23 Nov Success Begins the Night Before
By Paul Barrs
Good Morning! I’m saying ‘good morning’ because I want you to know what time it is. It’s essential to the success of this article that you begin reading it with that supposition in mind… yes, it is morning. I’m sitting out on my balcony enjoying the cool of the morning summers breeze (later on it’s going to be stinking hot), and I’ve got my second cuppa within arms reach. This is how 8 out of 10 of my mornings start.
Today however, will be a little different; I’ll be writing 2 articles. Usually I just write one.
[Sidebar: Yeah yeah, I know there’s a whole bunch of purists out there who like to make out that they are article marketing machines and claim they pump out 40, 50, even 100 articles a day. Well, yes, I know that to be true – and using the latest ‘article generation software’ which does 95% of the work for you, sure you can pump out dozens of articles and top ten reports based on other people’s content and ideas each day.]
But me, no, I have a life and I only put 100% original quality on my site and that of my friends. Today I’ll be writing 2 articles – this one and then the one that I first intended to write. It was about 10 pm last night that I decided to do this.
Why?
Well, firstly, knowing that I like to write an article each morning while I have my coffee, I keep my mind active each day ‘looking’ for inspiration and ideas. Yesterday, while being absolutely mesmerised watching the final’s of the Brisbane International Tennis tournament, I picked up an offhand comment by someone nearby that sent a shiver down my spine. Simply explained, the underdog of the match was 1 set and 4 games down, yet he was making an incredible comeback.
Then I heard, “He has the single most important ingredient… he believes he can win!”
Wow. Powerful stuff.
And that got me thinking.
It got me thinking about writing an article on the topic. And as the day came to a close, it got me thinking about ‘writing an article about writing the article’. Sounds crazy, but that just about sums it up.
Of course, that’s not my usual plan. I like to just write 1, and then move on with my day.
But just before I went to bed I checked my eMail, checked my calendar (as I do every night) and looked at the day ahead.
[Sidebar: Have you ever had a little bell go off in your head when a seemingly great idea comes to mind? That’s what happened to me then.]
I realised that I begin each day the night before. I never start a day without first ‘seeing it’ in my mind before I go to bed. It occurred to me that this “habit” which I developed many years ago is also one of the leading factors which has determined my success over the years (and as I think of it… my failures).
And, as I think of it now, Yes, I have enjoyed far greater success than many I know. Stopping now to think about it, these are the times that I’ve been utilizing *everything* that I knew I had to each day – beginning the day before. I’ve also experienced far greater failure than most (and I’m not saying that figuratively)… now, as I pause to think about it… these also have come about when I’ve NOT been doing what I knew I should have / could have… beginning with the night before.
[Sidebar: There’s that bell again!]
It’s a fundamental truth that whatever we set our minds to focus on just before we sleep, *that* is what we focus on while we sleep. Whatever it is, our subconscious minds go to work on it overnight for us. It was discovered decades ago that the best times for study and review while learning a new subject were last thing in the evening and first thing in the morning – the same applies for study and review of a day.
And so I ask the question… can you improve your day my planning it out the day before? And no, I don’t mean map it out in solid concrete so that it’s immovable and inflexible… I mean going to bed each night and before you do taking out five minutes to glance over the things that must be done the day following. And as you do, consider not the problems, but ask yourself to discover the solutions.
Then your subconscious mind will go to work on them overnight, and you’ll gain for yourself an 8 hour jump start over your competitors.
Success really does begin the night before.
