that it's right. Because I think, and I'm thinking of Phil Knight's book, Shoe Dog, one of my favorite all time books.

I I think he's a great writer. I just I just love that book on how he helped develop or he developed Nike, like, the the, one of the most powerful brand companies in the world. And he just he just talks about the many failures along the way. And one of the sayings that him and his his close colleagues who developed the company said, well, back to the drawing board, back to the drawing board, back to the drawing board. I think that's healthy.

I think that's positive, and I think we should stop judging ourselves and comparing ourselves only with the elite champion as if that's the be all and end all because none of that stuff lasts. I think the important thing so if you're harsh on yourself and you judge yourself that you think you just have to be number 1 all the time, that's not mentally healthy. I think we need to embrace the journey to set high standards, but to be involved in that in in achieving things little step by step so that your confidence increases. I've worked with a lot of of young, the upper 20, 30 year old type individuals who seem to be so discouraged and depressed and anxious in life is there they seem overwhelmed with functioning in the world. How can they do it?

What do they even wanna believe in? Not believing they have the capacity to do it. Maybe because they're they're just judging themselves in an unrealistic way. I think I think as far as, a mental health hack, the the thing that is important for us to do is to set high standards for ourself. Again, a love statement by Michelangelo, the great sculptor, the greater danger lies in not setting our sights too high and falling short, but in setting our sights too low and achieving our mark.

So, yeah. It's good to dream big, But but we shouldn't allow ourselves to become deflated and too discouraged when things don't work out exactly the way we want them to as long as we are making incremental progress along the way. And I love the story also of an extreme an extreme athlete who has asked a question. You know, extreme athletes are the ones that really push themselves and have trained their bodies to do just amazing, physical, athletic, type things. Whether it's running a 100 miles, you know, whatever it is.

And an individual was asked this extreme athlete, well, what do you do when you're just broken, and you just can't go anymore? You know you're broken. You're broken physically, mentally, spiritually. It's like you're you're you you just can't take another step, and you have another 20 miles to run and the response of this extreme athlete I think is instructive for all of us and it and it can relate to anyone who's depressed, discouraged, who just doesn't think they have the ability to keep going or that their dreams aren't being fulfilled, change that mindset. And this is what he said.

He says, when I get in that state and I know I'm just busted, he he puts the question into his mind, what if I actually can do it? What if? What if I achieve it? What if I actually can make it to the end? What if?

And he says that question or the way he answers that question shifts everything. And it reminds me of of, another really cool book. It's called unbreakable by Tom Shea Who was, you know military dude Navy SEALs special forces dude, and he his whole book has to do with this concept of internal dialogue, the things that we say to ourselves. That how and it fits into Bruce Lipton's book, Biology of Belief, a cellular biologist that no matter what we say to ourselves, our bodies respond instantly. And so be mindful and aware of your internal dialogue.

Talk yourself up. Gotta save yourself. You gotta believe in yourself. Nobody's coming to do it. Gotta just keep working on what it is you're here to do.

What is your unique ability? How are you to impact the world? There's a reason why we live. It's a great mystery. And many many are of us are just continuing to try to understand, but, you know, as I was thinking of this this morning, you know, why why do we do any of the things we do?

And I think it's to make a difference, to make a difference in another person's life, to lighten the load of just one other person, to bring a teeny bit of relief from the challenge and and the quest that we're all facing in life and to look out and see what it is, what do you have to offer the world. But, again, talk yourself up. You know, and I'm thinking of, you know, when we're kind of taught don't be arrogant, don't be prideful, I'm thinking just thinking, the thought just came to my mind, you know, in Genesis in the bible, when god created the earth. There's a number of scriptures, I think, that say something like, and God saw these things, and they were good, and they were very good. That means God, the creator the great creator of all, looked at what he was doing and says, ah, this is good.

He was proud of what he created. And so it's it's I think it's a positive healthy thing to have self efficacy, to be confident in oneself, to create things, to achieve things, but not not to become arrogant because the process never ends, but to be full of love, to give, to encourage, but to constantly try to just be moving in life. Get out and do just a little something. If you're struggling with depression, overwhelmed by anxiety, I'm thinking of a young lady. I just she's amazing.

Went to church yesterday, and she taught a lesson. She's 22 years old and got up and taught a Sunday school lesson. That was our 3rd time teaching a lesson. And, anyway, she's amazing. She's a professional ballerina, and so she knows what it's like to get out and and and and she's truly amazing.

Not sure what her future holds there, but she gets in in front of the public and performs and and with the group that she's with. But as she's talking to me, she said, you know, yeah, I I can do that really well, but getting up in front of people and talking, that's extremely challenging for me. I don't do that very well. Well, that was her self perception. And as she got up yesterday, I could tell she was extremely nervous.

But when I approached her before the class, it says, hey. Are you are you are you ready? Ready to get going? And she says, I'm so I'm so nervous, but yet I'm so excited. And I go, ah, well, we'll be here with you.

You're just leading the discussion. But just and she did a phenomenal job. She had things organized thought. She led the discussion as we were, you know, talking about, you know, scripture. And, anyway, it was just she I admire her greatly because she's making an effort to make a difference.

And she did. She made a difference in my life. Just seeing her was inspirational, knowing how difficult it was for her, and yet she was willing to put herself out there. And it and it reminds me of one of my favorite quotes, Helen Keller. She said, security does not exist in nature nor did the bulk of, of children of men ever experience.

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. So for what she did yesterday, she put herself out there. She got up. She tried to speak.

It's so challenging, so hard. I admire admire that. And sometimes things don't go go so great. We've had a couple in in the in the church I attend. We have a couple of young people because I I work with a congregation of young single adults.

And we've had a couple get up and actually pass out speaking. One light tipped over, you know, she just fell down. Boom. Fell over and and we all had to get around her. Are you okay?

Are you okay? And then another one recently almost did the same thing. He started wobbling. He said, woah. No.

No. No. No. Come sit down sit down. It's okay.

And just and just the fact that they're willing to get up and try, and it's okay. And, you know, and then we joke say, hey, if you guys and then you pass out, we'll pick you up. We'll be there. And we're here for you. We're we're all in this together.

We're all trying. Just give of yourself. Try. Anyway, there there's a big difference in those who are willing to reach out and try, and those whom whom I see that are are stuck and frozen, and they're not willing not willing to risk anything. So I would encourage you, point of this podcast, take a look inside yourself.

If there's some things that you're uncomfortable with, afraid of, try it. Try it. Move beyond your barriers. Keep making progress. Small and simple steps, whatever it might be.

Do something that's that's scary for you. Say hi to someone if that's if that's what your issue is. Anyway, hope hope something in this podcast might might be helpful for you.