Days Are Won Or Lost Within The First Hours Of The Morning
If you are like most people, when the new year rolls around, you like to set new goals and destinations you would like to reach.
It is healthy to think of new things you would like to do and accomplish over the course of the next 12 months.
The goal setting you create for yourself is great, but how exactly do you execute and stay consistent with your goals over the span of 12 months?
Routine.
Morning routine, to be precise.
Most people overlook the mornings and underestimate just how much can be accomplished if you own your morning routine.
Here Are 9 Things You Should Do Each Morning To Accomplish Your Goals:
1. Wake Up At The Same Time Every Day
If you have ever gone from a treacherous sleeping schedule to a solid consistent sleeping schedule, then maybe you can recall the recognizable difference that was felt.
We thrive the following day coming off of great sleep each night. It is the days where we experienced poor sleep the night before, that we struggle and feel the drag of the day.
Get into the habit of waking up each day at the same time. Find a reasonable hour that is beneficial for you to stay consistent with each day.
Most people report to a 9-5/ Monday – Friday and because of that schedule they have a dedicated time to wake up to in order to make it to work on time. Weekends they try to sleep in and enjoy some extra hours of sleep. Respected.
But what if you woke up at the same time 7 days a week?
If you are anything like me (a sleepy head) then you are probably scratching this one right off the list already ❌
But before I lose you, hear me out.
Consistency and balance in life brings bliss. The more you hone in on your routine and you refine it and then stay consistent with it, the more you begin to learn about yourself. Here is where true permanent growth happens.
The human body is an adaptation machine. It can withstand a lot and if you train it properly you can reap extreme benefits each day for yourself.
2. Immediately Get Out Of Bed
When the alarm goes off in the mornings it’s almost like a natural instinct to hit the snooze button to shut the thing off.
Who wants to hear some obnoxious sound going off at an hour where we are most likely not ready to get out of bed?
Self-discipline is cultivated over time, through repetition and consistency. With that being said, each time your alarm goes off and you hit the snooze button, you are training your brain that you can bypass that alarm and keep sleeping.
You are essentially training your brain in the wrong direction.
What you want to do instead, is practice getting out of bed immediately as that alarm goes off. Mel Robinns likes to use her “NASA Method”, where she counts down from 5,4,3,2,1…get up.
The more consistent you are with this practice, you will quickly find that the body acclimates and the mind appreciates the consistency in this process.
3. No Phone
Many of us fall victim to waking up in the mornings and immediately reaching over for our mobile devices.
In fact, many people use their mobile devices as their morning alarm clock. Consequently, you can see just how easy it can be to click over to your favorite news or social media platforms and get lost in mindless scrolling rather quickly.
The truth is, this is a pretty bad habit to develop. On the contrary, what you should want to do is not even come close to your phone for the first 30 minutes that you are awake. If you can delay this even further, the better.
The mind is extremely absorbent early in the mornings. Many psychologists believe that you can tap into your subconscious mind effectively, first thing in the morning. Because of this, you want to maximize what you feed your mind within that given window.
It is often believed that what we expose our minds to within the first hour of our day, predicates how we perform the rest of the day.
If you wake up and experience bad news moments within of rising, you may have a high correlation of negative mood swings throughout your day. All because you flooded the brain with negative information too quickly and too early within your morning.
Learn to keep the mind fresh and clean as you rise, a great way to do this is to stay away from your phone.
4. Cold Shower
Waking up and taking an immediate shower is one of the best ways to start your morning.
Typically, most of us go for that warm setting on the shower handle. We like to enjoy a nice warm or hot shower and we kind of steer clear of ever letting that handle get too close to that large letter “C” that represents cold water. It’s just too uncomfortable.
Turns out, there are highly beneficial effects that the human body goes through when exposed to cold water temperatures.
A study by the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine showed that cold showers increase the electrical impulses sent to the brain. This helps to combat depression and put the brain into a greater space to begin your day.
In addition to mental health, cold showers also have proven to improve circulation throughout the body. This can aid in recovery and strengthen your immune system.
5. Five Minutes Of Cardio
Before you question the ridiculousness of doing 5 minutes of exercise, let’s go a little deeper.
You have two simple scenarios in a morning routine: in one case, you exercise for 5 minutes or more each day, and the other you don’t exercise because 5 minutes sounds ridiculous.
It’s really simple—5 minutes a day, over the course of years, adds up.
Most people are quick to wave it off because it is not some extreme number, and there could be no way that implementing 5 minutes of cardio each day would provide any results. I beg to differ.
On the forefront, you have the practice of self-discipline and consistency. 5 minutes may sound like cake, but can you do it each and every single day for 1 year without skipping a day? After all it’s just 5 minutes.
When you look at this way, you can see just how valuable a simple 5 minutes can become.
Not to mention, the momentum that is being built up over time is huge. You have a compounding effect of self- improvement.
Before you know it, 5 minutes of cardio is just not enough and you begin to challenge yourself further.
You can move to 10 minutes, then 15, then 20 and so forth.
All of this can become possible all because you started small and held the line over time.
6. Five Minutes Of Visualization And Meditation
There is a thesis out there that has been proven to display that a person can visualize something in their mind, and the brain can identify and emotionally react in the same exact way it would if the experience took place in real life.
I believe we can visualize something so much within our brain to the point where our mind believes it has already happened.
It takes time to get to that level of visualization, but it can be reached through practice and repetition.
Take some time each morning to visualize your day. Jog your mind through all of the respective responsibilities you have and all of the goals that will require you to stretch yourself further to achieve.
Taking just 5 minutes to do this each day can become extremely beneficial. You will not only become more organized over time, but you will become more successful in the endeavors you choose to embark on.
7. Eat A Healthy Breakfast
I am sure that you have heard the analogy of the “human body” representing a high performance vehicle and “food” represents the fuel you put into the vehicle.
If you take a high performance vehicle and you just give it any old or ordinary fuel grade, that vehicle is most likely not going to run properly.
When you provide the vehicle (your body) with high-grade fuel (whole foods) the vehicle now has everything it needs to run at a high level. It can now run at its full power and potential.
When you eat breakfast, you are essentially breaking a fast (break-fast).
This is why you want to aim for fuel that will provide your body with foods that are going to give you the necessary macro and micro nutrients for you to attack your day with drive and dedication.
8. Set 3 Goals For The Day
Each day that we are blessed to wake-up and experience life, there is usually a list of stapled responsibilities not too far behind.
We typically have things within our day that just need to get done.
Some of us have to go drop of children to and from school, some have to attend school each night after work, and some have to prepare for big days at work. There are some things that we just have to do.
But what about things that we want to do? Where do those go?
It’s really easy to become consumed by work or school and forget about you and your own personal goals and aspirations.
Don’t let this happen to you.
Set 3 goals for the day that are going to require you to challenge yourself and your resolve.
Look within yourself and ask yourself what are some goals that you would love to achieve.
List those 3 goals on paper each morning and review your progress each day.
9. Grab Some Coffee And Start Hustling
There is not one morning that goes by, that I can move forward with a hustle in my step without my warm cup of black coffee each morning.
Coffee is not for everyone. Some may dislike its caffeine content, some don’t like the taste, and some prefer a healthier alternative such as green tea.
Which ever choice you prefer, find one that works for you and implement it into your daily routine.
The more consistent you can be with your routine, and the more you focus on building it and refining it, the further you are going to move on your success scale.
It is the little things we do each day consistently that propel us forward.
