Have you ever heard that saying that says “It doesn’t matter how you begin, what matters is how you finish”? I’ve heard this several times before but the other day, I heard a quote from Doctor King that says “He who starts the race late would always have to either run faster or forever stay behind.” Quotes are funny sometimes as the message you get from them sometimes depends on where you’re at with your Life. It seems that the right message comes at the right time. The quote from Doctor King is probably the quote that resonates with me more because I like being prepared. I like knowing or having a plan of some sort for any task or for any day. I just like that feeling that at least I’m somewhat “prepared” mentally, that even though I can’t guarantee the results for my day what I can guarantee is my Mental & Emotional toughness before the blows of the day hits me.

Then later on that same day, I stumbled upon this quote from Abraham Lincoln that says “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” That put a smile on my face. I don’t think anyone wants the crumbs of those who hustle right? We all want the main piece of the pie (and not just the left overs).

How we begin matters. How we start our day matters.

Scientifically our brains are more receptive in the morning than at any other time of the day. It’s able to absorb more and digest more during the first 30 minutes of the day. It was Les Brown that said that our brains operate at 10.5 wave cycle per second in the first 30 minutes of our day. I don’t know about you but I’ve noticed that about my brain. As a kid, I would always wake up early to study for an exam as I felt that I could memorize things faster. And when school was done, I used to take a nap first before I attacked my homework in the evening because I just felt “fresher” and much more receptive to what I needed to learn. These days this habit has stuck with me. I usually get up early to read a book for half an hour or so. The books that I read are often about things that I want to improve or change in my life. It could be a self help book, the Scriptures, or books on the lives of great historical leaders. I found that reading them early in the morning when my brain is fresh, it allows me to “practice” what I’ve read through out the day as the thought or the learning sticks with me longer than if I read the same book in the afternoon.

I follow this with meditation and prayer. I lay out my yoga mat in my living room, close my eyes while I stretch my body and ponder on what I have just read. This is the most precious part of my day, the time alone with my thoughts and God. It allows me to channel in the spirit that I want to carry for the rest of my day. I noticed that if I start my day right by meditating and praying (as sometimes I don’t wake up as early), there is something “peaceful” about my day. Its much more calm. Much more relaxed despite of what I have to do or tackle on at work. And I drive slower 🙂 I’m not in a rush when I’m able to check in with God in the morning.

I usually end my stretching with sit ups. As many as I can as I do have a belly that I’m trying to “fix”. Which then leads me to my morning workout for about 20 to 30 minutes. If I had it my way, I’d start my day everyday like this for the rest of my life. There is nothing better for me than being able to sit there alone and have time to talk to God ask for his guidance and his blessing before I tackle on my day. And I’ve noticed a drastic difference between my peace of mind when I’m able to have mornings like the above versus mornings where I ran late and wasn’t able to do any prayer or workouts.

Peace of Mind is precious. It’s critical. It has to be prioritized and injected with the right stuff as it feeds the spirit of our day.

How we begin matters.

How many of us look at the news the moment we wake up? How many of us turn on the “gossip” radio the moment we wake up? How many of us grab our Iphones the moment we wake up just to check facebook and instagram? This affects the spirit of our day. Chaos in, Chaos out. It’s similar to that principle in Accounting called FIFO – First In, First Out. If we put Chaos In First, then I think its almost guaranteed that the First Thing that’s gonna come out of us is Chaos as well. We easily get pissed off. Traffic drastically annoys us. Our kids not following our command while we’re running late just pisses the living you know what out of us. We drive crazy and we zig-zag through our day trying to get to the next thing. As if all the things that needed to be accomplished were moving targets that we had to keep up with.

I know, I’ve done this before and from time to time I still end up like the above. I don’t like it and I know I never will. I’d rather have that calm, peaceful, slow but effective day. When I’m at peace, I never feel rushed. Things happen when they happen but I never get annoyed or disturbed as much as I do when I don’t have my peace. I’ve learned to appreciate the value of peace of mind and the direct relationship it has with my mornings. With how I begin my days.

Many of my friends tell me that I’m only able to do this because I don’t have kids. May be they’re right but as far as I can tell, how I start my day matters so much for me that I believe I would adjust the moment the day comes that I am blessed with a child. I used to get up at 7 to go to work but when I discovered the power of my mornings, I started waking up at 5, sometimes even 4:30. My grandma always told me “If there’s a will, there’s a way”. I’d rather have my mental peace than any other thing in this world. There just isn’t anything of this world that would be worth to exchange my peace of mind. And I genuinely believe that every human being would say the same if they were able to get a taste of what a day would feel like when its not in chaos.

How we begin matters. How we prioritize our mornings matters. Start right, end right. Be in control of your day by being in control of the Spirit that you allow to come in when you wake up. Start simple if you need to. Start by simply sitting still and concentrating your mind on just “receiving” God’s love. Don’t ask for anything, just sit still for 5 minutes with your eyes closed, back straight, and simply reflect on God’s love pouring down on you. Just streaming through your window and your door, a beam of light coming down just blessing on you. See how that feels. Breath in and breath out deeply during this five minute process. Listen to the sound of your breath and don’t let any other distractions distract you. Just you and your breath with God. I know it sounds stupendous, but trust me, this works. Silence works.

And it works even better when Silence is done with God.