Day 8-10 of 40: Waking up by 5am

Yes, I am still at it with my 40-day plan for installing the habit of waking up at 5am. I had some issues with my WordPress blog site and was unable to post anything for the past few days while I worked on getting it fixed. I appear to be back up and running now so I wanted to publish a quick update post.

The past three days have been good as far as waking up early and striving to get a lot accomplished. I'm still working on my productivity during the day and feel like there are too many distractions to take me away from what I really want to be focusing in on.

However, managing my own expectations of what I can and should accomplish in one day is an important part of it. I am making progress and definitely getting more done than I was when not waking up early…so that's a great thing.

A friend of mine recently sent me a copy of 'Promptings' by Kody Bateman, founder of Send Out Cards. It is a good read so far. I'm considering the possibility of integrating the card sending concept into my Vacation Rental business as well as my Healthy Chocolate business. It may be a good fit as we already do a lot of personalized handwritten thank you cards now.

At any rate, in the book Kody talks about creating empowering affirmations for ourselves, using "I am…" statements in the present-tense. For example: "I am financially independent" or "I am earning $5,000/month from my business". The idea is to take what it is that you feel you want to be, do or have and create a positive statement that you would use if you really did have it now.

Most of us have heard about affirmations and hopefully tried them as well. I've read about them for years and have used them at various points of my life, but I don't know that I have ever done so consistently. I felt inspired to create about 15-20 personal "I am…" affirmations for myself this morning after reading the first two chapters of Kody's book.

Since I already have a killer morning routine going it will be very easy to incorporate an extra 1-3 minutes devoted to reciting my "I am…" affirmations aloud. I am already reading my Definite Major Purpose statement and the Self Confidence Formula statement aloud so this will be a perfect fit.

The idea, or even the science, behind it is that what we tell ourselves, the words we speak, are what influence our unconscious (subconscious) mind. Our unconscious mind is a powerful influencer of our thoughts, habits and daily actions. If we can shift it in a more positive and powerful direction then we will naturally see a similar shift in the results of our life!

I am excited to do this and see how it goes. I am committed to long-term results so I will do it for at least a year, refining my statements as I surpass and achieve them. I expect that after a year I will be able to look back and realize the positive benefits derived from affirmation and I will continue the process, refining as I go.