Creating the perfect “Diamond Hour” Part 5: Create a morning ritual.

The “Diamond Hour” concept says that one hour out of every day belongs to YOU.  Not your job, your kids, your spouse, or anything else. You.   Period.  And the absolute best time to take that hour is the first hour of the day.

If you can’t work that out at first, take the morning to do your first sixty-second ‘breathing break.”  Then…leverage that up to influence and control the first 15 minutes a day.    Consider this your time to control your input, and designed to put the rest of your day in high gear.
Here are the basic things you need to do in this time, ideally:

1) Wake up mind and body.
2) Raise energy and enthusiasm.
3) Imprint your long-term goals on your unconscious.
4) Clarify the steps you must take TODAY to move toward them.

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The idea is to create a 15-minute session that combines mind, body, and emotions, and moves them all in the same direction.  

1)  For instance, Five minutes of  Sun Salutations, joint rotations, or Tai Chi can be combined with incantations (like “every day in every way, I’m getting better and better”) said WITH EMOTION.   Yes, your demons will sneer at you.  But if you are actually moving with power and purpose, and speaking with emotion, you will drown them out.   Cynical about this?  Imagine what would happen if you spent fifteen minutes every day frowning into a mirror criticizing yourself and calling yourself an idiot.  Think that might influence your performance?   By what logic doe the opposite case not make sense as well?

2) Next five minutes:   Continue moving, increasing intensity and focus.   Remember the formula?   GOALS X FAITH X CONSTANT ACTION X GRATITUDE = RESULTS.   What you do now is remember things already in your life that you are grateful for.   Health.  Friends.   Life itself.   Generate the emotions powerfully, as you walk or exercise.  MOVE, damn it!   Don’t just sit there.   Actually move your body as if you are happy to be in it!  Then…once you are filled with a sense of gratitude, TAKE THAT SAME FEELING and flow it out into your day, your week, your year.  Visualize the goals you have, the actions you have to take, and feel AS IF THEY HAVE ALREADY HAPPENED.   Give thanks for your success, visualize your actions, take a bow for the “win.” 

3) Next Five Minutes is Faith.  Prayers, affirmations, sacred songs and such exist in all cultures for a good reason—they imprint faith on the unconscious and conscious mind, and FAITH is what keeps you moving forward when you have lost confidence in your own ability.  

In the Hero’s Journey, Faith is faith in one of three things: faith in self, faith in your companions, and faith in a higher power.   Any one, or preferably all three of these varieties should be in your arsenal.   “Incantation” is the process of chanting a powerful statement, with emotion, WHILE YOU ARE MOVING with authority and energy.   Congruence is the key: your facial expression, body movement, vocal tonalities…everything you can consciously control should be engaged. 

 A popular incantation is: “All I need is within me now!” a statement that you already have everything you need.  All the strength, power, intelligence, passion, love, creativity, courage, resilience, sensuality, potential…whatever you need to learn, grow, sell, create, persuade, evolve, or whatever else you need to fulfill your destiny.

Imagine taking the first fifteen minutes of every day for 30 days to raise and focus your energy and clarify your dreams.  Increase gratitude.   Wake up your body.  Start your day like a tiger.  Anyone want to take a 30-day challenge with me?  Try this for just 30 days?  It takes no money…but it does take a willingness to win, to wake up from your dream and start shaping reality.     I dare you.

Namaste,
Steve
www.diamondhour.com