Rise and Empower: Crafting a Morning of Intention and Success

Unlock the transformative power of your morning with guidance from me, Greg Kuhn, your personal manifesting coach and mindset maestro. As we dissect the art of morning preparation, you'll find yourself equipped with practical skills to influence the subconscious mind and set the stage for a day that resonates with your deepest aspirations. Each morning presents a fresh performance in the theater of life, and with my insights into meditation, visualization, and emotional charting, you'll learn to curate a prelude to daily empowerment, ensuring your life's acts are in harmony with your goals.

Step into your role as the star of your own show and embrace the rituals that prime you for manifestation success. We'll explore how a structured morning routine can elevate your mental clarity, amplify your focus, and solidify a positive mindset. By intertwining actionable steps with your visualizations, you'll transcend beyond mere daydreaming into the realm of tangible achievements. Join me in investing this sacred time in yourself, and together, let's harness the shared energy of our collective journey towards growth, where reality informs but does not confine us, and every day is an opportunity to deliver our best performance, for the most important audience—ourselves.

Transcript

Greg Kuhn: 0:12

Welcome to Manifest the Big Stuff. I am Greg Kuhn. I am a manifesting coach. I am a mindset coach. I love to help you turn up your manifesting power and anytime I take the time to be with you and anytime you take the time to be with me, that's what we're doing. That is the intent of our time together, every time we are together.

Greg Kuhn: 0:49

Today, we are going to delve directly into one of the four primary access points that we all have to coach our subconscious, to coach our limbic system. If you're a neurobiological researcher, that's really what we're talking about here, because our subconscious recognizes our life. Our subconscious is what recognizes the things that manifest our life up to 10 times faster than our conscious awareness. Our subconscious is manifesting our life for us in every moment and our conscious mind makes the best of it. Our conscious mind, which is the CEO of who we are, the thinker and the decider, is ultimately making the best of the life or the reality that our subconscious manifests for us in every moment. So I've identified four research-based points of access where we have great leverage to coach our subconscious up, to help it become more aligned with our conscious desires for our life and thus to manifest versions of life for us that are more aligned with our conscious desires for them. These four access points are places where you have great leverage, increased leverage over what your subconscious is manifesting for you. Thus, when you employ these four access points that are all research-based even if you don't thoroughly understand and take a deep dive into the science of these access points, they work. These are places where you can truly coach up your subconscious and make a substantial difference. And those four points of access are preparation how you begin your day. Also framing how you tell the story of yourself and your life to yourself in every moment. Also, effort, focusing solely on your efforts as opposed to the results of your efforts. And finally, the last access point is growth how you grow in a formative and growth mindset, where you learn, grow and change from reality, essentially using reality or the life that you manifest to inform you rather than define you. We're going to talk about each of these four points of access where you have great leverage to influence and coach up your subconscious. Today we're going to start with access point number one preparation the way you begin your day.

Greg Kuhn: 4:58

Let's begin our discussion of this access point by acknowledging something that is foundational and easy to undervalue, overlook because it is a cliche. Certainly it sounds like a cliche and in this case, as is often the case, it's a cliche because of how true it is. And here it is. Each day, you and I are going to be on a stage, a public stage, where we will be giving a public performance. Now, I realize that those terms can sometimes be a little intimidating, if not a little frightening stage and performance.

Greg Kuhn: 5:56

We don't all enjoy the thought of being in front of people. Public speaking and the like tends to be one of the most predominant fears mentioned, one of the most common fears the fear of public speaking. And yet it is undeniably true that each day we're on a public stage. In fact, let's take it a step further Each moment we are on a public stage giving a performance for all to see. Even if we do not leave our bedroom all day, we are still giving a public performance, because we are giving a performance for ourselves, which, it probably comes as no surprise, is actually one of the most important audiences we ever performed for. So, whether we like the idea of being on a stage giving a public performance in every moment of the day today, whether we're happy about it. Whether we want it, whether we asked for it or not, it is occurring. And since it is occurring, why not take advantage of any and every opportunity to help ourselves deliver the best, most successful performance possible, once again, even if the only audience is ourselves, especially if the only audience is ourselves and, of course, we certainly have important audiences other than ourselves on most days.

