I Didn't Need More Time. I Needed the First Ten Minutes.

I'll go first: the first ten minutes of my day hadn't belonged to me in years.

I'd open my eyes and hand myself straight over — phone first, then everybody else's needs, everybody else's emergencies, everybody else's day. Businesses to run, people counting on me, a life that looks full from the outside. And somewhere in all that fullness, I kept coming last on my own list. Not because nobody loved me. Because I kept volunteering.

So I stopped asking for more time. Women like us are never going to find a spare hour lying around. I took ten minutes instead — the first ten, before the world gets a vote.

Here's what those ten minutes hold now. I check in honestly: how am I arriving this morning — peaceful, hopeful, unsure, heavy, energized? No performing, no 'I'm fine.' Then I give myself one kind sentence — a note to myself, before the world writes on me. Then one question. Just one. Some mornings it's light. Some mornings it tells the truth I've been avoiding. And then I answer it — I write it, or I say it out loud — and I keep it.

One reflection at a time. No streaks to protect. No catching up. If I miss a morning, I don't owe anybody an apology tour. I just come back.

That's the whole practice. That's Obsessed With Myself.

Every morning there's also a rampage on the YouTube channel — five minutes of spoken affirmations to delete the old story while you get ready. And every day there's one prompt, here and on Instagram, if you want to practice along with me.

Start where I started: seven mornings. There's a free 7-Day Challenge on this site — one prompt and one rampage in your inbox every morning for a week. Seven days from now you won't be a different woman. But the first ten minutes of your day will belong to you again — and that's where different starts.

Before the world gets your attention, give yourself a little.

— Lisa

Today's prompt: What is one promise to yourself you can keep today?