Whether this book will or will not help you, depends entirely on your willingness to try out new things.

Everything starts in the morning

There’s no denying it, your morning is the stepping stone into a great or less than great day.

What you do in the moments after you wake up will make or break what you do for the rest of the day.

This includes your emotions.

Image the difference you’ll feel in your happiness, energy & motivation when you start your day conquering your morning routine.

Your morning routine is something you define, it’s something you experiment with & find what works best for you.

For me, my morning routine includes the following at a minimum:

• Dream Journaling for Lucid Dreaming reasons
• Basic Compound Body Movements to get the blood flowing
• Meditation for 10 Min’s using Headspace

These 3 things can & will catapult you into an amazing day.

These 3 are the bare essentials in my mornings, I get these done no matter what.

Mindfulness, conquering fears & reflection all in just 20–30 Mins of pure focus, everyone can find the time.

The Rear View Mirror Effect

This is something the author describes as being mandatory to let go of.

The Rear View Mirror Effect means that you’re stuck in the past, that you think your past actions define your future results.

This is far from true.

The only thing that matters at ANY moment is the decision you’ll make today.

You can’t change the past so don’t let it decide your future actions.

It’s time to let go of who you were and start working towards who you want to become.

Time goes forward In a continuum, it will never stop.

So instead of focusing on what you can’t control: the past. Start focusing on what you can control: your future.

Decide today what you want to have & reverse engineer that to start taking action today.

What do you need to do daily to become the person you want to be 5–10years from now?

Growth Mindset

Growth or fixed mindset, which do you have?

If you feel like people are born with innate abilities that make them better than everyone else, you have a fixed mindset.

If you believe that talent comes through working towards a goal for a long period of time, you have a growth mindset.

This will decide your future more than anything else ever will.

Where do your beliefs lie, with the growth or the fixed mindset?

Growth mindset means that you believe that every single person on this planet can improve their IQ, EQ, etc..

By just deciding to take action on it.

The growth mindset is the major difference between someone who stays where he as & someone who keeps improving, keeps stepping up the ladder.

Cultivate the growth mindset within yourself & you’ll move on to greater things; if you combine it with deliberate action towards what you want.

Don’t isolate your behavior, think long term

I was a victim of this mindset, it’s quite embarrassing if you think about it.

Whenever you don’t feel like doing something, you don’t feel like getting up early… Whatever it is.

Stop thinking about these kinds of actions in the short term, start thinking in the long term.

What does this mean?

This means that you need to look into the future, what impact is this “small” decision going to have on your future growth?

Maybe you don’t think it’s bad to skip your meditation session today, since “it’s only one time”.

It won’t stay with one time, it’ll increase, it’ll compound.

The next time you’ll have to make that decision, you’re much more likely to choose the easy route. Because you’ve done it so many times.

Don’t fall in the short term thinking trap, you’ll regret it.

Think long term in every action that you take. Life keeps moving forward, make the right decisions & stop thinking short term.

Morning trial

Sounds harsh doesn’t it?

Well, it’s really not. It’s the way you think of it that will decide its harshness.

What he means by trial is this:

In the morning you need something that challenges you at least a little bit.

Something that makes you uncomfortable, such as working out, stretching, whatever it is.

In my routine, it’s working out & meditation.

These things are not easy to do, they take dedication, they take discipline.

But, once you start loving the process, the daily improvement, you will never want to stop.

Accountability beats everything

Simple, find an accountability partner.

Someone that will help you get through the rough parts.

Someone that will do something if you don’t stick to your morning routine.

Whether your motivation is through money or material things, make sure you put something on the line.

Make a deal with that friend, whenever you don’t stick to your morning routine, he does something that you don’t like.

Whatever that thing is, you decide. Make sure it has a real impact in your life, otherwise it won’t help you.

Find your purpose

What’s the reason you wake up, what drives you?

Are you happy to get out of bed and tackle the challenges life will throw at you?

Find what motivates you.

Find your higher purpose.

This doesn’t mean saving the world, it can be something really small.

Things such as being father that your kids will look up to.

Building your business.

Learning.

Working out.

Whatever it is, find it for yourself.

This is the only way to become a better version of yourself.

Through finding what motivates you & moving towards it inch by inch, day by day.

It’s a slow process but you’ll fall in love with it, the feeling of constant improvement, it’s addicting.

Action steps

• Incorporate meditation into your mornings
• Start doing small Morning workouts
• Journal & reflect on your days, you can do this at night or in the morning
• Gratitude first thing in the morning
• Get rid of the RVM (Rear View Mirror) effect in your mind

And as always, never stop improving.

— Nick

P.S. I send these kinds of summaries to everyone in my book club almost every day: If you want to join in, click here to sign up & start receiving these summaries in your inbox to read them whenever you want. Oh, and it’s free.