Prime the machine in the morning hours so that your entire day is a win. Victory begin in the morning.
“but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
Psalm 1:2
“Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; you are to recite it day and night, so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.”
Joshua 1:7-8
The morning is the most important time of the day. In the morning you set the tone for how the rest of the day will go. You can either waste your morning or you can use it to get the edge. You can hit the snooze button ten times or you can get up and get after the day. When you wake up you can make your bed right away, or you can leave the sheets in a pile until you stagger home that night. You can eat donuts for breakfast or you can cook some eggs. You can read books, train and work on your disciplines in the morning, or you can mindlessly watch television as your ability to think for yourself slowly fades into oblivion.
Most people take the easier path every morning.
They want to eat whatever food is tastiest and do whatever is most convenient and requires the least amount of work. People want the path of pleasure, but that path never rewards you. The path of pleasure never builds your character or discipline. The path of enjoyment does not make you more successful or put more money in your pocket. However, the path of discomfort and pain is the only one that produces the growth of character you want.
Every day you look in the mirror and you are not where you want to be in your life. You do not have the money, character or discipline you want. Worse than that, you are not even progressing towards those goals. You wake up every day, look at yourself and realize that you have made no progress towards those desired end state goals since you started them. You never prime the machine. You have never gotten the edge first thing in the morning and you waste every morning with activities that bring you no profit, neither monetarily nor in character. Today is the day that ends.
This is the day that you stop wasting your time every morning and start investing in your future.
Start writing your book in the morning hours before anyone is awake. Start training the body in the morning. Start eating better, if only for breakfast. Over time your morning victories will compound and spread to midday and then to the afternoon. Discipline produces more discipline. Effective mornings produce effective afternoons. Do not waste your morning hours. Prime the machine for a day of victory and growth.
Mantra
Crush the morning, crush the day. Prime the Machine.
Application
You must stop wasting yours mornings.They may be the only blocks of time you have in your day to truly make progress on yourself and your goals. If you can have a productive morning, you can have a productive day. Even if you do not have a productive day, you still have the satisfaction that results from having a productive morning.
Take all the disciplines you want to start and compress them into the morning.
Do not put them off until the afternoon or you will talk yourself out of being disciplined. Put your reading, writing and thinking work at the beginning of the day and do it instantly upon waking. Do this consistently for several days and you will establish it as a habit. Once it is a habit, you gain momentum and maintaining the discipline becomes easier. The only time you will have to make massive effort is on the days you do not feel like priming the machine and doing your work. On these days you must work even harder. You must obliterate your disciplines and teach your mind that you do not stop working for anything. Teach the mind that it has no say over whether or not you will be disciplined.
If you can be disciplined on the days that you do not feel like being disciplined, then you will make true progress on your character.
We only improve when we do what is right when it is uncomfortable and inconvenient to do so. Stop wasting your mornings and start making them the most productive time of your day.
Arm your mind with strength.
Bring your thoughts into submission to you.
Gather all strength to your mind.
Conduct yourselves like men.
