Even if a farmer intends to loaf, he gets up in time to get an early start. Edgar Watson Howe
An old adage states ‘Early to bed and early to Rise, makes a person healthy wealthy and wise’. The world at large strongly believes in this advice, and almost all boarding schools, spiritual retreat centers, monasteries and religious houses follow an early to rise – early to bed policy. However with the changed lifestyle in the modern age; with call centre jobs, three shift jobs, rotation shifts late night parties etc. the context of this old adage has to be reinterpreted to suit modern needs.
It is imperative to note that only the context has changed and not the message. An early start to the day ensures that you get up fresh, enjoy the wonders of a new day for a longer time and most importantly squeeze in more time into your daily schedule. Discipline and motivation are two critical pre conditions to ensure that we get up early. The discipline ensures that we enjoy a sound sleep provided we go to bed on time and do not waver from our morning chores. The motivation reinforces our discipline and enables us to be positive every morning.
One might argue that we also need to enjoy the fruits of our efforts and that a regimented schedule is not the best way to ensure it. Anything done in excess is self defeating and a regimented schedule devoid of enthusiasm and fun is equally damaging. In the modern day, the shift has been to work hard on weekdays and party hard on the weekends. We need to adapt to changing times, new challenges and evolving lifestyles. Viewed in this context, Edgar Watson has put it in correct perspective that if you want to have more fun, spend more time awake, unless of course your idea of fun is a long sound sleep.
Remember: The moment when you first wake up in the morning, is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours. No matter how weary or dreary you may feel, you possess the certainty that, during the day that lies before you, absolutely anything may happen. And the fact that it practically always doesn’t, matters not a jot. The possibility is always there. ~Monica Baldwin
Try these
- Ask yourself are you peppy and bright every morning (irrespective of what time you get up) when you get up? If not then you need to work on your Positive Thinking and Self Confidence.
- Re examine your morning chores. Can you reduce/ eliminate a few practices that are wasteful and possibly damaging to you. Eg. Smoking, drinking too many cups of coffee, wasting abnormal time reading the newspaper, walking groggily and sitting on the internet, being addicted to the emails etc.
- Do you start your day with a warm up? It can be a combination of prayer, exercise, meditation, yoga, a couple of glasses of warm water etc. Like a sporstman who warms up before getting into the thick of action, it would be wonderful to start one’s day with your own set of warm ups. Watching TV, reading the newspaper, getting hooked to email, chat and browsing the net, acting grumpy and irritable, do not count as warm ups!
This post is courtesy www.actspot.com
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Its amazing how you can think up an informative(and communicative) and to-the-point excerpt every day, which is also rich in language,at the same time based on one-liners that are not even related topic-wise. And even more difficult is the consistency in writing that you maintain.
Great going!
Regards,
Mrunal