Open Heart Habits
We talked a couple weeks ago about Bill Walsh’s insight that the best leaders overflow with a positive inner voice—and they even help others improve their inner voice. Leadership is an inside job. I’m becoming more and more aware of the inner roommate that sits with me all day influencing my thoughts, which in turn influences my actions.
Bill Walsh was a learner and always found ways to get a little bit better. He was always improving his habits. Walsh knew that if you have the same habits, you get the same results.
We are the aggregation of our habits. Have you been improving any of your habits recently? The greats are constantly improving habits. I shared a little over a year ago about how Rockefeller’s advice to his son was to work on the habit of believing in yourself.
Over the past couple years, I’ve been working on improving my morning routine (habits). I used to hit the snooze button constantly. Overtime, I’ve come to the belief that when you win the morning, you win the day!
There’s nothing sexy about it. There’s nothing earth shattering. I’m finding the habits I’m forming in the morning are opening my heart and eyes to the richness of life as I shared last week.
Hal Elrod’s Miracle Morning framework has been most helpful for me over the past year:
Silence: Meditation to be aware of the “monkey mind” or the “inner roommate” that influences our thoughts.
I use the Waking Up app to quiet my thoughts and open my heart
Affirmation: Prime the mind with a positive intentional self-talk about who you really are and where you want to go.
Visualization: I write out where I want to go as if I’ve already achieved it —Belief precedes ability.
Exercise: Great days mean hitting the gym and lifting somewhat heavy weights, good days mean the Peloton, and tough days nothing at all. Skipping the workout is unbelievably noticeable to my mood.
Read: Priming curiosity and focus by reading something written by someone incredibly smart, thoughtful or soulful.
Scribe: Journaling gratitude keeps me grounded and reminds me of my blessings. Gratitude is a great antidote for suffering.
I’m finding that leadership really starts with thoughts, beliefs, and habits. I don’t nail it every day but having a morning routine that is grounding and primes the heart, mind, body, & soul is worth getting up for.
There’s nothing glamorous about consistent practice, but that’s where I’m finding transformation lives—in the gritty, mundane, everyday work. Your current trajectory is more important than your current results.
Let’s win the morning.
Onward,
Matt