Greg Kuhn: 8:05

So you're going to give a performance when you wake up. You're giving a performance right now, because I'm assuming that you're watching and listening to this in the middle of your day. So you're in the middle of your performance. When you're giving a performance, you're doing it on a stage that is set to support your performance. That's what an actor or a performer does. Ideally. You want that stage, as a performer, to be set in a way that supports you to the greatest degree possible. To be set in a way that facilitates the performance that you want to deliver. To be set in a way that maximizes the potential that your audience, which includes you, perceives a performance that is in line with the performance you want them to perceive. Once again, this audience includes you, and what I would say as somebody who has done some theater if you are going to perform Macbeth.

Greg Kuhn: 9:24

That's challenging enough in and of itself. You certainly don't want to perform Macbeth on a stage that is set for the Starlight Express, which you've you've never seen is a musical performed by performers on roller skates, and typically there are ramps that take them around the entire theater. You don't want to perform Macbeth on that set, on that stage. Yes, you can do it, but what is going to be a challenging opportunity for you as a performer is made all the more challenging because you're performing on a stage that's not set up to support your Macbeth delivery. We don't want this.

Greg Kuhn: 10:18

It's the equivalent of being a basketball player going to the free throw line and, as a right handed shooter, shooting your free throw left handed and only using your left hand. You can do that. There's no rule in the basketball rulebook that says you have to shoot using both hands. Nor is there a rule that says you have to shoot your free throw using your actual shooting hand. You can limit yourself by using one hand and the opposite one you normally shoot with when you shoot your free throws. You might want to do that if you want to make it extra challenging, but if your goal is to be successful, why would you do that?

Greg Kuhn: 11:12

Likewise, if your goal is to be successful today, in your day, during your ongoing public performance which, by the way, you're not performing Macbeth today you're performing you, you are performing your life, you are demonstrating to all who care to pay attention, especially yourself, the actions you've chosen, the ideas you've selected, the attitudes you've decided upon and the focus that you're choosing in every single moment. That is on display for you and others. I hope I don't need to say, but I will say it because I often need to say it to myself the expectation of you, by you, from you, for perfection would be ridiculous. Yes, we are on a public stage giving a performance. The expectation, however, is not to hit a home run in every moment. If that is what occurs, that's fantastic. That's rarely what occurs.

Greg Kuhn: 12:47

For me, however, and my assumption is you would say the same thing the expectation for preparing yourself, for taking advantage of this point of access that you have to coach up and align your subconscious, is that you will create the greatest potential in each moment for you to be successful, not that you will be successful in every moment. That is my first research backed takeaway from and about this access point when you prepare yourself to be successful by starting your morning with an intentional practice of preparation, you are not preparing yourself for success. You are preparing yourself to be open to success. You are preparing yourself by creating the best opportunity and potential for success in each moment. At the end of the day, isn't that really what each of us need the opportunity. We won't always come through with flying colors when we engage every opportunity, but we can't ever come through with flying colors without opportunity.

Greg Kuhn: 14:34

Ultimately, a practice of morning preparation is about aligning yourself with the potential to manifest a life that is aligned with your desires, the greatest potential for that possible. That is exactly how to take advantage of the leverage that you have each morning. The reason for a practice of preparation, the reason that this practice allows you to exert so much leverage in coaching up your subconscious, is that the morning is your one and only opportunity each day to begin your day by preparing yourself. The good news is it does not need to take a long time. It does not need to be complicated or convoluted. It does not need to include a vast array of practices. You can actually pick and choose, and I would recommend that you pick and choose the practices that you want to include in your opportunity preparation each morning.

