Start Today Like It’s Your Last On Earth!
[Author’s note: This post is a chapter of my forthcoming book
RESET: Building Purpose in the Age of Digital Distraction]
Chapter Twelve — Launch
What’s the most important change to make?
“Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it.”
Richard Whatley, British Theologian
Have you ever seen a Japanese tea ceremony? It is beautiful. You can’t help but relax as you watch the person go through the choreography. Every movement is so controlled and precise. There is a proper place for everything: the person’s hands, the tray, the napkin, the cup. All of it carefully orchestrated and harmonious.
We all live in a world of rituals — glorified habits — like the Japanese tea ceremony, whether or not we realize it. Generations ago, we followed the same rituals as other people in our tribe, religion, and/or nation. That meant we could recognize when other people were engaging in rituals. We accepted them as a part of our lives. And we understood their power to center us, guide us, and enfuse the world with meaning.
People don’t share many rituals anymore. Even old standbys such as saying grace before dinner and the Pledge of Allegiance going away.
Why is this bad? Because we have fewer common experiences to share with the people that we care about. We are left with the rituals we choose for ourselves, but that no one else can recognize and share. Each of us has a way that we brush our teeth, a way that we cook our eggs, and a way that we start our car or find a seat on the train.
Rituals are habits that you take very seriously. They can help make the difference between a distracted life and one filled with purpose, impact, and community. That is why it’s critical that you develop rituals to help you begin each day properly. Specifically, you will need to develop rituals that reinforce your purpose. We need to own the beginning of each day, which includes a series of exercises at night and upon waking.
Out Of The Gate
Our goal is to be unleashed on an unsuspecting world at the beginning of every day. We should want to erupt out of bed! And to accomplish that, we need to make the late evening and the early morning sacred. It should be a special time when you are able to pursue your priorities without the noise and confusion of the digital world.
Benjamin Franklin, probably the most interesting and certainly the most commercially successful of the Founding Fathers, was a master of this sort of daily launch. He was famous for his simple yet profound question “What good shall I do this day?”. That was his way of orienting and channeling all his efforts.
What good shall I do this day?
Franklin knew that beginnings are special. And the beginning of each day is no exception. You are distanced from the successes and the failures of the previous day. Your soul is healed after those little traumas and sadnesses that accumulate from dawn to dusk. In short, you should be ready to stride confidently into the world.
Except that we rarely feel that way. Most of us do not launch into the day. Instead we stumble into it. We lurch into it. Most days start as an embarrassment of muddy confusion.
Can you guess why? Ask yourself: What is the last thing we do before we go to sleep? Check our phones, of course. And what is the first thing most of us do when we wake up? Again, check our phones.
The result of these choices should be no surprise. We swipe from distraction to distraction, never building purpose, momentum, or a sense of satisfaction.
Why? Because when we default to checking our phones, we only do what other people want us to do. When you check email, you are reading through a list of things that other people need you to accomplish. When you check social media, you are reading through a list of things that other people need you to care about.
At this point in the book you should be aware that there is never a shortage of people who want you to do things for them. Friends. Marketers. Everyone. But what about the actions that align with our goals? Who is responsible for making sure that we make time for what matters to us?
That would be you, my friend. And creating a life that rises to this occasion requires preparation. It requires discipline. It requires a reset.
Us Versus Them
Let’s be very clear about why launching is such a critical habit. On any given day you are going to do one of two things:
- what you want to do.
- what other people want you to do.
It’s binary: it is the one or the other. You can only accomplish one of these things at a time. Why? Because no one has specific daily goals that overlap perfectly with yours. They want what they want. You want what you want.
Even if other people truly want to see you succeed in your goals, they are too busy dealing with their own life to consistently put you back on track.
Only one of these choices — doing what you want versus doing what other people want — will lead to a fulfilling life. And you need to be ruthless about starting on your own stuff. It’s basically impossible to start the day doing work for others and then go back to start working on your own priorities. You have to get it right out of the gate.
