Did you jump out of bed this morning, excited to start a new day -- or did you hit the snooze button seven times, wishing you could just stay in bed? We all have our moments, but comedian Steve Harvey believes that the key to happiness and success lies in the first 10 minutes of every morning.
"When people say, 'I'm not a morning person,' that's the most ridiculous statement a person can make," Harvey says in the above "Oprah's Lifeclass" clip. "For you to wake up and lay that on your day … to pull that blanket up over your head every day is such a waste of time."
Harvey's career has reached new heights in recent years -- he's got his own talk show, a nationally syndicated radio program, a hosting gig on "Family Feud" and a series of best-selling self-help books. But he didn't always have it this good. Harvey was once a college drop-out who lived out of his car for a period of time, drifting from one dead-end job to the next.
What changed? He tells Oprah that attitude has everything to do with it. "When I wake up in the morning, I spend the first 10 minutes just thanking. I don't even address any problems and stuff I got. I'm just grateful that I'm up for this."
More: How Oprah and Steve Harvey learned to deal with haters trying to bring them down.
For 10 full minutes, Harvey says he thanks God for everything he has in life, down to his electric toothbrush. It's what Oprah calls "gratitude mediation."
"It makes your day start such a wonderful way," Harvey says. "See, when you're not grateful, it kind of blocks the rest of your blessings from coming."
Harvey says God is "real smooth in his business." "Why would he give you more stuff to be ungrateful for? He's such a gentleman. So if you're having a rough time with what you have, why would I give you more?"
You may not like your current job, but Harvey says recognizing what you already have is key to improving your situation. "So now if you're waking up miserable about your job, why would he give you another job? Why would he do that? So you can go be ungrateful for that?" Harvey asks. "You've got to thank him for the position you in and thank him for all the things that's to come."
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