How did you start your day today? When you leaped out of bed, were you ready and alert for all today will offer or did you drag yourself out of bed on automatic pilot, and lurch into the bathroom in the normal early morning daze. If, of course, you were awoken by an alarm clock, then you started your day already on the wrong foot because your subconscious mind wasn't ready to wake up and, anyone reading my articles or watching my videos on my website will have a good appreciation for the extent to which your subconscious runs your daily life.



It runs it totally!

So, before you let your day get going, your subconscious mind needs to be up and running or you'll never properly get up and running yourself. Most people wouldn't consider leaving the house in the morning, to tackle the day ahead, unwashed. And almost nobody (I do know one person!) would even think about leaving the house undressed (the person in question has left the house totally nude - but that's another story!). So why, oh why, does almost everybody in this world leave their homes each morning mentally "nude", mentally "unwashed" and "unshaven", mentally totally unprepared for all that life has to offer in the upcoming day?

I say "almost everybody" because a good number of universities, on more than a couple of continents, have come to the conclusion, based on decades of research, that about 96% of us are "normal" and that "normal people" are mad. I haven't put mad in inverted commas because it's not a joke. "Normal people's" subconscious minds control them - not the other way around. Surely that's a definition of madness. Our subconscious mind controls our reactive behaviour which, 99 times out of a 100 comes flying out our mouth (or from our fist) before we have had time to think about the sense of doing it. You know what I mean. How many times to you react to some argument or problem and make it better? How often do you react to someone you've never met and will probably never see again, just because they've pulled in front of you in traffic. Almost always, "normal" knee-jerk reactions make things worse.

Which leads me back to where I started. If you've woken up this morning and your subconscious mind wasn't ready and if you haven't bothered to get your subconscious mind in gear for the day ahead, then don't blame anyone else if you have another "one of those days" or if, when you arrive at work this morning and someone asks you how you're doing that you automatically react by answering "not too bad". Because, if you haven't got your subconscious mind in gear, "not-too-bad" is about as good as it gets!

So, here's a quick tip. There are things you have to do each morning (I assume), like brushing your teeth, shaving (only applies to some people!!), getting dressed and driving to work or taking the bus or train. Early on each day, stop yourself in your tracks and do some, or all, of those things differently. In other words, brush your teeth with the "other hand", shave with the "other hand", but the "other leg" into your pants first, the "other arm" into your shirt.

Harvard University has shown that by doing little things differently you pay more attention to them and paying attention more attention to the little things enables you break the cycle of daily repetitive behaviour before it has a chance to drag you down into another repetitive day. And decades of research proves that paying attention to what you are actually doing in the here and now is how you turn your subconscious mind on. It's that simple. If you drag your subconscious mind out of automatic mode by something as simple as brushing your teeth differently, you will stop your automatic reactive behaviour and you will begin to pay attention to what's actually happening in the here and now. And, again, years of research proves that this is a sure-fire way of noticing today's opportunities which, if you're on auto-pilot, you simply cannot notice.

So, try it tomorrow morning and break the habit of starting your day on auto-pilot. Paying attention is the beginning of all wisdom - and the beginning of a much better day.

Copyright (c) 2009 Willie Horton