The Hour Of Power
by Asoka Selvarajah, Ph.D

Aristotle said that if you gave him a lever big enough, he could move the world. The same principle of leverage applies in your life. In this case, we are talking about the use of a small amount of time each day to revolutionize the results you get from the rest of your day and your life.

If a person would take just one hour out of every day, and devote it to personal development, he/she would rapidly achieve extraordinary results in life. This is the idea that is being presented to you here, and one you would do well to take seriously. Before you even think of saying that "you can't afford the time", consider this: you can't afford NOT to! Too much of the time, our well-intentioned resolutions for self betterment fall by the wayside. Certainly, we intend to take our personal growth very seriously. Yet, it either never happens at all, or if it does, fails to yield the results we might have hoped for.

This is often because there is little consistency in what we are doing. Sometimes, we go at it strong and appear to make good progress. However, with no set routine to fall back on, we are always at risk of letting the whole thing slide when something "important" comes up. By establishing an hour of power - a regular daily period for self growth - you prevent this from happening and make solid progress rapidly. Many people devote regular time to physical exercise, which is to be applauded. However, doesn't your mental life, and your very future, deserve the same respect?

What does this hour consist of? To a large extent, you can shape it as you wish. However, there should be certain elements present. There should definitely be time reserved to set and review your goals. This would include writing them out by hand to reinforce them upon your mind. All this could take 10-15 minutes. There should be a period where you actively visualize the successful achievement of your dreams. Here, you use all of your imaginative inner senses to bring your desired future into your present subconscious reality.

You could spend 20-30 minutes of your hour reading a personal growth book, or listening to tapes from motivational speakers. Remember that in order to recondition your subconscious, and raise the vibration of your thoughts and what you attract to yourself, you need to be continually feeding yourself with positive material. If you have spent much of your life thinking negative, and being fed unhelpful ideas by those around you, it is vital that you consciously reverse the process and impregnate yourself on a regular basis with the ideas that actually help you move you forward and upward.

Perhaps 5-10 minutes of your hour of power can be spent actually planning out your day? Alternatively, if you do your hour in the evenings, then you can plan out the next day. This would simply involve listing out the things you need to do, and ranking them in order of importance. Clearly, we are not talking about remembering to do the shopping, or going to see the latest movie. Rather, you need to list and execute the actions you can take that will propel your life forward, and then make sure they get done. Simply listing your activities for the day, ranking them in order of importance, and making sure they get done will change your life dramatically!

Nobody can create your hour of power for you. It is down to you to decide on the components you want to include. Perhaps a period of quiet reflection on your life is something you would wish to include. Decide on what you want to do with the time, and plan it out. Do not just set aside an hour and then drift through it without any plan. Sub-divide the hour into discrete sections, e.g. 15-minute chunks, and have an idea of what you will do in each before you even begin. Indeed, your very first hour of power may be devoted to planning out all the others to follow.

Also, it may not be one hour in a single sitting. You may find it better to do two half-hour sessions, at the start and end of the day respectively. That is fine too, if it works for you and your time schedule. However, do not sacrifice the hour total. You do need that amount of time to make it work. After all, this is not "wasted time". Rather, it could be the key component in taking you forward towards your dreams and goals.

Give some thought to this idea and consider making the hour of power a key part of your daily schedule. We are so involved in so many activities that we need a solid chunk of the day to revitalize our hopes and dreams, and keep ourselves going on the right path. Yes, given a large enough lever, you could indeed move the world. But first, you have to move yourself!

Copyright 2002, Asoka Selvarajah. All Rights Reserved.

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