In our recent message ("The 6 Benefits of Gratitude"), we described how gratefulness generates a particular state of being. We concluded with valuable and tangible advice regarding the start and finish of your day.
We emphasized how important it is to start and end your day with gratefulness.
We gave you clear steps, so straightforward that it would be so easy to discount them for their simplicity. We advised you to ask yourself the following questions right before waking up and right before falling asleep.
Before waking up: Go through the state of mind of asking yourself, "what am I grateful for?" Review the last 24 hours and look at what you have in the present moment. And then look at the next 24 hours.
Before falling asleep: Do the same procedure mentally. Go through the state of mind of asking yourself: “what are my reasons to be grateful for in the present?” Review the last 24 hours, and then look at the next 24 hours.
You see, that state of mind takes place at two significant moments of the day. The moment you're about to wake up, and then right when you are about to fall asleep. These two crucial moments in the day play an active role in high performance.
Here is how it works.
Before waking up:
At the start of the day, right at that moment of waking up, by adopting a mindset of gratitude, you are consciously infusing a positive mindset for the whole day. Right at that moment of waking up, you are already in a kind of transition. The most recent scientific studies are finding out how right from the moment you wake up, your brain is operating at a pattern of electrical waves known as the alpha stage. Its electric waves of 8 Hz to 12 Hz provide an ideal link between your conscious and subconscious state of mind. By using these first moments of the day, you are deliberately tapping into your ability to shape your most profound state of mind for the next 12 to 18 hours.
You remember what we explained in our last message. We described how gratitude broadens your scope. We also recommended practicing this 64 times in a row to cement your habit. Imagine what it would look like if you woke up every day through that lens of gratitude, widening your spectrum of perception.
We bet it would change your mind and orient it naturally towards opportunities. Without gratitude, challenges would feel insurmountable. They would only grow in complexity and difficulty, convincing you that the solution to your problems is difficult to find. However, with gratitude, all of a sudden, stresses would melt away. Under the surface of appearances, your mind would be able to turn around every single block into a golden opportunity. That's the power of the Glad To Be Here wake up call. All you have to do is practice it at least 64 days in a row, and before you know it, it will turn into second nature. That's what we meant when we told you that gratitude propels you on the path to high performance. You're on track to be the best of the very best version of all you can be on your way to high-performance. Just like that. Just because you spent a little bit of time in the morning, going through that simple mental exercise.
Before falling asleep:
Now, what about the same Glad To Be Here call in the evening? You can indeed go through the same sequence:
you remember what you can be grateful for during the day in the last 24 hours. Then you follow with what you can be thankful in the present moment. Finally, you look for what you can be grateful for in the following 24 hours.
Your brain waves descend into that same transition of moderate alpha state, quietly transitioning from a conscious to an unconscious state as you fall asleep. So, you might as well take advantage of that state.
That sequence has the same power to imbue the following hours with feelings of gratitude. This time though, you're affecting your mind during your sleep, during your dreams, and beyond. You are preparing how you're going to wake up the following morning, a few hours later. This step is crucial. It may look like you are just preparing for a good night of sleep. You're doing much more than that. You are creating the next day.
Before that, though, you will have reviewed your day. You would have meticulously made a conscious effort to remember your source of gratefulness one step at a time. It's indeed easy to forget about the significant moments of our days. We go through our workday, one task after another, busy with the obligations in front of us. Yet at the end of the day, our mind is on a forward mode, unable to stop and reflect. These last minutes provide you with an excellent opportunity to look inside.
As we said a few lines earlier, this moment of self-reflection plays a role, not just in reviewing the day but also to prepare the following morning. Unconsciously, without really realizing it, our mind is tuned for the clarity and sharpness we will need from the first moment of the day that follows. By spending a few moments of inner reflection, right before sleep, you're decluttering your mind, making space within your thoughts and bringing clarity within yourself. You are sharpening your focus by starting from the night before. That's the beauty of that exercise.
Essential Points of Leverage on the Path to High Performance:
So, these two simple habits, as you can see, constitute a necessary part of the high-performance practices. They are an integral part of high performers. Taken in a very deliberate and conscious manner, they can multiply your performance and bring you much higher on the path to high-performance. Now you see why we are connecting these two habits to the benefits of gratitude. Now you can see why it infuses your journey into high-performance. You can realize how it imbues your life with expansion and growth, and why it transforms your surroundings. You start to understand why it can galvanize your trust in yourself and around you, and elevate your beliefs. These two moments of Glad To Be Here calls or the gratitude moments as we also like to call them, become sacred spaces within yourself. They constitute the very locations where energy, fuel, and inner strength renew themselves and radiate outwardly, from inside out.
Without these two private moments of self-reflection, none of the high-performance we have been talking about can take place.
You need these quiet spaces of introspection to reflect and regenerate, at these two crucial moments of the day. They are two incredible points of leverage that make high-performance possible.