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What’s the Single Best Thing to Do First Thing in the Morning?
Hint: It has nothing to do with productivity, but it will change everything in your day.
Be kind to yourself.
And I don’t mean this in an abstract, feel-good kind of way. When I say be kind to yourself, I mean to practice kindness deliberately and with intention. Write down a few things on your kindness list, create a plan, and stick to it every single day.
Why is this important?
Because whether you are aware of it or not, you are your biggest judge and self-critic. You are the one who creates expectations of what needs to be done and how quickly. You are the one who gets impatient with others, but even more so with yourself if things don’t go according to plan. You are the one who wants to seize the day, be massively productive, and achieve excellence in your job or at school or in your relationship.
But the to-do list doesn’t get smaller. It expands over time and as you add more tasks to your daily schedule, you become less tolerant, more demanding, and more stressed out. You work, work, and do more work.
And in this wild chase to get things done, you forget YOU.
You forget to ask:
How can I make things better for me today?
