Have you ever wondered how some people wake up happy, vibrant and full of life?
You know these crazy people I'm talking about – they're energetic, productive, confident, and passionate. They move about the day as a force to be reckoned with. And no matter what happens, nothing seems to phase them. They're a beacon of joy and energy, and as a result, people are naturally drawn to their radiance.
What makes these people different from the rest is NOT a “natural ability” or an inherent talent that they were born with. They possess no clear advantage over anyone else. The difference is that they've made a CHOICE to be this way.
These people have DECIDED to live their life the way they want and have cultivated a consistent, daily ritual that makes them the way that they are.
You are what you repeatedly do everyday.
You are defined by your RITUALS – what you do on a consistent basis.
If you're always miserable, unhappy, anxious, living in fear, etc… it's because you have RITUALS that may not even be aware of, that are creating these emotions in your body on a consistent basis. You've literally TRAINED yourself to be this way through practice and conditioning.
Can you change? YES.
Can you be happy, confident, and passionate each day? YES.
How? DECIDE.
My Morning Ritual
I want to share with you below my most powerful video yet. In this 35-minute video blog, I will take you through my ENTIRE MORNING RITUAL – what I do every single day to set myself up to win.
How you start the day is how you end the day.
This is EXACTLY how I do it – my secret to self-confidence, happiness, and vitality. By doing this morning ritual, I feel literally UNSTOPPABLE everyday. It creates a powerful momentum and allows me to start off the day with energy, be productive, focused, healthy, and happy. As a result, negativity doesn't seem to affect me much and I'm able to live my life PROACTIVELY, instead of out of reaction.
If you sew the same seeds, you'll reap the same rewards.
The notion behind having a Morning Ritual is to gift the most scarce resource you have, which is time, to YOU. To make you the most important thing in your life, and to ensure that you're at your best.
Let me ask you… if you REALLY LOVE someone, how do you show them that love?
Not only that, but you might do things to make that person feel INCREDIBLE – perhaps compliment them, tell them how much you love them, or celebrate together. Again, how often do you take the time to compliment yourself, love yourself, and allow yourself to feel incredible?
Most of us are too busy beating ourselves up – and I'm sure if you did that to someone else, you wouldn't be in a relationship with them very long.
Doesn't it only make sense to nurture the most important relationship you have, which is with yourself? This Morning Ritual, or “Hour of Power” if you would, accomplishes that.
If you want to take your life to a whole new level, then create an empowering Morning Ritual that you'll stick to everyday and COMMIT to it. Make it non-negotiable. I don't care if you have to wake up earlier or sleep less, just do it – no excuses. If you actually do this, I promise you that life will never be the same again.
Watch the video of my Morning Ritual below:
(Or, you can watch the video on YouTube by clicking here!)
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I'm going to break down my Morning Ritual here for you guys and go more into details on what I outline in the video.
1. Smile
This is the first and most important thing to do the moment your eyes open.
First, it reminds you to be HAPPY and APPRECIATE the fact that you're alive – it's an act of gratitude. Second, it is engaging your physiology, which changes your state. There are over 50 muscles in your face, and most of them are being used the moment you smile. You will begin to feel good immediately.
2. Stretch
Next, stretch out and loosen up your body while still in bed. You want to make sure your muscles are ALIVE and AWAKE for the beginning of an incredible day. You need to get out of zombie-mode and get the blood-flow circulating through your body.
3. Breathe
Every cell of your body is made up of oxygen, which it is starving for first thing in the morning. Most of us have impaired breathing while asleep, and so taking the time to consciously take in deep breaths from your diaphragm will begin to fully oxygenate your cells and start getting rid of waste that has accumulated while asleep.
Not only that, but the brain needs oxygen – so you're instantly providing your red blood cells with more oxygen, which go through the river of life, and then is transported to your brain. You'll instantly feel more alert and energetic.
I usually start the day with a certain breathing pattern, where I inhale at a count of 5 seconds, hold for the count of 20 seconds, and then exhale at a count of 10 seconds. Alternatively, I'll immediately get out of bed and go for a walk outside, in which case I'll do something called Breathwalking.
4. Drink Water
For most of us, our bodies are severely dehydrated the moment we wake up. Your cells not only need oxygen, but water as well. 70% of your body is made up of water, and so it only makes sense to fully hydrate your body so that it can be start off the day at a peak level.
