Other people wake up in the morning, “Ah, new day, up and at ’em.” I wake up, the heaviness is right there waiting for me. And sometimes I even talk to it. I say, “Hi, heaviness.” And the heaviness looks back at me. “Today you’re gonna get it good. You’ll be drinkin’ early today.”
Rodney Dangerfield said that.
But I was always super depressed in the morning, so what I did was start getting up earlier so that the sun woke me up in a gradual way, like what was probably natural for cavemen.
Then I started doing my “Hour of Power,” which I know is a corny name, but I found it really helps. So here’s what you do:
- LEARN CLEAN – Set a timer on your phone and clean the space around you for 20 minutes while listening to something educational or inspiring.
- MEDITATE – Again set a timer, meditate for 20 minutes.
- IDEAS – Again set a timer, spend 20 minutes writing down bad ideas of how you might improve what you’re already doing now.
The ideas are my favorite part. You’ll find that if you set out to just write bad ideas, good ones start slipping through, and knowing you will do this every day gives a good feeling, like you’ve built a fountain which will continue producing forever.
I wrote the list out and put it where I could easily see it every day, ’cause naturally in the morning I’m just super out of it and confused.
Also I know what it’s like to struggle or feel undervalued as an artist, so I thought it’d be cool to highlight people I like who you may not have heard about in these emails.
Check out Jessalyn Brooks. I really like how her stuff looks controlled and uncontrolled at the same time. (Click for her IG.)
Thanks for reading,
Ryan