The way you start your day, no doubt, sets the tone and pace for the rest of the day. This is something every highly successful person knows. Hence, a couple of routines to put them on the right note.
To a very large extent, your possibility of success lies in what and how you chose to spend the early hours of your day, just before work starts.
With the likes of Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and so many others, let us explore some of the morning routines that put these highly successful guys out for success.
In this blog post, we’ll be sharing with you the 10-morning routines of highly successful people.
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Wake up early
Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg is known for getting to the office at 7 a.m while business growth consultant, author, and speaker, Adèle McLay starts her day as early as 4:15 a.m.
About why she wakes up early, McLay says “I’m a very early riser: 4:15 a.m. is the first alarm call, signaling 15 minutes of gratitude time before alarm two at 4:30 a.m. when I jump out of bed and head to the gym for a 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. bodybuilding session with a personal trainer; 6:30 a.m. to 7 a.m. is meditation and visioning time, where I focus on achieving my goals and dreams; 7:15 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. is family time. At 8 a.m., work begins.”
If you can’t wake up as early as 4:30 a.m. or 5:30 a.m., you can try waking up 15 minutes earlier than your usual time and gradually increase the time.
Waking up early helps you start your day while the rest of the world is still asleep, giving you some extra daytime you need to maximize your day and get really productive.
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Exercise
Vogue Editor-in-Chief, Anna Wintour, starts her day by playing an hour long tennis match every day at 5:45 a.m.
Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist, Bill Gates, starts by multitasking with his morning treadmill workouts while watching some DVDs. Tim Draper, the founding partner of legendary VC firm DFJ, wakes up to basketball.
Most people’s energy levels are highest in the morning and are better able to exercise at these times. Moreover, if your energy level isn’t high, exercising will get your endorphins flowing, which will energize you.
Exercising (particularly in the morning) will not only make you healthy and happy but also help you combat stress and improve your brain power by increasing the secretion of endorphins in the brain.
And no, it doesn’t have to be one long hour, a daunting routine. A much more calm routine as yoga can do the trick.
Niki Leondakis, the CEO of the luxury lifestyle brand Equinox, says, “I’ve always known that you have to be physically healthy and strong to be mentally healthy and strong. It’s all connected.”
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Motivate yourself
Zig Ziglar once said, “Motivation doesn’t last, that’s why you should get it every day”
Life is tough. We need to be motivated, yet yesterday’s motivation rarely lasts till today.
That’s why successful people spend their mornings getting the motivation to help them go through their day. Anthony Robbins calls this “Hour of power”
What can you tell yourself to get you ready for success? What positive, empowering, inspiring thoughts can help you get ready for success?
What words motivate you or better put, what thoughts can you fall back on to motivate you when anxiety and fear kick in? Hence the need to fuel your motivation on a daily basis.
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Visualize and plan your day
Procrastination is likely to occur when you do not have a set target and goal for the day. Continuous procrastination eventually leads to stress, which gets in the way of our success.
Start your day by visualizing your goals and strategically planning how best to meet your every target. Remember to also fix some time for short breaks.
This eases off stress. Doing this will help you manage your time well, which will, in turn, yield productivity.
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Take out the hard things first
Brian Tracy advises that you mark your to-do list with letters A, B, & C, A being the most important thing and the first thing to do each morning.
It’s easy to want to start your To Do list with the easier activities but think about it. What stresses you out when you think about the many activities you have lined up for the day? The hard or the easy ones? My guess is the hard stuff.
So, if the hard stuff stresses us out so much that we never feel okay until we are done with them, why not start with those?
Once you have figured out what hard stuff you want to take out of the way for the day, what better time to do that than in the morning before other people start barging in on your time?
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Journaling and gratitude
By enumerating the blessings they’re grateful for, highly successful people become more open to optimism and inspiration and improve their outlook on life.
Business and life coach Tony Robbins recommends practicing gratitude by slowing down your breath and thinking of three things you are grateful for today, spending about a minute on each thing. They do not have to be big moments of gratitude. They can be as small as enjoying the cool air on your face. “The reason I picked gratitude is that when you’re grateful, you can’t be angry. And when you’re grateful you can’t be fearful,” Tony says.
Learning to be grateful for small wins will definitely put you in a good place to prepare for and enjoy even more. You can start by writing down at least one thing you are thankful for everyday.
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Spend time with yourself
Life is noisy, and that’s why most people are not creative. The answer to creativity is spending time with yourself.
Of course, one of the pros of waking up early is that you get to experience a stay-alone time, which is highly needed to clear your mind and meditate.
Your stay-alone time should be a time that allows you to consciously focus on yourself, such as focusing on your breathing. You can even recite a poem in the process.
Just be calm enough to really process your thoughts and clear your head.
- Connect with your loved ones
Founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Amazon, Jeff Bezos speaking to the Wall Street Journal in 1999 says scheduling meeting early in the morning isn’t something he does because according to him, he wants to spend that time eating breakfast with his wife. “I wanted her to get the best hours of my day,” he said.
In the morning, when there is less clutter in your mind and less stress in your system, make it a time to connect with your spouse and family, at least one day in the week.
After all, in the end, you are working so that they can have the best times of their lives. So why let work get in the way of that?
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Eat the right breakfast
After making mental notes, exercising your body, and the like, it’s time to fuel your body by feeding it with a healthy breakfast.
It’s no news that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Why?
Because it kick starts your metabolism, helping you burn calories all day long and giving you the right energy to start your day. It also gives you an opportunity to get in some vitamins and nutrients needed by the body.
NOTE; You do not need so much food to derive all the benefits breakfasts give, you only need quality food. So, try to lay your hands on healthy meals only.
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Get your day started calmly
90% of illnesses are caused by stress.
From jumping off of the bed to grabbing just a bite on your way out the door and eventually having to deal with traffic before the work for the day starts, no doubt you are putting your health in a bad place.
However, when you get your day started with all the aforementioned steps, these seemingly normal rushes can be avoided and you can live a stress-free life, which means you can be rightly positioned for your success.
Thank you.