Greg Kuhn: 16:01

So what does research say? What does neurobiology tell us about practices that truly set the bar for us and create the greatest potential for us to be successful? However, we want to define that in each moment of the day ahead. First of all, I want to say research indicates very clearly that any morning opportunity alignment, any morning opportunity preparation, should be done before you engage with your day at large, and that means before you leave the door for work, before you get involved with your morning chores and definitely before you open up and begin to involve yourself with emails, texts and social media. Save these activities until you are finished with your morning routine and if you do that, all of the things that you do that you include in your morning routine will have the greatest effect that they can. And all of these practices that you can choose from and probably others, but I'm going to share with you researched-backed practices that will do exactly what you want them to do prepare you for success. And what I'm going to share.

Greg Kuhn: 17:51

There are five beneficial impacts that you can create for yourself with a morning routine that are all backed by research. Number one you can clear your mind and reduce stress. Now imagine that as a starting point for your day, and it's not hard to imagine how much of an impact that can have as you sail out onto that stage free from stress and with a clear mind. Second research-backed benefit that you can employ into your life with morning practice is an increased focus and energy level. Who doesn't want more focus during the day? Who doesn't want more energy during the day? These are highly desired experiences for all of us.

Greg Kuhn: 18:52

The third thing you can cultivate is a positive mindset, not a mindset of guaranteed success, but an authentically positive mindset, a mindset where, even if you don't succeed at the level you truly desire, you're learning and growing and changing. That's a positive mindset and, of course, all of these things increase your opportunity to be successful, of course. The fourth thing is you have the opportunity to set intentions and clarify your goals. Absolutely, you want to take advantage of that. The number one requirement for hitting a target if you want to hit a target, like with a bow and arrow, the very most important thing is to have a target, otherwise you're not going to hit a thing right. That's not silly. I'm not saying that to be facetious. That is literally true. If you pass up the opportunity to create your target or targets, you are passing up quite an opportunity.

Greg Kuhn: 20:14

The last thing, the fifth thing that research tells us we can invoke with an intentional morning preparation practice is to boost our creativity and our productivity. I don't know about you, for me, when my creativity is constrained, it limits me not just in my work, it limits me in my relationships. It limits how I understand my life. It really puts a damper on the opportunities that I identify. Of course, productivity is highly valued. So how can we invoke these characteristics, how can we bring these characteristics to our day in substantial and tangible ways through a morning preparation practice? To clear your mind and reduce stress, you can practice meditation and or visualization. Now I do want to say, if you want to take advantage, as I do, of what the research shows us that these two practices bring, you want to meditate by simply keeping your mind as free from conscious thought as possible.

Greg Kuhn: 21:42

If you're not a practice meditator, I suggest don't try to control thoughts. I like to imagine that there's a little escape hatch at the top of my head, or an antenna when I'm meditating, as thoughts arise in my conscious mind, I let them escape like a chimney at the top of my head and simply be blown away by the breeze. It's fine that they're there. I'm not concerned. I'm not getting mad at myself. I'm just letting my thoughts go up the chimney and be blown away by a soft breeze. To the best of my ability. I meditate for 15 minutes every morning. I love the way it clears my mind and the way it reduces stress and sets me for the day.

Greg Kuhn: 22:37

If you are going to visualize, I will let you know that research indicates that it is important to not focus your visualization on the ultimate success you're aiming for, to not visualize the end results, but rather to visualize the tangible next right steps that you will take to take a step forward, that ultimate goal. In other words, if I'm going to visualize building a house from scratch, best practice is not for me to visualize the completed house. If I'm just starting, it's to visualize going to the lumber yard and picking out the lumber and picking out the plumbing supplies and picking out the insulation and picking out the bricks and bringing them back to the building site and organizing them appropriately. In other words, visualize the next practical things that you will be doing that are the best next right things to move toward the completion of the project or your ultimate goal. Okay, to increase focus and energy levels, you want to exercise by exercise every day. There are untold benefits for that. The reason I bring it up as a morning practice is that you do not actually need to get onto a treadmill or hit the trail to go for a vigorous walk or run outside To get the benefits of physical activity in the morning. Research shows that if the only thing you do is go outside and let fresh air and sunlight hit you, your brain, your subconscious is enlivened, it is juiced. Of course, if you're willing and inclined to go further than that and go for a vigorous walk or go for a run or ride your bicycle or do something that is appropriate for you physically, in conjunction with a medical professional giving you the thumbs up for the activity, the benefits increase Absolutely. Take advantage of this, even if only to step outside.

