scott stonehouse

At zero dark thirty this morning, I was out doing a 4 mile ruck with 30 lbs. on my back. It was close to 6 am when I was coming back to the house and I felt tired, but great. I remembered an old US Army commercial that said, “We do more before 9 am than most people do all day.”

What a good feeling to have already accomplished something – something hard or something important – early in the morning.

The maxim “Win the Morning, Win the Day” encourages me to do that. If I can start the day off well, the rest of the day often seems to go well, too. And if it doesn’t, at least I had a good morning.

Working out in the morning doesn’t radically change my health and strength for that day, but it does help me feel better about the day.

Spending time alone, quietly reading my Bible and praying in the morning doesn’t completely change my spiritual life, but it helps ground me and direct my attitude and focus for the day.

Both activities are good, helpful things in and of themselves, but they are also pieces of a collection of activities that define what it means, to me, to “win the morning.” I track them each day. They are habits, pieces of evidence, votes in favor of an identity that I am the type of person who does these things (see A Bad Day Working Out).

You can see I don’t have a perfect score. I don’t always do them. Or I will do some but not all. That’s OK (see Discipline and Grace). I aim to do them each day. I end up doing them most of the time.

What it means to “win the morning” has been different for me during different seasons of my life. What it means to you to “win the morning” is probably different than for me. Regardless of the details, strive to win the morning because when you win the morning, you win the day.