Of course there are times when you absolutely need to do what other people want you to do. That’s what it means to be an employee, spouse, parent, sibling, or friend.
Life is complicated. But that doesn’t excuse you from the responsibility of carving out the time to accomplish your mission. That’s part of taking full responsibility for building the life you want.
Resist the temptation to start coming up with excuses right now. Yes, you have to deal with a lot of drama at work. Yes, your family takes up a lot of your time. Yes, you are not getting enough sleep.
These are all true. True, and yet irrelevant.
This will sound harsh, condescending, or both. But . . . get over it. And not because I said that you need to. Get over it because if you don’t, you will find yourself in the same place in fifteen or twenty years. And if you were satisfied right now, you wouldn’t be reading this.
Remember that everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. Some of us just make a lot more out of them, and we both want you to become one of those people.
Sleep Tight
Hopefully we can now agree that developing momentum — launching — is a great way to start each day. So how do you do it? In a perfect world, launching begins the night before. You don’t just wake up knowing exactly what you’re supposed to do that day. You must take the time to connect in a deep and profound way to your priorities for the next day.
All it takes is one minute. Before you head to bed, write down the major tasks you need to accomplish the next day, making sure to indicate the most important one. That’s the first thing you will tackle when you begin work.
This practice is incredibly powerful if you stick with it. Yes, it will clarify your goals for the following day, which is valuable. But writing down a list also helps your brain prepare for sleep. There is an inherent sense of relief and relaxation from knowing that you won’t forget any of the important stuff you need to do.
Your list should be no longer than five items. Any more than that and you are writing down details that don’t really matter. The goal is to stay focused on the activities that align with your mission in a fundamental way.
Groceries don’t make the cut.
Once you’re done, put the list on top of your phone. I mean that literally. You should actually place the list on top of your phone so you can’t see the screen. Your list is a physical barrier between you and the digital world. It should remind you about what’s important when you wake up the next morning.
While you’re at it, go plug in your phone at the most convenient outlet that is near the front door. That will keep you safely away from any distractions at both the end and beginning of every day. If you need an alarm clock to wake up, go buy a regular one.
Putting away your phone is the beginning of cleansing your environment. It’s a great way to restructure your world in a way that gives you some space. We’ll dig more into this next chapter.
So you’ve made two small adjustments to your nightly ritual: moved your phone out of your bedroom; and written a to-do list with no more than five items. Simple enough. One minute of work and you’ve earned yourself a better night’s rest.
Wakey Wakey
Do not head straight to your phone after you wake up. I can’t stress this enough. Both your list and the phone will be there, waiting for you when you’re actually ready to start the day.
Instead, you will do the simplest, most basic, and most helpful thing you can do. You are going to make your bed. I stumbled on this practice through my military training, but I’ve seen how much of a difference it makes for the people who adopt the practice.
Admiral William McRaven — who happens to be Navy SEAL — stressed the importance of making your bed in a 2014 commencement address to the University of Texas.
“If you do so, it will mean that the first thing you do in the morning is to accomplish something, which sets the tone for the day, encourages you to accomplish more, and reinforces that little things matter.” Those are three compelling reasons, and they tie directly into the importance of reinforcing our mindset through daily action.
There is a complementary ritual you also need to adopt: tidying up your home. Basic clean-up after you wake up helps us prepare for de-cluttering the day that lies ahead. You are removing the debris in both cases, creating space for what truly matters.
I’m not asking for much. Pick up any clothes on the floor, put away toiletries that are strewn across the bathroom sink, and wash any dishes in the sink. Two or three minutes, max.
You will find that your mind naturally starts to wander as you tidy. You start thinking about all the stuff that you could do that day, which is great. Daydreaming is exactly what you want because it mimics the distractions of the digital world. You’re getting off course, but what is waiting for you when you finally head over to your phone?
Your to-do list.
The Who
Now is your time to deepen the level of commitment to each task on that list. Your goal is to remind yourself why it’s so important to accomplish this specific goal. Think about the people whose lives will benefit, and how you will feel as a result. This is the Who? and Why? from the mission mentality that pairs so nicely with the What? of the to-do list.
