Pre-Game Warm-Up Routine

This is not a blog about sports which might make today’s title a bit misleading.  Although, as often happens in life the inspiration for the post came from watching a sporting event.  

On Friday night I had a chance to watch the beginning of the Miami Heat basketball game.  This is not typical for me but while channel surfing I saw that the Heat game was about to begin so I stopped on the channel.  While sitting there watching I watched LeBron James during the pre-game warm-ups.  I observed him smiling, taking shots and generally having a relaxing time on the court.  As I continued to watch it appeared that several players decided to practice dunking the ball.  In the short few minutes that followed I watched a number of spectacular dunks executed by LeBron that made me wonder why he does not participate in the NBA dunk competition.  Admittedly it was fun to watch and caused me to stay tuned to the game longer than I might otherwise have done.

The thought of watching the players in their pre-game routine stayed with me for much of the weekend.  I know that for athletes pre-game activities are an important part of the game itself.  You can see them stretching, throwing the ball, running the bases or running routes.  All of this activity is designed to help them perform better during the game.  While I am not much of an athlete, this caused me to think about my own routines and I realized that in many ways I have a pre-game routine.  While the game I play in is far different from a sports competition, the game requires me to be “on” and at my best.  My routine starts when I wake up which more often than not happens around 5:00am.  I don’t normally wake to an alarm clock but find myself naturally becoming aware that I am awake.  When I am on my regular schedule I am fairly guaranteed that this will happen around the same time every day, even on weekends.  Once awake I lay in bed for a while just processing my thoughts and observing where my mind is.  I think about my dreams from the prior night and I begin to think through my day.  This typically lasts for about 10 to 15 minutes but I usually do not fall back to sleep as I wake up feeling rested.  Once up I go through the typical morning routines that we all have around personal hygiene and then I start my morning exercise which is followed by my shower then a light breakfast.  I do this routine no less than four days each week and I strive to make it six.  I find on the days that I follow my routine I feel best and my energy level and focus is highest.  I am working to make morning meditation a part of this routine as I think it would help my overall outlook and performance during the day.  

You might note in this that I did not mention email.  That is not part of my morning routine.  Most days I do not look at email prior to at least 7:00am and sometimes slightly longer.  Email is just not the best way to start a productive day.

The question that I am asking my readers to ponder today is this.  Do you have a pre-game routine that you follow?  Does your routine boost your energy and improve your outlook?  And finally, what changes do you need to make to start your day off with a smile and bounce in your step?

This is What I Think

As a person more oriented to introversion than extroversion I find that I spend lots of time thinking.  Sometimes we call this living in our head and while that is helpful, I think that sometimes you need to flesh out those thoughts and take the time to examine them externally.  As I have written before  I take lots of notes on paper which are intended to capture many of the thoughts I have during the week.  Looking back at those notes some of my thoughts are random, some have spurred ideas, some express a frustration, and some are worth celebrating.  I decided that today I would share just a few of the thoughts I have captured from the past week.

So here is what I think:

I think it says a lot about our nation that we began this week worried about who wore what on the Red Carpet and we are ending our week worried about the impact of federal budget cuts.  I think that Sequester is dumb for both sides.  But I also think that neither side has it right yet.  We should manage our expenses and monitor our revenue.  If you need a history lesson on this examine the airline industry since the 80s.  I think that having breakfast with my uncles this week was one of the highlights of my week.  I think that just because someone does not share your point of view that does not make them aggressive or your enemy.  I think that we should strive to wake up by 5:00am.  If you are tired at that time then you stayed up too late.  I think we should listen longer to people, and open doors.  I think that if you hug someone you should hold on until they let go.  I think that you should not read your email first thing in the morning.  I doubt it is really that important.  I think that you should spend the time during which you are not reading email to meditate, pray, exercise and organize your day.  I think that we should drink water in the morning before we drink caffeine (by the way it will cause you to drink less caffeine).  I think that Jack Lalanne had it right that there are too many unhappy people.  If you are too young to know who that is you should watch this he was not perfect and he did not live forever, but his views about health still resonate.  I think we should exercise six days each week.  I don’t always achieve that but it remains a goal that I focus on.  I think you should take the time to know how your phone and computer actually work.  These are powerful productivity tools.  I think that those of us over 45 should check our Blood Pressure more often.  I learned this last week and was shocked.  I think you should know who your partners are and make sure you are adding value to them.  I think that we all need a cheering section (thanks Chuck).  I also think that we should be  part of the cheering section for someone else.  Start by cheering those that you love.  I think there should be a perceptible difference between your waist and your chest.  I also think that most americans already have achieved that but perhaps we should change the perception.  I think that time is a resource that should never be wasted.  I also think that the greatest poverty in our world is the failure to pay attention (thanks Brian Tome).  Finally, I think that you need a notebook to capture your thoughts.

Thanks for listening.  What do you think?