Morning Note with Nancy
Coach & Soul Firestarter, IL
“One of the bigger shifts has been, ‘No, I'm going to fill myself up first.’ Pouring into myself before I do anything else. Before I start the day. As I end the day. That's been a huge shift.”
Hi! I'm Nancy and I coach leaders to create more inclusive and equitable organizations.
[Before morning notes] I think for me especially because Diamond’s initial morning notes came out on Saturday, I felt like it was just the ‘roll out of bed, get to moving and get to action.’ The after…
It was this opportunity just to slow down, to read, to reflect.
To create quiet space on Saturdays, which I now have extended to every day of the week, where I'm getting up in the morning (every morning), I'm doing a prayer, I'm doing a meditation, I'm doing some form of reflection without just jumping into the day, which is what I had historically been doing for many, many, many years. I’m less reactive to what's going on in the world; letting go of what I cannot change and releasing it to God. I love the graphics. So it's always very settling or soothing to look at the graphics.
I always love the—I'm going to call them—poems. I love the thought prompts, the questions. That's what really gets me. I was going to use the word ‘thinking,’ but it's not really thinking. It's maybe ‘feeling.’ It gets me to shift my perspective a bit and turn inward and be more reflective. Being able to sit down and sometimes I will write things down, sometimes I’ll just think it in my head—I like that part of the morning note.
There's those beautiful reflective poems, and then the kind of “Oh, and what would you do? And how do you want to take this information and actually incorporate it into how you're living?”
For me, it's putting myself first.
It's been putting myself first and reflecting on and feeling the importance of pouring into myself before I do anything else. Before I start the day. As I end the day. That's been a huge shift.
Because corporate Nancy was like, “Get up and go,” and a lot of that stayed with me, even starting the business, because it was just what I had been doing for so long. What I had been programmed to do: get up and immediately focus on someone else, or check the emails, or get on that call.
One of the bigger shifts has been, “No, I'm going to fill myself up first.”
I recall Diamond said something like, “I blocked my mornings off and I don't take any clients before 10 o'clock.” And I started doing that. So on Mondays, I don't have any clients before 11 o'clock, and my mornings have turned into the meditation I do, movement I do, whether it's yoga or whatever it is. And that space is sacred again.
I would recommend the morning notes for anyone who wants motivation, inspiration, and support.
—Nancy H, Coach & Soul Firestarter (Illinois)
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