Do You Have A Morning Routine?
If Not, Consider This.
Recently a friend of mine told me that he reads every day for ~2 hours a day. The first of those hours occurs at 6:30 AM.
Not only does he read, he writes about what he reads. In a small notebook, he jots down reflective notes about what he’s learned and any takeaways.
Oh and I did I mention….he’s been doing this every day for the past 8 years.
YOU DO THE MATH!
The first thing I thought was, “I’m so behind”.
It was at that moment I realized…. Discipline Scales.
I was inspired and truly fired up after hearing this.
So I decided to dedicate my mornings to exercise & reading.
I’ve started this habit in the past, but always seemed to fall off the wagon. However, the past 2 weeks I’ve shown up consistently.
This post isn’t one of those “37 ways to create the perfect morning routine” or “follow these morning prescriptions and you’ll be a billionaire” type posts.
This is merely a reflection. On how 2 short weeks of waking up early with purpose has changed my perception on what it means to rise early.
And how these mindset shifts can fundamentally change your life.
Own The Morning, And You Own The Day
What’s the firs thing most of us do in the morning?
We wipe the crust out our eyes. See who’s paging us, and why.
No but seriously, we all open our respective social media apps and begin searching for that dopamine hit. A notification here, 10+ likes there.
Pick your poison. Whether it’s Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat or Facebook, WE’RE ALL GUILTY. Including me.
That is until I watched this video.
At around 0:50 Jim Kwik makes a great point that profoundly stuck with me.
“When you wake up in the morning and immediately check social media, you’re training yourself to be reactive . You sell your sovereignty to the world if you start by checking your phone first thing in the morning.”
I’m not perfect. I still get the urge to check my phone first thing in the morning. But after hearing this, my mindset totally shifted.
I didn’t want to live in a reactive state. I decided to reclaim my time!
Quite frankly, our sovereignty is much more powerful than the message that just slid in our DMs.
I dare you not to check your phone tomorrow morning for the first hour!
S E L F C A R E
After realizing that I was 8 years behind my friend in terms of books read, and finally seeing that I was giving my power away by checking my phone first thing in the AM, I decided to make a change.
That change started with waking up and watching this video below. It’s a little cheesy, but it get’s me pumped up and ready to go.
The jingle in the background is so catchy.
And come on, Denzel even makes a brief cameo!
In case you were wondering. Here’s my routine. In all it’s simplicity.
My Morning Routine
- 7:30 AM Wake up + drink water | watch this video
- 7:50 AM Jump rope for 15 minutes | with this app
- 8:20 AM Shower + more water
- 9:00 AM Read for 30 mins + make coffee | what I’m currently reading
My goal is to push this to 6:30 AM.
After the first week, my morning routine began to feel damn good. I actually started looking forward to it.
Bruh, my morning routine got me feeling like….
After 2 weeks of consistently showing up, it hit me.
My purpose behind rising early is so that I prioritize practicing self care for the first hour of my morning.
If the first hour of your day you’re not taking care of yourself mentally and physically, when will you do it?
At 6/7 PM when you’re already exhausted from a full day’s work? I doubt it.
Which is why mornings are our advantage.
And if you’re not a morning person, to each its own. But consider being more thoughtful about how you spend the first hour of your day.
Sustainable Consistency Is 🔑 🔑 🔑
Imagine if there were 1–2 habits that you did daily for the past year, 5 years, even 10 years? How might that impact your life?
The daily grind is where you can take advantage of compound interest!
But if we only follow our routines on the good days, we’re half-assin’ it.
Yes, we need to push ourselves, but we also need to deliberately set limits.
Consider the story of the 20-mile march:
Author Jim Collins made this popular when he mentioned it in his NY-Times Best Selling book Great By Choice.
As the original story goes, in 1911, two teams set off on a quest to be the first people in modern history to reach the South Pole.
One team marched 20 miles a day, rain or shine. The other team marched 40–50 miles on nice days, but did little to no marching on days where conditions weren’t favorable.
Team 1 consistently marched the same distance every day, team 2 didn’t.
In the end, team 1 arrived 34 days earlier than team 2.
Oh, and team 2 died of frost bite and starvation. Ouch 😵 😲 😩.
Takeaway: Over-exertion when we REALLY feel like doing the work doesn’t beat showing up consistently. But we also need to have the self-awareness to rest when we hit our personal “20-mile” mark.
Discipline Scales.
Bonus: How To Roll Out Of Bed Even If You’re Not A Morning Person
If I inspired you to wake up a little earlier, try using Sleep Cycle. It’s actually helped me a lot. Keep this app near your bed while you sleep, and you’ll get a detailed visual of how good/bad your sleep patterns are.
It will wake you up at the optimal time based on your sleeping patterns.
The best part of the app is that the alarm will automatically shut off when you pick your phone up. No more fumbling half-awake to shut your annoying alarm off. It’s helped me, maybe it can help you.
So Will You Pull The Trigger? 👉 Click Here
How do you currently own your morning?
Are you taking care of yourself first, or are you prioritizing Instagram likes, email, and other people’s agenda for your day?
We all have a choice. Choose wisely.
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