This works even for the boring work stuff. At night, I may write down something I need to do, such as “Send end-of-month report to client”. This is the sort of mundane task that normally drives me crazy. But in the morning I scribble the outcome to the right of the task that says “So the client sees all the great work we’re doing, is confident about the project, and looks forward to the final result.”
Simple formula: What + Who + Why = Purpose
Beyond the inspirational value, this process also ensures that each item is worthy of the list. If you can’t clearly explain the Who? and Why? you should remove that item. Remember, this list is the fuel for your launch. You will get distracted if you aren’t driven to accomplish these tasks.
Try it for one week. Start with one item on your to-do list. Just one simple, important thing that you want to accomplish the next day. You’ll be amazed at how much it can motivate you.
The Launchpad
To launch is to clarify success. You will develop a clear picture of what you’re doing, the outcome you’re expecting from each action, and the people who will benefit as a result. You know when you are starting and when you are finished. You aren’t compelled to lurch from task to task, endlessly ticking off meaningless boxes that are someone else’s priorities. You will be on fire for your work.
To launch is to be take unapologetic ownership of your day. When you launch, you are carving out space in your schedule to do one thing: generate momentum toward accomplishing a short list of critical tasks. After tackling these few important things you get to ease into the rest of the day, brimming with confidence from your early wins.
Think back to your last few work days. Did you start your day or just stumble into it? Did your work have an impact on anyone or was it swallowed up into a black hole? Were you in meetings and reading emails because they were important or because they were on your schedule? Did you know when you were done with your important work or did you just sort of coast to a stop?
Most of us have pretty depressing answers to these questions. By now you should know that it’s not our fault, even though the responsibility still lies with us. Think about the rapid intrusion of the digital world. We have to dodge distractions like never before, and the range of options in front of us can be paralyzing if we’re not careful.
No one ever said that resetting was going to be easy. It’s not supposed to be, at least not at first. But launching is the most effective daily method for living with purpose.
We don’t have perfect control over our day. That’s impossible. There are endless responsibilities that need to be addressed. And the digital world is always lurking, ready to swallow up any free time with bright and shining distractions.
Are these obstacles going to be in our way? Of course. That’s precisely why you need to reset. Life in the digital world is all about setting and pursuing your priorities, not anyone else’s.
Consider how we are blending the Mission Mentality, Success Structure, and Bias Toward Action in these chapters. Each concept is your tools to deny the petty requests that bombard you every day, and to get fired up about the truly meaningful work in your life. You are joining the likes of Benjamin Franklin by trying to answer the question “What good shall I do this day?”
You are now ready. There are no hurdles left before you can begin to fulfill your daily purpose. Your priorities are burned into your mind. You can picture the rest of the day. You have successfully prepared yourself for taking action that connects deeply to you and the people you care about.
Now we have to make sure can accomplish our priorities before the digital world starts choking us again.
What to remember about “Launch”
- Each morning determines the trajectory for that day
- Every night, make a list of no more than 5 things to accomplish the next day
- Keep away from your phone for as long as possible after you wake up
- Spend a few minutes making your bed and tidying up in the morning
- Review the to-do list and add specific people and outcomes to each task
Actions that require 10 minutes or less
- Make a list of at least one important thing you need to do tomorrow. If you’re stumped, go back to your My Legacy email and think of ways to collaborate with students, teachers, or both.
- Set a daily calendar reminder for every evening to make your to-do list for the next day. Plug in your phone near the front door, then place the completed list on top of your phone.
- Upon waking, make your bed. Then go back to the list and flesh out any items on it as needed, asking yourself Why? and Who? for each.
Actions that require 30 minutes or less
- Write yourself an email with the subject “My Launch” where you write a single paragraph that describes the perfect morning from the moment you wake up to the moment you accomplish your most important task for the day. Start with the first thing you’re going to do when you open your eyes. Finish by describing how you will feel at the end of this perfect morning.
