The coat laid ready is a small agreement between two versions of yourself.

Preparation is one self doing a favour for another. The person who lays something out at night is not the person who will need it at six in the morning, and the whole arrangement depends on the first taking the second seriously. Most of what we call discipline is really this: a series of quiet agreements between who you are now and who you will be when it is harder.

Make one such agreement tonight. Clothes set out, a bag packed, a note left where morning you will find it. Notice how much easier the difficult hour becomes when someone has already done part of the work for you.