As both a way of encouraging myself to write every day and a method of categorising the chaotic and somewhat bizarre content inside my head into something a little bit more digestible for my readers, I’m exploring the idea of weekly themes for my blog.
I’ve taken you on a tour of The Dot Philosophies, an art installation I’ve displayed in my mind since the age of seven.
I’ve unveiled Mindless Mag’s latest phase of evolution – our Social Media Takeover, a micro-internship program in partnership with students from Liverpool John Moore’s University and I’ve run through what I believe a winning entrepreneurial mindset looks like.
Then last week, I shared some of my most intimate moments through the medium of music.
This week is all about the one thing that all great leaders have in common. It’s the one thing that is guaranteed to set you up for success – something that can make or break your day. It’s what separates the winners and the losers.
It’s that all successful people have a morning routine.
I’ve done enough research and introspection over the last fifteen months to know that having a morning routine delivers results, no matter what it is you’re striving for.
So this week I’ll be sharing with you all of the things that make up mine; what they are and why they’re so important – and also what happens when I’m a little bit human and let them slip.
First up is my Morning Pages.
You’ve heard of Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages right? The concept is talked about in her book The Artist’s Way.
It’s described as a method of self-help for artists riddled with doubt over the quality of their work; those whose fears and inner critics are strangling their creativity and blocking their path to success.
“Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages– they are not high art. They are not even “writing.”
They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritise and synchronise the day at hand. Do not over-think.
Just put three pages of anything on the page…and then do three more pages tomorrow.”
But the thing is, Morning Pages are not just for struggling artists.
Every single one of us suffers from the crippling weight of our own doubts and lack of self worth – some more than others – but absolutely nobody is exempt from the dysfunction of the human mind.
For me, my Morning Pages, or as I like to call it my Brain Drain, comes in many forms. It’s the first thing I want to do when I open my eyes and my thoughts are still cruising the dreamy Alpha wave frequencies of a post-sleep state.
It could be scribbling out the ticking cogs of my brain in the form of this blog, letting my thoughts dribble out onto the page in an inky free flow or giving myself something specific to write about – like three minutes of gratitude.
And I know through experience that, whatever form it takes, it’s one of most cathartic things you can do.
Morning Pages are magic.
Your thoughts turn into words and you don’t have time to analyse or scrutinise them. There’s no shades of grey or rose tinted filters.
They’re just there, in black and white, staring back at you from between the lines of a crisp white page and you can’t ignore them.
You have no choice but to face your penned out words of truth and it creates space inside your head, coating your thoughts in dopamine and sending serotonin tingling through your veins.
It’s a tactic that so many of the world’s greatest leaders have attributed to rocket launching them forward to success.
Everybody from Marcus Aurelius to Ben Franklin, and Mark Twain to Winston Churchill – and in more recent times, Tim Ferriss.
So maybe give it a try. Just you, your thoughts, a pen and three pages. For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these “it might have been”.