I personally drink Kangen Water, which is filtered, ionized, alkaline water. A Kangen Water ionizer isn't cheap, but it's well worth the investment for your health in the long run. At least make sure you're drinking filtered, purified water for now. Sometimes I'll add in some lemon to further alkalize the water, or mix with my water some Greens powder and make it into a Green Drink.
And don't just drink a sip of water – literally down 1-2 glasses. You have no idea how much your body needs it.
5. Move Your Body
The fastest way to change your STATE is through MOVEMENT. When you change the way you move, it immediately begins to change how you feel. Emotion is created by motion. And the word E-MOTION really just means “Energy in Motion”.
The way you use your physiology biochemically changes how you feel.
So, it's important to engage your physiology immediately. I like to use something called a Rebounder, which is a mini-trampoline. It's also known as a Lymphasizer, since it stimulates your lymphatic system, which immediately begins to eliminate waste. Not only that, but every cell of your body gets stimulated and massaged. It gets your metabolism going, you start to feel energetic immediately, and it boosts your state. There's SO MANY other amazing benefits to rebounding, which I'll be sure to talk about in a future blog post.
Any form of exercise or movement will do. During summertime, I'll step outside and immediately go for a walk near the water. Or I'll start doing jumping jacks, sit-ups, or jump on a treadmill. Just do whatever you prefer, but again, the key is to GET MOVING!
6. Engage Your Emotions
The next most powerful way to change your state is by changing your FOCUS. This allows you to start off the day feeling remarkable through flooding your body with positive emotions.
Whatever you focus on, you feel.
You want to make sure that you're controlling your focus first thing in the morning, and directing it towards the way that you want to feel. The way that I personally do that is by asking myself a series of Empowering Questions, which change your focus, thus changing your state.
Here's the questions that I ask myself everyday:
What am I happy about in my life right now?
What am I excited about in my life right now?
What am I proud of in my life?
What am I grateful for in my life?
What am I passionate about in my life right now?
What am I committed to in my life right now?
Who do I love? Who loves me?
You have to make sure you really FEEL the emotions, not just intellectually answer the questions – but FEEL it. I do this by asking the follow-up question, “What about this makes me happy?” and “How does this make me feel?”
I also like to do this process OUT LOUD, not just in my head. When I speak it out loud and use my body, I am engaging my state further and it will intensify the feelings.
These Empowering Questions are taken from Tony Robbin's Awaken The Giant Within book, which I highly recommend.
7. Your Driving Force: Vision & Purpose
Everyday, I like to make sure that I'm reminded of what my VISION and PURPOSE for my life is. This is what really motivates me and gives me juice – it reminds me of what I'm made for and what I want my life to ultimately be about. Also, by simply taking the time to read your vision or goals for life, you will begin move towards it.
Where focus goes, energy flows.
I have my Ultimate Vision for my life written in my Life Planner, in my iPhone, as well as a spreadsheet on my computer. Your Ultimate Vision is simply what you want your life to be about – the ultimate plan and vision of who you want to be and what you want your life to look like.
Your Ultimate Purpose is the reasons WHY you want this – why you're committed to living your life this way and why you want to make this vision a reality. This is what will create the fuel and drive to move forward.
I also read my Identity (who I'm committed to being), along with my Code of Conduct (the standards I hold myself to each day), as well as my Values and Rules for my life. This might sound complicated to you, it's all stuff I will share at a later time in another blog post. It's all based on Tony Robbins Time Of Your Life program and his RPM Life Management System. It's what I use to design and manage my life.
The key is to make sure you're reading and focused on your goals and who you want to be each day. Focus on what you want and you will move towards it. It could be just taking a few minutes to visualize yourself achieving a goal or staring at your vision board each day.
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8. Feed Your Mind
I'm always learning new things, whether it's reading a book, listening to an audio program, or going through a video program. It's important to feed your mind with POSITIVITY, rather than turning on the news and feeding it with the negative. The act of consciously taking time each day to do this will do wonders for your state and help you develop yourself as a human being.
I commit to reading at least 10 pages of a good book a day. Through this simple act, I've read hundreds of books. And I have so many more sitting on my shelf to read and go through. I like reading books that will help me at the current state of my life that I'm in – whether it's self-help, spirituality, health/fitness, finance, business, biographies, etc… anything that will improve the quality of my life.
By the way, 10 pages a day equates to 300 pages a month – that's a book a month, 12 books a year! Think about how much better you'll be in your life and the results you'll produce just by making this simple action a daily habit.
