Determine and/or Refine your “Power Hour”
Your marriage can’t be better than you are.
The stronger, the more centered, the more balanced, the more self assured you are, the stronger and more balanced and less brittle your marriage will be. It starts with your Power Hour (where Habit Stacking comes fully into play).
“Power Hour” (also called “Morning Habit Stack” or “Self Care” or even just “Morning Routine”)
Philosophy
As you dedicate time, every day, to sharpening your saw (especially in your morning routine “Power Hour”), you enhance your creativity, open yourself to inspiration, strengthen your physical and emotional endurance, lower your blood pressure, and put years on your life. In this sense, by taking time for to sharpen your saw in this sense, you are creating time, money, personal happiness and success in your marriage.
You are a $200,000 sports car. Keep the engine tuned up! Keep your tank filled! Spend a significant amount of time each day, even if you break the time up between morning and evening i.e. 30 min. in the morning, 10 at lunch, 10 in the evening etc.
Actions you could include:**
Exercise
High Five (See "The High 5 Habit)
Inspirational or educational input
Pray, meditate, read scriptures
Vision (Seeing your dreams “Going there.”)
Planning (including blocking out time for key projects).
Mastery or CGPS Homework
Mastery Journal
Sauna or walk barefoot on grass
Breakthrough, or meditation
Breakfast with Loved One(s)
Refining Goals & Priorities
Notes / Guidance:
a) Some options work well together. Walking and meditation or prayer, preparing breakfast while listening to something inspiring, listening to an audible book, or doing CGPS mantras while driving to work etc. When you dove tail like this, it’s super easy to get 30 to 90 minutes a day of this kind of self-care (Note that “Self-Care” is the objective of “Power Hour”)
b) Stay close to your sequence. As much as possible, once you determine your sequence (your habit stack), do it in the same order every day. This will reduce any resistance, confusion or discouragement that could block your path forward.
You can change your routine anytime, but do it in writing. You could keep it on a couple of 3 by 5 cards- one on your bathroom mirror, another on your fridge etc. so that you find yourself almost automatically in action when your alarm goes off.
c) If your Power Hour sequence breaks down however, you can always fit important pieces of your this refueling actions throughout the rest of the day i.e. lunch break, driving home, first thing when you get home etc.
Morning Habit Stack - Examples (Beginner, Intermediate & Driven)
Example 1 (Beginners)
While on your 20+ minute walk...
1) Pray and/or Meditate
2) When you come home, as you’re doing breakfast and/or getting ready for work, play an inspirational recording i.e. Scriptures, Joel Osteen, Tony Robbins, Sue Johnson, Bernard Burchard, Impact Theory etc.
Example 2 (Intermediate)
1) Get on your mini tramp, treadmill or on your walk (Spend at the very, very least, 20 minutes moving your body).
While on your 20+ minute walk (or run, or treadmill)...
2) Thank God for everything you can think of.
3) Share your feelings with God (your fears and your faith).
4) Spend at least a few minutes meditating (Headspace, or the Kindness Mantras)
5) When you come home, as you’re doing breakfast and/or getting ready for work, play an inspirational recording i.e. Scriptures, Joel Osteen, Tony Robbins, Sue Johnson, Bernard Burchard, Impact Theory etc.
Example 3 (Driven)
1) Pray and/or meditate. Meditating on different scriptures, as inspired, can be particularly healing and empowering. Nothing is more affirming than God’s presence in our lives and his personal love for our souls.
2) High 5 to Your Heart before you even get out of bed. With *both hands on your heart, say: “*I’m O.K., I’m safe, I’m loved” and/or any core affirmations that tend to calm your soul and open your heart for the day ahead. [For more on this, purchase “The High 5 Habit.”]
3) Go to the mirror, and give yourself a High 5 using whatever phrase is calling to you.
Release & Return (kind of sounds like fishing). Here’s what it means.
4) Release - Write down whatever yucky kinds of fears or anxieties showed in in your dreams last night or are just lingering from the evening before. After writing, as you throw this sheet of paper away, or delete it, decide to let it go. Then...
5) Return to Vision - Start by write down 5 things you want. Anything i.e. goals, dreams, stuff you want to buy, spiritual goals or states of being, events, relationship stuff, whatever comes to your mind. This, according to Mel, puts your brain on high alert- in search of and ready to act on whatever might manifest in the course of your day.
6) Continue in vision, either at the mirror, on a walk, and/or on your knees and/or using a “Vision Board” with pictures and sentences that speak to your vision.
You may be combining all of this with walking or running on a tread mill, or still on your knees or in front of the mirror. In any event, refer to your Vision Board and take some time to see and feel your top goals and dreams.
Your initial list of 5 things this morning could have already been on your vision board. In either event, go there. Whatever it is you feel is right for you, whatever you feel your greatest ability to contribute is, see it, feel it, go there- even if it’s just for a few minutes.
7) Plan your day- refining project and action priority, working secondary priorities around the big stuff- blocking out out sections of time for important projects (as needed).
8) Listen to something inspirational while driving to work (and/or combine it with getting ready for work) i.e. Scriptures, Joel Osteen, Tony Robbins, Sue Johnson, Bernard Burchard, Impact Theory etc. )
This lesson’s action
Your mission, should you accept it, is to determine and/or refine your “Power Hour” (even if this hour is broken up throughout the day and even if the items on it don’t always occur in the same sequence, as helpful as that is).
Record your routine in your project app and/or (for extra assurance) post it on your bathroom mirror and your refrigerator for 60 days.