by Sunil Bali, 01-03-15

The writer Somerset Maugham was once asked if he wrote on a schedule or only when inspired. "I write only when inspiration strikes," he replied. "Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp."

Research by the Human Performance Institute reveals that life’s most successful achievers have mastered the art of getting into a peak state within the first 30 minutes of the day. Psychologist Dr. Jim Loehr says that, "Motivation is a myth. If you increase your productivity and get better at what you do, then the motivation will follow."

Whether you’re playing golf, computer games or cards, you’re more likely to want to play if you’re good at it, than if your pretty rubbish at it. When we do better at something we get excited, do more and improve. Then we get more excited by our improvement, and so the cycle continues.

Usain Bolt says that he doesn’t look forward to the first training session of the day because he knows it’s going to hurt. But once he achieves his training times, he gets excited and can’t wait to run again.

Dr. Loehr says, "The first hour of the day is critical, because it pretty much writes your script for the rest of the day." He recommends starting the day with:

  1. A few minutes of silence and being still to calm the mind, become centred and focus on the key activities of the day.
  2. A short period of exercise. Just five minutes of high intensity interval training on an exercise bike is enough to get the endorphins racing and improve your insulin sensitivity by over 35% in only two weeks.
  3. A healthy breakfast with plenty of water for rehydration, because the night’s sleep will have dehydrated you.
  4. Reading something interesting, inspiring or enlightening.

The research also shows that it doesn’t matter what time you wake up, whether its 6 or 10, just as long as you feed your body and soul in the first hour and CARPE AM.

 

Humour

The first testicular guard, the “Cup,” was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

A blonde woman was driving too fast in her bright red convertible, when she was pulled over by a policewoman who was also blonde.

The cop asked to see the blonde driver’s license.

Searching frantically in her handbag and getting ever more agitated, the blonde driver asked the policewoman, "What does it look like?"

“It’s square and has your picture on it,” replied the policewoman. The blonde driver finally found a square mirror in her purse and gleefully gave it to the policewoman, proudly announcing, “Here it is!"

The blonde policewoman handed back the mirror saying, “OK, you can go. I didn’t realize you were a cop."

 

Have a great week.

Sunil

www.sunilbali.com