Robin Meade - Morning Sunshine!: How to Radiate Confidence and Feel It Too

Copyright 2009 by Robin Meade

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Second eBook Edition: May 2011

ISBN: 978-1-599-95271-0

To Tim, for your humor, unconditional love, and constant confidence in me all these years. I love you!

And to Dr. Amelia Case, for twisting me around to look at myself. Thank you!

Your self-image is dependent on what other people think of you. It can be taken away from you at any time, by the good and bad opinions of the world. True self-esteem comes from going beyond your image and knowing the core of your being, which is beneath no one, fearless, and immune to criticism. Robin Meades MORNING SUNSHINE! is an elegant journey from self-image to self-esteem. A book that will help anyone who wants to radiate true self-confidence.

Deepak Chopra, author, Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul

When my friend and colleague Robin Meade asked me to read an advance copy of her book, I was honored and excited. After all, Robin is a beloved character by everyone at HLN and CNN. And, while we are very close, as I turned the pages I learned things about her I never knew. It is an amazingly candid and honest introspective look at her own life. Anyone who has ever wondered if they have what it takes to build their confidence or succeed at the impossible should read this book.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN chief medical correspondent

Terrific! MORNING SUNSHINE! is an excellent read. It gave me encouragement to face my own fears. This book should be used as a learning tool for manybut especially for young girls who second-guess their inner strength. I enjoyed the book and couldnt put it down.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee, three-time Olympic gold medalist

Robin Meade is a joy to watch on air, and her new book, MORNING SUNSHINE!, will put a smile on your face and a spring in your step. Funny, thoughtful, caringthats Robin, and reading MORNING SUNSHINE! is like sitting with her at homelistening to and learning from a close friend.

Anderson Cooper, anchor, CNN

Robin Meade doesnt provide just morning sunshine but all-day enlightenment in this charming book of love, life, and laughter. An instant pick-me-up, with lessons youll keep with you forever.

Sarah Ivens, editor at large, OK! Magazine

I loved reading Robins book because it inspired me, and I am certain it will inspire everyone who reads it. She tells her story with a moving and beautiful first-person narrative. She truly writes from her heart, and that comes through on every page. MORNING SUNSHINE! helped me, and it will help you as well.

Wolf Blitzer, CNN anchor of The Situation Room

Just like Robin on the morning news, her book is a feel-good positive boost of adrenaline.

Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx

How do you do it?

The soccer momlooking lady was leaning in sideways to peer into my face as I tried to print out pictures at the Kodak kiosk at the pharmacy.

How do you stay so upbeat, even though you have to get up so early and talk about depressing stories?

She tried to maintain eye contact, but I could see her eyes darting from my face (still caked with TV makeup) to my purse (large enough for a small child to hide in) to my pictures (oh, geez, what was I printing?) to my shoes (flip-flops from the craft stores summer aisle)as if she were taking inventory.

Aha! What we had here was an avid viewer of the morning TV show I anchor four hours a day, Morning Express with Robin Meade, on HLN (or, as you used to know it, Headline News). And she had caught me right then and there, bathed in the unflattering lights of the corner drugstore.

Well, its not always easy, I replied, wanting her to know I wasnt immune to stories like the one stuck in my brain that day of a toddler whose mother had allegedly neglected for a month to even tell anyone she was missing. I hurried on, But we have a good team around us who makes work not seem like work.

Its my fallback answer to common questions from viewers, such as: What time do you get up? Is it hard to do breaking news? Then theres the real zinger: Is that your real laugh? (Think more guffaw than giggle.)

But what I get the most is, I love it when you say, Morning, sunshine! Who is Morning Sunshine? (Even country music king Kenny Chesney recently halted my interview with him to ask me that question.)

If you watch my show, you know I greet you nearly every half hour of the show with a rousing Morning, sunshine! Sometimes news junkies think its directed toward a particular viewer with whom they assume I have some special relationship. You know, the Carol Burnett Ill-pull-on-my-ear-for-you thing.

Is Morning Sunshine what you call your husband? an older gentleman once asked with an inquisitive expression on his face. My wife and I think you must call each other that. I theorized he and his sweetie had similar pet names for each other.

The truth of the matter is that Morning, sunshine! is something my preacher father would belt out in the mornings of my childhood, trying to root his three-kid brood out of bed in an uplifting way. It was positive, but to the point. Mind you, if that didnt do the trick, hed rip off the covers. If you got a couple of seconds of the brisk air that still lingered in our Ohio home on winter mornings, youd jump out of bed, too. It was a fathers gentle way of saying, Move, before I put a steel-toed boot in your butt! He didnt have the luxury of letting his children make him late for his factory job.

Likewise, I say Morning, sunshine! to my viewers because:

1. It comes naturally after hearing it all my life.
2. It conveys enthusiasm about the start of your dayour day togetherwhile being just aggravating enough to keep you from burying your bedhead back in the pillow.
3. People seem to sit up and take notice. Regular viewers request, Say hello to me on the air! So instead of risking sounding like Miss Sally in Romper Room, I tell them, Ill say, Morning, sunshine! at such and such time just for you! Its a small way to make that personal connection we all crave. (And besides, I do have them in mind when I say it!)
4. Its become a way of thinking for me.

Let me explain.

If you move beyond Morning, sunshine! as a salutation, you can start to understand how to also look at it as a concepta way of life.

Every single one of us has to find those tenets, beliefs, and mind-sets that sustain us and move us through not only our day, but our lives when the crud hits the fan.

For me, my morning sunshine is made up of many components, including:

Tim does a great imitation of our fifteen-year-old cat, Ike, coughing up a hairball. He also makes fun of the Carmex I habitually keep on the nightstand in case the night air dries out my smackers. (Mmm-mmm, hell say, exaggerating his imitation by overdrawing his lips with an imaginary tube of Carmex.) And the dude will wager outlandish jewelry if Ill agree to do some outrageous act.