Transcription
We've all heard that if you could win the morning, you could win the day. One of the ways to do that is to create regular rituals and routines so you don't have to think about what you need to do.
If you can set up routines and habits, especially early in the day, you could benefit from this science and momentum, creating positive momentum as opposed to being reactive. A lot of people pick up their phone first thing and start reacting, driving distraction and reaction, as opposed to proactively spending time with self-care, self-love, and having a vision and direction for your day.
So let's get into it. Now, as I jump into this, again, this is my ideal day. Sometimes I can't do all of this, but I do as many as I can.
The first thing I do when I wake up is recall my dreams. When you're dreaming, you're actually processing, integrating, and working on solutions in your subconscious mind to the things that you're focusing on during the daytime. But most people forget their dreams.
After that, I get out of bed and make the bed. This is something that is obvious that most of you do, but if you don't, take two minutes and make your bed because that's a success habit. If we're talking about positive momentum, the science of momentum, getting things done, and checking things off with excellence, then make your bed.
It takes one or two minutes, but again, how you do anything is how you do everything. Having a good check mark on something like making your bed is very powerful because it teaches you to do something really well and with excellence, like they do in the military.
The other benefit is that when you come back at the end of the day, you return to success; you come back to your bed already made.
After that, I'll go into the kitchen and have a tall glass of water. We use a lot of water, and most of us are very dehydrated at night. I'll take my supplements there; I take my probiotics, which is a big one because your gut is your second brain. We talk about the brain in your head, but you also have an incredible amount of nerve cells in your gut, so I want to make sure that's being fed and healthy.
Then, I do my breathing. I'm thinking about the things I'm focusing on here: excellence, hydration, oxygen. Whatever your breathing technique is, I focus on breathing. Whether it's box breathing, alpha breathing, or Wim Hof's method, I do a breathing technique because I want to fully oxygenate my body and my brain, which is obviously part of my body as well. Maybe we can do another episode dedicated to that.
I do my meditation in the morning and also later in the afternoon or evening, sometimes before I go to bed. But I always do an early morning meditation for about 20 minutes. Mindfulness is so important, so I want to have a clear mind as I enter the day, and some meditation puts me in that space.
Some of you use Headspace, some of you use the Muse device; use some kind of technology. I meditate, and then from there, I do one or two minutes of just movement. This could be calisthenics or burpees, but I just want to get into my body after I meditate.
I move my body pretty intensely for a couple of minutes. If I'm in a hotel room, maybe I'm just doing jumping jacks, but I'm basically doing crunches for two minutes straight. I'm just waking my body up. That is not my exercise for the day; it's just for me to get my heart rate up and get some movement in my body.
From there, I take a shower, and it's a cold shower. I do believe in cold therapy; it works for me. It helps me reset my nervous system. Ice baths are very powerful because they help reduce swelling and inflammation. Cold therapy is a very powerful way of resetting your nervous system and reducing inflammation.
So, I take a cold shower. When I get out, I go to my normal routine of shaving and brushing my teeth—lots of good stuff. Then, I make a tea. My favorite tea is like a brain tea; it's a combination of gotu kola, ginkgo, lion's mane, some MCT oil, and some other gems.
As I go through it, I sip my tea, and that's where I write in my journal. I'm a big believer in journaling; I've been doing it since I was in college. I feel like some of the most amazing thinkers of our time and in history journal and keep diaries. Think about Edison, Einstein, Da Vinci; their journals are priceless.
From journaling, since I'm writing and I like writing, there are a lot of studies saying that handwriting is better than actually typing. Since I'm writing already, I go to my to-do list. We all have an ongoing to-do list of things that we need to get done.
For me, the big thing is I just want to be able to accomplish, as a total win, three things for work and three things personally. They don't have to be all epic big things, but I feel that if I can get three of my work goals done on my to-do list and three of my personal things to do, then it's been a great day.
It's kind of like my friend Clay Aiken talked about a champagne moment. It's like your champagne moment when you're looking back at the end of the day saying, "Yesterday was a great day. Today, I crushed it. Today, I won."
In addition to my to-do list, I also have a "to feel" list because I feel like a lot of who we are is our states and emotions. I think I don't want it to be just where I happen to feel a certain way by accident; it's by design.
It's the metaphor I always talk about: the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat. A thermometer reacts to the environment, and I feel like sometimes if I act like a thermometer, I'm just going to react to everything going on in my world. I might have some good positive states as opposed to being a thermostat, where I set a standard or a goal.
I have my "to feel" list with certain feelings I want to feel throughout the day so I can design it that way—to feel loved, to feel curious, to feel bewilderment, connection, gratitude.
I also have, besides that to-do list and to feel list, a "to be" list. Who do I want to be today? Do I want to be a good partner, a good friend, a good leader, a good teacher, a good coach? I feel into what I want to be that day because it's not just about doing.
It's kind of cliché, but there's a truth to it: we're not human doings; we're human beings. So, who do I want to be today?
From there, if I have time, I will make time for the things that are most important. I read for about 20-30 minutes. After my reading, I make my brain smoothie—brain berries, which are blueberries, avocado, leafy vegetables, and water.
When I'm done with that smoothie, I go through my brain training in one of our Quick Learning online programs at quicklearning.com. We have an online speed reading course, online memory course, thinking course, and academic success course.
That's right—my brain training. I like to do it in the morning because I want to jumpstart my brain and my mind, if you will, and also my body. That's the goal for me, focusing in the morning.
So, after I do certain brain trainings, which are all in our programs, then I really start my day.