The Morning Routine

I used to have all the free time in the world.

If you remember your former self, you probably had seasons of the same. Summers or weekends or college days come to mind.

I'd stroll into the gym…eventually. Then I could spend as much time there as I wanted.

The problem with this approach is that it doesn't set you up to "attack" the day ahead.

Then if you eventually have something that you need to do, like go to work, it doesn't help to only wake up right before you have to start getting ready.

It creates a rushed morning.

What's funny is that there were glimpses of me waking up early to workout because it was necessary. Before morning football workouts. Making sure I got to the CrossFit gym I was a part of because there were set hours. I even worked out in the morning during college when I didn't even have to. Despite the upfront pain, I always felt great after.

You want to use the morning to set the tone for the day. Is the tone going to be one of peace and control?

Or will it be chaos and reactive?

The solution is to create your own morning routine.

Not Just for CEOs

Morning routines are mocked these days, especially the "CEO morning routine." It's probably mocked because it involves things that most people don't do: cold showers, meditation, gratitude, visualization, exercise (but exercise is good, isn't it?).

We've seen comedy skits where guys do cold showers and full workouts, wake up at 3am and they expand the time used (5 hours meditating lol).

Funny.

Yet the opposite is even worse.

• The alarm sounds.

• Hit snooze a few times, training yourself to delay the day.

• Scroll on your phone, ruining your attention span, getting cheap dopamine and starting the day with negativity.

• Only finally getting up when you absolutely have to get up, creating stress.

This creates a rushed morning.

I get it though. We don't want the day to start because it's filled with a bunch of stuff we have to do that we're not excited about.

Here's how to turn it around:

If you give yourself your own thing to work on, it will motivate you to get up.

You see the end result and it excites you. The two best alarm clocks are 1. a good night's sleep and 2. a powerful vision to work towards.

After those two things, a routine is optional stuff that you add in to warm your brain (or body) up. If you wouldn't hit the gym cold, don't do the same thing with your brain. All that visualization stuff helps, which is why Olympic athletes do it all the time. If they can do it, can't you apply just a little to your life? Maybe a walk gets your brain working before you start practicing an instrument. Maybe reading something inspiring puts you in a better mood. Maybe a cold shower wakes you up more than coffee could.

Whatever you need and you have the time for determines your morning routine. You don't have to do everything, but don't throw out the baby with the bathwater either.

Don't sleep on the morning routine. (See what I did there? I'll see myself out.)

In the Beginning (of the Day). Creating Your Own Routine

Remember what we said earlier:

A morning routine is a series of optional things that you add in that supplement your main goal.

Most people use them to just get in a better head-space before the day starts, which is awesome.

Here is a list of how to set things up for your main task/goal.

Step 1 - Set some goals

• Decide what you want out of all of this.

• Is it the fact that you don't have the time or willpower to workout? Well congrats because you're in the right place.

Step 2 - Night Time Time Audit

• Do an exercise and analyze what you're doing at night. Are you wasting time? Could you shave off scrolling and entertainment time? (The answer should be yes if your reason to wake up is strong enough.)

• Set a "no more electronics and go read in bed" alarm. If kids have a sleep time, so should you.

Step 3 - Prepare

• Prepare for your morning like you're going to the airport. (It will involve a lot less than a flight, so it won't be that horrible.)

• If we're talking about working out, it could mean getting your clothes ready, having a plan, preparing any pre-workout food, setting an alarm, etc.

Step 4 - Go to Bed!

• Head to bed an hour earlier than usual so you can wake up an hour earlier than usual.

• Your monkey mind will be upset because you're taking away some of your "me time." Just keep in mind that you're going to be trading it for more wholesome, productive "me time" in the morning.

• Set up your alarm in the morning. If you're not tired at this time, then you will be the next day because you'll be more tired because you woke up early.

• Put the electronics down. Reading a book (with paper…if you have one) will put you to sleep faster than anything else.

Step 5 - Wake up!

• No snoozing allowed.

• Remember why you're doing this.

• A good rule of thumb for your alarm is that you should be getting up 1 hour before you have to do anything else you've normally been doing. If you have to start getting ready at 7am for work, you should be getting up at 6am.

• That time now belongs to you. Keep it sacred.

Step 6 - Customize

• FINALLY it's time to set up a routine beyond the main task.

• At this step, if there are things that will benefit you, add them in.

  • Reading something positive

  • Meditate (aka practice shutting your mind off)

  • Visualize your tasks for the day or big goals

  • Cold shower? (Probably not if you're going to workout.)

• These are here if they help you and if you have the time for them.

• The 80/20 of getting what you want is doing the thing itself. Everything else is a warmup. The mornings are great because they don't allow you to talk yourself out of it.

Win the Morning, Win the Day, Win at Life

Everyone wants a life they're happy with, yet we think it will take some huge monumental event like a Rocky training montage.

If you have a spare cabin in the woods, workout equipment to fill it and a coach that will travel with you, that can work.

For most of us, we need to use the little bit of time we have available to us.

Let's be honest, most of us just waste time at night. Even if parents put their kids to bed early , unless 100% of that time is getting ready for the next day, we "need to unwind." Most of the activities we choose these days aren't unwinding our brains. The best unwinding tool is reading until sleepy.

If we want a better life, it just comes down to small daily actions, especially if we're just getting started or getting back into things. If that's the case, the best course of action is to use the time when our willpower is the highest: the morning.

Who knows what the day, and especially the end of the day, will look like. If it's stressful, good luck working on your own thing at 8pm. The best thing you can do for yourself is to just scrap the "unwinding" time, go to bed early and start investing in your mornings.

After that, you'll feel so much better because you've moved the needle a little bit more. Just imagine doing that for a few weeks, months or years.

Your life will never be the same.

The only way to find out is to go try it.

Thanks for reading!

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