Find Your Focus: Morning Pages

Today, I launched a weekly ‘Find Your Focus’ call & introduced the concept of "Morning Pages". ‘Morning Pages’ is long-hand, stream of consciousness writing, completed in the morning before your brain (and ego!) have a chance to wake up. It is a focus and creativity technique that helps people break through the constant chatter of your brain. 

The concept of ‘morning pages’ was originally created, by Julia Cameron, to help artists break through their creative blocks and get back to creating. Many writers, including Elizabeth Gilbert, of Eat Pray, Love and Tim Ferris, of The 4 Hour Work Week have credited ‘morning pages’ as providing inspiration. 

For professional types, especially with the amount of distractions you have, the power of ‘morning pages’ is clarity, focus and creativity.  

Why it works:

1. Clarity: ‘Morning Pages’ provides a space for all of the ping-ponging thoughts in your brain to be released. When these thoughts transport from your brain onto paper, it opens you up for new thoughts and a fresh start each day. I recently heard that 95% of our thoughts are the same as the prior day! So, this lets you ‘leave them at the door’ before you kick off a new day. 

2. Focus: Focus and action go hand-in-hand. However, you can check things off your to-do list all day long and still not be focused. You’re just really busy. ‘Morning Pages’ is an honest look at what’s recurring. It's understanding the big themes of your business and life. It’s noticing the patterns that arise and keep you stuck. It’s processing your way through challenges and seeing first-hand how you handle them. It will provide you focus on what matters most. 

3. Creativity: Stream-of-consciousness writing means that anything that comes into your mind makes it on the paper. It could be a to-do list, a tirade on going back to the office, what you did last weekend, etc. It could also be writing “I have nothing to write” until something pops into your mind. Logically, your brain thinks this is stupid and a waste of time. I mean, you have sh*t to do! However, ‘morning pages’ processes thoughts with your creative brain vs your logical brain. Giving your wandering mind more space to wander is actually when creativity strikes! This is why an idea comes to you while driving or in the shower. You’re in an auto-pilot state; allowing the brain to process creatively vs logically. 

If you’re interested in learning more about focus & tactics to kick-start your week, join us next Monday at 10-10:30 (est). 

Comment on this post or shoot me the word “FOCUS” directly and I’ll send you the Zoom link. Hope to see you there!