Greg Kuhn: 25:23

A way to cultivate a positive mindset and bring that to the forefront is to give yourself affirmations or gratitude first thing in the morning as part of your morning opportunity alignment and preparation for opportunity. When you do this practice, when you give yourself affirmations or gratitude, research indicates that the best way to do this is to focus on real, tangible things and not ideals. In this particular instance, when we're talking about morning preparation, my practice in the morning, for example, is that I journal about gratitude. I allow my business, manifest the big stuff, to speak to me through my journaling. One of the things that manifest the big stuff always journals about is its gratitude for me. Its gratitude for the ability to work with me and manifest. The big stuff always tells me things that it is grateful for about me my diligence, my work ethic, my discipline, my open, caring, giving heart, my focus on being helpful, my intentionality. These things are always true. Even when I'm in a bad mood, even when I'm facing a day with things ahead that I don't like. I can find a gratitude for those things, and I would highly encourage you, if you are going to have a morning gratitude practice or a morning affirmation practice, to follow suit. Do not necessarily, or do not force yourself to reach for the highest rung of the ladder here. Look directly in front of you and identify things that sometimes are easy to overlook. Maybe that's a good way to put it. Research indicates that that is the best way to infuse your subconscious with that energy of gratitude and affirmation.

Greg Kuhn: 27:59

The fourth area setting intentions and clarifying goals, and best be enlivened through a journaling practice. Now, I journal every morning and I want to be specific about what I'm journaling about, because I do hear frequently from folks who are in they're not fans of journaling, they're not confident writers. People often look at me and say well, you've published nine books. Of course you can journal. Of course you are amenable to that practice. Of course that practice is effective for you. You're a writer. What I will tell you is this when I journal, I free-form, right? That's what I would recommend to you if you would like to adopt this powerful practice in your life to set intentions and clarify goals. I do not plan out what I'm going to write in my head before I write it. I let my pen flow and whatever comes out comes out, and I will tell you this To take full advantage of the power of journaling and how it can coach up and influence your subconscious.

Greg Kuhn: 29:24

Double down on journaling to align yourself with the opportunities you are receiving that day, rather than trying to align yourself with successful outcomes. Now, that might sound counterintuitive, but hear me out. I mentioned before that we're on a stage every moment of the day and when we are practicing a preparation routine to take advantage of the leverage we have in such a routine, it's extra valuable to double down on aligning yourself, through journaling, with opportunity, because being on this stage, every moment of the day is an opportunity. I may not always be as charged up about taking advantage of this opportunity or each opportunity during the day. I have days where I am just not naturally feeling it, where I'm low, where I'm not as optimistic, and even on those days, I can align myself with the opportunities ahead of me.

Greg Kuhn: 30:47

I simply journal about how, in each moment today, whether I want them or not, I am being given strings free, by the way, the opportunities to demonstrate the actions, the ideas, the attitudes and the focus that I've decided upon Not only demonstrate those things, but practice them. I'm being given the opportunity to bring God to life through me. I'm being given the opportunity to be the best ally possible for future, greg. In this moment, I'm being given the opportunity to manifest or recognize my life intentionally rather than by default, and I can take advantage of these opportunities and more in every single moment. And through that free form journaling process, I'm able to come to a place where, even when I don't feel great about myself or my day, I can recognize and understand those opportunities and say today I choose to give my best effort to take advantage of those opportunities in each moment, no matter what my best effort looks like from moment to moment. That is an incredibly aligned place from which to start the day and I can't recommend opportunity journaling enough.

