Start Your Days on a High Tide

"Each morning brings a hidden blessing; a blessing which is unique to that day, and which cannot be kept or re-used. If we do not use this miracle today, it will be lost."—Paulo Coelho

Why do few humans accomplish big things while the vast majority of people struggle to set mere mediocre records? One answer is in how they spend their time, especially the first portion of their days: the early mornings. 

World-class talents do better than most of us because they truly understand the power of early morning. And they don’t spend it haphazardly. They spend the beginning of their days thinking, planning and working on the critical goals they need to accomplish to contribute better to the good of all. 

Unlike us, they delay low value activities till later, every single day. To them, the mantra always is, if a task is relevant to a big goal that they have, then it needs to be done first. And Laura Vanderkam writes about this in her book, ‘What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: A Short Guide to Making Over Your Mornings--and Life.’ She states:

“Before the rest of the world is eating breakfast, the most successful people have already scored daily victories that are advancing them toward the lives they want.”

In other words, they do more meaningful work before 9:00 am than most people do all day. Before noon, they have already made a measurable progress toward the things that are really important.

Just like Luara Vanderkam and other high achievers who use the early morning hours to their advantage, we can make tremendous progress toward success, if we take full charge of our own morning too. The rest of this article is going to help us in doing just that.

Remember:  how we start our day can largely determine how we spend the rest of it. 

Get Organized From the Night Before

If you want to make the most of your next morning, don’t eat your dinner too late the night before and try to sleep as early as possible. This is to ensure that you are well rested and alert to tackle your biggest challenges as soon as you wake up.

And when you wake up, thank your Creator first. Say your prayers or meditation for spiritual grace and blessings. Never skip this part on any day. We live in an unpredictable world, so it takes God’s special mercy to secure safety from dangers in all aspect of our lives. Emergencies can destabilize even the strongest among men.

After prayer and gratitude, condition your body for peak performance by doing some physical exercises like pushups and jump ups and possibly, a little walk. Then take a cup of water to prevent dehydration during the course of your work. 

Now read on to learn a life-changing idea for your life and business.

Focus on the Hardest Thing First 

The president of a steel company consulted an efficiency expert called Ivy Lee on how to do a better job of managing his company. He wanted to learn the optimal way of getting things done for growth and profitability of his business.

The revolutionary idea given by Ivy Lee to this executive was as follows:

He said: “Write down the six most important things you have to do tomorrow.” The executive complied with Lee and wrote down the essential tasks of the next day.

Now Lee continued, “Number those items in their order of importance to you and to the company.” The executive also did as requested.

Then Lee said, “Begin tomorrow with the number one task on your list and stay with it until it is completed. Don’t move to number two unless the first one has been finished. And then do the same for the second task on your list, and so on.”

Lee cautioned the executive not to worry even if the number one task took him the whole day to complete. What mattered was that he took things one at a time in their proper order. He should focus on the hardest task first and ensure it was completed before moving on to the next priority.

“Do this every day and send me a cheque for whatever you think the idea is worth,” Lee concluded.

After just a few weeks, the executive sent Lee a cheque of $25,000 (N9,125,000) with a note stating that the idea was the most profitable business lesson he had ever learned  in his entire life. 

Yes, the idea was that valuable; it became largely responsible for turning a struggling company into one of the largest steel companies in the world at the time—in just 5 years.

Lee simple idea coincides with what Gary Keller writes in his book, ‘The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results.’ He counsels that: “You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects.”

And that means you need to figure out the few critical tasks that must happen to move you toward your big goals and then commit to doing them as early as possible in the day before any interruption can get a chance to derail you from your purpose.

If you can consistently force yourself to do meaningful work in the early part of your days, you will be astonished at the level of progress you can make within a relatively short period of time.

In summary, to put your life on high gear, start your days on high tide by always doing the hardest thing first.