morning routine of a miscreant
The early bird gets the worm, so they say.
Sounds like banal-platitude to me.
I don't have a 5 step wake up strategy & I don't know how to boost productivity or ‘find flow’ or any of that crap. I don't really know much about anything.
- I don't wake up at the ass-crack of dawn every day because of the military.
- I don't exercise every morning to bio-hack well-ness & productivity.
- I don't read every morning because I wanna be the smartest dude or make a million dollars.
The mornings quite simply seemed like a good time for quiet contemplation in a loud and chaotic city. That's it.
A chance to examine my thoughts in an attempt to improve the struggle against the retardedness of my mind.
Solace for the introspection of beliefs, values & life after war.
Getting the heart rate elevated & getting the blood pumping was a great way to create energy & momentum into the day ahead. It also seemed like a good way to pump blood into my brain.
My morning routine quite simply started out as an attempt at building an effective & efficient system to organize my world mentally & physically to be better prepared for the day.
I know of no more encouraging fact than one's unquestionable ability to elevate thy life by conscious endeavor.
-Henry David Thoreau
the current state of my desk
“Non-time” is what i call it.
The vast stretch of darkness and serenity between 0300 am & 0700 am when the rest of the world sleeps. That pitch blackness belongs to no one. No noise. No distractions. Just quiet.
Quiet is good for thinking.
Thinking is good for problem solving.
No need to check the time- there are no clocks during non-time. The days pressing concerns have yet to press.
Non-time is for tinkering
The recipe is different for everyone. But I do have an acronym- a set of principles if you will, to create the baseline for a stellar morning…
Everybody loves acronyms.
In the Marine Corps they teach us acronyms to remember things like how to safely handle a weapon.
TREAT-NEVER-KEEP-KEEP
- Treat every weapon as if it were loaded
- Never point your weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot
- Keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you are ready to fire
- Keep your weapon on safe until you intend to fire
None of this matters, but I'm gonna use one similar for morning routines:
TREAT-NEVER-NEVER-KEEP
- Treat yoself- your morning routine is self care
- Never busy your mind with shit that doesn't matter while the grass is still wet.
- Never hit snooze
- Keep thy word
writing a Hōmebodies workout at 4:45am while my mind is still fresh
Principle #1 Treat yoself- Your morning routine is a form of self care.
It takes discipline to defend your morning from all the demands & concerns of daily life, but this is your time to be selfish. Spare yourself the time from the persistent cognitive load & sensory bombardment to Kon-Mari your mind.
Tidy up & organize your thoughts, set your mind in order to best accomplish everything the outside world demands of you today.
"As you are setting your mind, become acutely aware that your own reality is just a reflection of your inner world."
Principle #2: Never busy your mind with thoughts of tasks to be done while dew is still fresh on the grass.
This little bit of time every morning that you set aside for yourself may just be the psychological distance needed to bridge the reactionary state of life -‘happening to you’ so that you can begin ‘happening to life.’
It's simple- you either wake up and act or be acted upon.
Understand that we are playing to win rather than playing to not lose. There is a major difference.
"The early worm kills the bird."
Principle #3 Never hit snooze
An object at rest will stay at rest
if thy snooze thy lose.
-Isaac Newton
The moment that each day starts anew is a chance to create momentum.
A fresh start to take charge of your own nature.
Instead of being a slave to impulses & desires.
For every action, there is equal but opposite reactions and consequences.
The choice to hit snooze is a battle lost inside your head.
The reward we get from an extra 9 minutes ‘at rest’ is just reassurance that our ambitions are not that important.
& There can be no confidence without personal integrity.
Integrity is, fundamentally, the value we place on ourselves; it's our ability to keep commitments to ourselves.
"The promises that we make or break with ourselves are the most integral to our character."
Principle #4 Keep thy word
Discipline derives from ‘disciple’ & the best I can make sense of it- the act of being disciplined is when we ‘act as a disciple of our principles, values, purpose, goals’ etc…
In other words- you are a follower of your own deep values & their source.
& with that you have the will to power- the integrity- to subordinate your feelings, impulses & moods to uphold those values come Hell or high water.
"Discipline yourself or the world will do it for you."
[silent & listen use the same letters to get one point across]
Over time, as you dial your routine in
as you continually tune in to the voice inside your head
Use your internal battles to reshape the way that you talk to yourself.
As you become fully immersed in the process NOT the outcome
Your morning routine will become an entirely autotelic activity
A self fulfilling elevated state of being
All it takes is a little bit of silence & listening.
- Nate
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