Henry Ward Beecher said, “The first hour is the rudder of the day -- The Golden Hour.”

Be very careful how you start your morning.  You are planting the seeds for what the day will hold.  If you get up late, grab a cheap cup of coffee and a cigarette, rush to work fuming at the idiots in traffic, and drop down exhausted at your desk at 8:10, you have set the tone for your day.  Everything will seem like pressure and your best efforts will be greatly diluted.

However, if you get up leisurely after a completely restful night’s sleep, you can choose a different beginning.  I have not used an alarm clock for the last 25 years, because I go to bed at a reasonable time and have clearly in my mind when I want to start the next day.  I get up, spend 30 minutes in meditative and devotional reading, and then go to my workout area.  While working out physically, I take advantage of my extensive tape library, so that I fill that 45 minutes with physical exertion combined with mental input and expansion.  The motivation of Earl Nightingale, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Kenneth Blanchard, Jay Abraham, and Denis Waitely, the philosophy of Aristotle and Plato, the theology of Robert Schuller, Dietrick Bonhoeffer, and John Maxwell are the first input into my brain each morning.

"Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do." -  Pope John XXIII

I never read the paper first thing in the morning, no matter how important it may seem to know the news.  The news is filled with rape, murder, pestilence, and heartache, and that is not the input I want in my brain.  Later in the day, I can scan the news for anything related to my areas of interest and quickly sort through what I need.  But I carefully protect that first hour of the day, making sure that all input is positive, clean, pure, creative and inspirational.  Many of my most creative ideas have come from this protected time of the day, often when I am in a full sweat.  By 9:00 AM I am invigorated, motivated and ready to face anything the day may bring.

Just remember this important thought, “The first hour is the rudder of the day.”

From the Bible:

“Listen to my words, Lord; consider my sighing.  Pay attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for I pray to You.  At daybreak, Lord, You hear my voice; at daybreak I plead my case to You and watch expectantly.”   Psalm 5: 1-3 (HCSB)

Direction for Today:

What can you do today to set the direction in a positive way?  

Dan Miller is President of The Business Source, founder of "48 Days" and author of 48 Days To The Work You Love and 48 Days To Creative Income. He is the growing authority for creating effective life plans that are achieved by integrating natural gifts, unique personality traits and one's own values and passions. His unique clarification of how God gifts us will introduce you to a new sense of freedom and fulfillment of your life's calling. For more information, visit http://www.48days.com/.