A few days ago, I was talking on the phone with my friend Lisa about how smoothly things have been going in my life.

She’s my accountability partner, and we’re each other’s business cheerleaders. That’s metaphorical cheerleading; there are no pom-poms involved.

Anyhoo, I was telling her that I thought my good fortune was a result of setting my intention every morning and spending time going through my magic stack of papers on my desk.

Oops. Did I say that out loud?

I hadn’t mentioned that part of my morning ritual to anyone yet. My “stack,” as I call it, is my private morning ritual…part law of attraction, part superstition, and a whole lotta woo-woo.

But that’s the thing about Lisa. She makes me feel so comfortable and competent that I can tell her anything, even the weird bits.

So before I could dwell on feeling embarrassed, I told her all about my stack. And now I’m going to tell you.

You know those days when you feel like you’ve woken up on the wrong side of the bed? And the day continues in a terrible fashion and one catastrophe after another befalls you.

You stub your toe getting out of bed. You’re all out of toothpaste. You spill coffee on your blouse. You miss your train to work. Your boss yells at you for being late. And on and on…

Well, there will always be bad days, but I know for a fact you’ll have fewer of them if you have a morning ritual that puts you in a positive frame of mind as soon as you wake up.

Here’s where my stack comes in.

I’ve been gathering mantras, uplifting sayings, prayers, and other gratitude odds and ends and stacking them up on my desk next to my laptop. I was inspired by the book The Magic that has a 28-day gratitude program with lots of little rituals.

Here’s a list of some of the items in my stack (No, I’m not going to share everything. I need some privacy!).

My Morning Stack

• My aspiration journal. I write for a few minutes as if everything I want to happen today has already occurred.
• 3 photos of people I care about. On the back of each photo, I wrote 5 things that I’m thankful for about that person. I read these out loud.
• A note card with 5 beliefs about my business. I read these out loud.
• My business goals for the month. Just looking over my goals keeps me focused on what’s most important.
• A fake check that I wrote out to myself. I got this idea from The Secret, and you can download a free blank check here. Have you ever heard Jim Carrey talk about the time he wrote himself a fake check? So inspiring! Love him.
• A note card that says, “Everything goes right for me.” I read this 10 times out loud.

I end my ritual by standing in front of my vision board and studying it for 2-5 minutes. Then I meditate for about 5 minutes while focusing on a phrase, usually “I am well, I am happy, I am free.”

That’s it! It sounds like a lot, but it only takes me 15 minutes or so to go through it all. And I’ve absolutely noticed a change in my attitude, mood, positivity, and my general outlook on life by setting my intention like this every morning. And I have fewer bad days too.

Lisa says she’s working on her own morning ritual, so maybe I’m not so weird after all.

Want to create a morning stack of your own?

Think about the words that give you comfort and hope: maybe a poem, a quote from your holy book, a meditative phrase or koan, etc. Write these sayings on note cards and flip through the stack every morning before you begin your day. Try reciting the words out loud for even more inspiration and power.

“Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.” Mahatma Gandhi.