Greg Kuhn: 32:32

I also utilize a practice I picked up from Maria Brito's book how Creativity Rules the World, where I then set my intention further by writing about what I want to accomplish in the day ahead and how to best accomplish that, and I keep that simple. I write about how the best way to accomplish it ultimately is to be fully focused and fully present with a compassionate, self-compassionate, checklist mentality, and that today I will give my best effort to bring that to each moment, regardless of what my best effort looks like in each moment, because, as we all know, it will look different from moment to moment. And finally, to boost creativity and productivity, this is one of my favorites do a productive task. Research shows that doing a productive task once again, just like the rest of these practices before we open our email, before we start reading our texts, before we get on social media, before we go out into the day, before we start our chores and tactile activity that says all right, the day's underway. Do a productive task Now to take advantage of this research-based activity and its benefits in boosting your creativity and productivity.

Greg Kuhn: 34:12

All you need to do is a small task. If it's work-related for example, don't let it be answering emails, of course but for me, my productive task this morning was I sat down and I wrote out the description for this episode of Manifest, the Big Stuff and I made the thumbnail for this episode. Now, that sort of activity doesn't take me very long. It took me approximately seven minutes and when I was done, I got up and I went into brush my teeth and wash my face and do my normal routines, because productive task for me is almost always the last part of my intentional opportunity preparation the last part of my preparation routine. Your productive task could be emptying the dishwasher, it could be making your bed, it could be feeding the dog, it could be a small combination, but it should be something short and sweet. You don't even have to complete the task. It could be doing the next right thing on your plate. That takes you one step closer to completing the larger task. That is absolutely fine, but don't spend any more than five to 10 minutes on it, and research indicates you will have infused yourself with creativity and productivity.

Greg Kuhn: 35:58

All five of these practices that I have mentioned are 100% backed by plenty of peer-reviewed research. They truly have a tremendous effect and allow you to exert great leverage when you include them in your morning preparation, in your practice of setting the stage for yourself so that you can perform Macbeth the way it's intended to be performed, which will give you the best chance possible to give the greatest performance possible. Now you don't have to win the Academy Award to say I had a successful performance. You and I both know that as long as you've given the best performance possible in each moment, there's nothing else you could have done. And if you're doing that on a regular basis, you're going to hit the mark more and more often. And that's the extreme value here, the extreme leverage that you get to introduce, poaching up your subconscious, manifesting new, more aligned versions of reality. And you'll find that as you make the best of these new, more aligned versions of reality with your conscious mind, you're not having to work as hard to be successful because your beliefs changing as you coach up your subconscious.

Greg Kuhn: 37:51

Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. Next time we meet, we're absolutely going to delve into the second window of great leverage on your subconscious, framing how you tell the story of yourself and your life in ways that coach up your subconscious, in ways that align the beliefs stored there with your true desires for your life. Want you to practice the morning opportunity operation routine as we discussed today. I want you to choose from those five research based activities and I want you to get up early enough that you have time to do them. I do not want you to shortchange your opportunity to set your stage for your greatest performance, for your most important performance, which is the one that's happening in this moment.

Greg Kuhn: 39:09

Why shoot your free throws, left handed, what you don't have to? We don't want life to be any more challenging than it needs to be, than what it already is. As a final word, I will say A my morning preparation practice makes me anywhere from 25 to 35 minutes and remember I'm meditating for 15 of those minutes. Sometimes, when I'm using my belief raising process, it takes me a little longer, because I will write myself into the next emotional perspective on my emotional reference chart. As my productive task and typically that can take a little longer, but budgeting 30 minutes, 40 minutes, will probably be enough time for you. I don't know about you, but it is completely worth it for me to get out of bed 40 minutes earlier than I would without a morning routine to set my stage for Macbeth After all, I'm going to be performing Macbeth all day long. I want it set for Macbeth.

Greg Kuhn: 40:35

So until we get a chance to get together again and, by the way, thank you so much again for spending time with me. You can't share anything more valuable with me than your time, so I never take that for granted. I am so empowered by that and I do receive your energy, even when you're watching this in my future, because you're watching it right now. But to me that's the future. Of course you're watching it right now and to you my recording of this episode is the past. So we are meeting in the middle in a primitive form of time travel. You're creating a common right now that you're sharing from my future with me and I'm sharing from your past with you. Isn't that fun? I so appreciate the opportunity to do that. Thank you for giving it to me and until we get to be together again, keep believing and keep manifesting.