Give yourself a gift. Every day, set aside one hour for yourself. Use this hour to strengthen your spirit, your health, your mind. Make it a routine. Make it happen every day. I suggest inserting this hour promptly after risin out of bed. I know, it’s not easy to get an hour in before rushing out the door for work. Think about how much more enjoyable the whole idea of leaving for work would be if you’d had an hour to be thankful, to honor yourself and your spirit, to exercise, to plan your activities for the day, to set your goals, to train your mind to be in a wonderful, favorable, and receptive attitude that will benefit you. I You may think “an hour?! I don’t have enough time as it is! How am I going to get another hour?”. This is where you can be creative. I began by setting my alarm 5 minutes earlier, and my mind has found the answers to those very questions with little reluctance and without a lot of extra effort. I woke up, said aloud how thankful I was that I was alive (and it helped it was a Friday), spent an extra minute or two stretching while mentally rehearsing two goals for the day, and then followed up with some mental positive attitude affirmations. After I did it a couple of times I thought I could make a little more out of it if I had another couple minutes, so I set my alarm for 7 minutes earlier which allowed me to write down my goals on index cards I could carry with me during the day. I was also able to squeeze in another goal, so instead of 2, I now had 3 things to achieve. I continued to build this up to suit my needs. I now set aside about an hour that gives me some time for stretching and walking while reciting affirmations and daily goals, some time for prayer where I give thanks, and where I’m able to do some creative goal setting. Everyone is different, but I found it helpful to be flexible and liberal on myself and build this up rather gradually. You may respond better to a strict discipline. Some days I may only “need” 10 minutes if everything is going smoothly and I’m well prepared even before my hour. Other days it might work better for me with 30 minutes and sometimes I’ll make use of a full hour. You can also shift this to the end of your day, or even split it up doing part in the morning and part at night before retiring to bed. Perhaps after work would be best for you. Try and play with the idea and work with it to discover what works best for you. This kind of mental preparation makes financial decisions easier because you’re more prepared and directed towards your goal and have yourself in mind more. If you’re not giving yourself this kind of time, who else are you giving it to?