9. Plan The Day
To be as productive as possible throughout the day, you need a plan. Like I said earlier, I use my RPM Life Planner by Tony Robbins, but find something that works for you.
Having a plan for each day of your life helps you be PROACTIVE instead of REACTIVE. You aren't just reacting to the demands of others, but you're consciously designing and creating your day, while moving in the direction towards your goals and dreams.
When you talk about something, it's a dream. When you envision it, it's exciting. When you plan it, it's possible. But, when you schedule it, it's real.
Tony Robbins
I usually capture all of the things I want to get done that day. Then, I chunk them into specific outcomes that I'm after. For example, I may have an outcome for my physical body, for my businesses, or for friends/family, or my social life. I make that outcome compelling, then write down why I want it. I then categorize my capture of “action items” under each specific outcome, and then prioritize them. The most important actions, I schedule in my calendar for specific times so I know what I'm doing and when.
I'll be sure to share in-detail my planning method in another blog post.
10. Accountability Call
Every morning, I have an “Accountability Call” with a friend that I've been doing for over a year now. I've found having an accountability buddy to make sure I'm following through each day does wonders for being productive and making progress in my life. When you run a home-based business like I do, it definitely helps having someone you're accountable to (since I don't have a boss…).
Our calls are usually around 5-10 minutes.
The structure goes as follows:
Did you get done yesterday what you committed to? How was your day?
What did you learn yesterday?
What are the top 3 outcomes and top 3 actions you're committed to getting done today?
Simple as that. We want to make sure we're improving each day and making progress in our lives.
Also, we try to make things simple – instead of talking about EVERYTHING we're going to do that day, we pick the top 3 highest leverage outcomes/actions. This is following the 80/20 rule, which is the notion that 20% of your actions will produce 80% of the results.
Now, the kicker is, if one of us DID NOT get done something we committed to, we then owe $20 to a charity. By having this consequence, it creates further leverage and accountability for ourselves. We've ended up donated A LOT of money to charities over the year, but it's also something you can feel good about since it's also to a good cause and making a contribution. 🙂
11. Workout/Exercise
The final important piece of my Morning Ritual is to make sure that I'm exercising and hitting the gym each day. For me, if I don't exercise early in the day, I never get around to it. My day ends up filling up with work and demands, and my physical body gets left out of the picture. That's why it's important for me to do it BEFORE I start my work.
Once I've completed an intense physical workout, I feel physically unstoppable. It gives me this “high” and it starts my day off as a success.
I'm usually in the gym for 60 to 90 minutes each day, but that's only because I love it and because I'm competing in the WBFF fitness competition. For others, you have to find a workout program or form of exercise that is right for you. It could be walking outside, jogging, weight lifting, swimming, or even yoga. But, strengthening and improving your physical body is something that has to be made important in anyones life to have a balanced, happy, healthy life.
Create Your Own Morning Ritual And Commit To It
That's it! That's my complete Morning Ritual as it stands today.
It has changed and evolved over the years. It used to be much longer, but now I've made it simple and customized it to the way that I like it for now. It may change tomorrow, who knows. I'm always changing it up, to make sure that I don't get too bored with it.
Now it's your turn. You don't have to create the same Morning Ritual as mine, but create SOMETHING. Make it specific to you and make it something that you will enjoy. This is what works for me and it's based on things that I've learned over the years, so it may be completely different for you. Just use mine as an example, take what works, and discard what doesn't.
The key is to make sure you COMMIT TO IT NO MATTER WHAT. I suggest doing a 30-day Challenge where you commit to doing something like this everyday for 30 days straight, or perhaps even try it for a week.
If you actually do take the time to do this each day, I guarantee you that your life will transform and go beyond to a level you've never before imagined for yourself. And in my honest opinion, NOTHING you do throughout the day is more important than doing something like this for yourself.
Give yourself this gift – you deserve it.
The truth is, you already have a morning ritual that you may not even be aware of. It could be you wake up, drink coffee, turn on the news, check your e-mail, or visit Facebook. But, are those things really empowering you? Are they nurturing your body, making you happier, or bringing you closer towards the vision of who you want to be?
If the answer is “No” and you're looking for a change, then perhaps this is for you.
I hope you enjoyed this lengthy, detailed blog post and video – I really wanted to be completely transparent with what I do each day and hopefully it will benefit you. If it does, I would love to hear what you think and what your experience is. Be sure to leave a comment below.
Otherwise, have a FANTASTIC DAY!
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