TO KNOW AND NOT TO DO, IS NOT TO KNOW.
THE QUALITY OF OUR HABITS DETERMINES THE QUALITY OF OUR LIVES.
“An UPGRADE in our BELIEFS OF SELF will automatically lead to an UPGRADE IN HABITS.”
-Maxwell Maltz
“ALL HUMANS FEEL, ACT AND PERFORM IN ACCORDANCE WITH WHAT THEY BELIEVE TO BE TRUE ABOUT THEMSELVES.”
-Maxwell Maltz
- WE WILL NEVER OUTPERFORM OUR SELF IMAGE.
- The good news? SELF IMAGE, BELIEFS AND HABITS ARE UPGRADEABLE!!!
“YOU CANNOT CONSISTENTLY PERFORM IN A MANNER WHICH IS INCONSISTENT WITH THE WAY YOU SEE YOURSELF.” -Zig Ziglar
IF YOU WIN THE MORNING, YOU WIN THE ENTIRE DAY.
IT’S ALL ABOUT MOMENTUM.
When creating a daily routine or ritual, start with just ONE thing. Keep it simple and easy by only focusing on adding only ONE thing to each months daily routine. Progressive, incremental habits created are less overwhelming and more likely to happen. THIS is the secret to successfully navigating a life of continual progression, growth, and evolution.
Things I have experimented with and added to my own, personalized, daily routine, since 2014, which has empowered me to live a much more beautiful, fulfilling, purpose-filled life:
- Box Breathing, used for the first 10 minutes after I wake up. (For a short, instructional video about Box Breathing, click here.)
- Make the bed. (Watch the short video that inspired this practice and find out the reason to start the day this way by clicking here.)
- Practicing Gratitude, done mentally, as I shower. Gratitude is the key that unlocks positive energy in our life. It is the alchemy that turns unexpected problems into blessings and problems, difficulties, and challenges into gifts. (To read more about this practice, click here.)
- Always end each shower by turning the water ALL THE WAY ON COLD (Watch this short, funny video on why ANYONE would do this by clicking here.)
- Listening to content on YouTube (usually Jim Rohn talks) as I get dressed and prepare for the day.
- Drink lemon water. Watch the video as to why here.
- Reading the daily excerpt from Melody Beattie’s book, THE LANGUAGE OF LETTING GO. (No other practice has healed and empowered me more.)
- Reviewing, re-writing, and posting the daily excerpt from goodinthehead’s DAILY PERSPECTIVE CHECK. (Click here for access to these daily excerpts.)
- 15 minutes of meditation, using the ziva meditation method. (To learn more about this incredibly helpful technique, click here. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND BUYING EMILY FLETCHER’S BOOK, “STRESS LESS, ACCOMPLISH MORE.”)
- Listening to at least one interview from shows found at goodinthehead’s Sources of Inspiration/YouTube Videos, while driving to and from work, while at work, or right after work, during the time I stretch, roll out, and do planks. (For the video of exactly how I do these exercises, click here.)
- Box Breathing throughout the work day, as needed. (For a short, instructional video about Box Breathing, click here.)
- At work, I set an alarm to go off each hour. I take just 2 mintues for myself, stretch while box breathing, and set an intention for the next hour. Each moment matters. Our moments become hour hours, our hours become our days, and our day accumulate into a lifetime. Setting an intention this often is magical, as it produces a lifetime of intentional living.
- After I get home, or anytime during the day on the weekends: Exercise routine consisting of stretching, rolling out, and planks. (The video of exactly how I do these exercises and for how long is here.)
- Following the Keto diet each day, to the best of my ability. (See the best videos I have come across about keto by clicking here.)
- Reading before bed for at least 10 minutes.
- Visualization Practice right before falling asleep. (See an example of this here.)
Some days I don’t do ALL of these things. I learned not to expect perfection of myself, but instead to practice excellence in doing my very best. I no longer beat myself up for not accomplishing EVERYTHING I wanted to for the day. Instead, I go to sleep PROUD and CONFIDENT, knowing I did all that I COULD, and that was my best.
This daily routine took me thousands of hours of research and over four years to adopt, implement, and habituate. I began with just one thing, every month. It was easy to do just one thing each morning. By the end of the month, that one thing had become an ingrained, lasting habit. It was no longer just easy-it was simply who I was. At the beginning of each month, I added one more thing. If, after a month it wasn’t useful, I stopped doing that one thing. Experimentation is key. Experiencing new things is the best way to learn if they will be beneficial or detrimental to us.
Morning routines, just like our lives, need to be unique, personal, and individualized. Project yourself into the future 10 years, and answer these questions:
In your idea of your perfect world,
- where are you living?
- who are you spending the majority of your time with?
- what are you doing to be financially independent and make the most amount of money possible, in the least amount of time required?
- what are you thinking and doing each day to optimize your spirituality and your life experience on a spiritual level?
- what are you doing each day to realize and enjoy your body’s peak physical performance?
- what practices have you implemented into your daily routine which have become lasting and sustained, solid habits, creating the optimal state of emotional fortitude and stability?
- what educational level have you accomplished and what are you now working towards, educationally speaking?
- how is your love life?
Now, answer this:
What can you do to reverse-engineer the 10 years that led up to these results, and create a daily routine or schedule for yourself that is uniquely and specifically designed just for you, which will help you be that person and live that life in 10 years?
When creating a daily routine or ritual, start with just ONE thing. Keep it simple and easy by only focusing on adding only ONE thing each months daily routine. THIS is the secret to successfully navigating a life of continual progression, growth, and evolution.
In Tim Ferriss’s book, TRIBE OF MENTORS, he asked the question, “What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made?” Ryan Shea’s answer stood out in my mind more than most of the other answers:
“In 2016, I started doing New Month Resolutions (as opposed to New Year Resolutions.) Here’s some of what I did:
- July: Daily reading
- August: No TV or movies
- September: No dairy
- October: No gluten
- November: Daily meditation
- December: No news or social media feeds
As you can see, a few of the months were elimination months and a few were daily behavior months. The elimination months were interesting because I learned that I came away less dependent on the things I eliminated. I now watch less TV and fewer movies, I eat less bread and gluten, and I still block the news and my social media feeds. The only thing I reinstated was dairy, choosing to continue to consume it.
The daily behavior months were interesting because they gave me an on-ramp to maintaining certain behaviors. I still meditate daily, and while I don’t read daily, I read at a frequency close to that.
So far, my favorite experiments have been no news or social media feeds, workouts every day, no TV or movies, reading every day, and waking up at 7:30 every morning.”
***For one-on-one, personal coaching opportunities and to brainstorm with me and come up with helpful, beneficial ideas for a uniquely and personalized routine for yourself, contact me by clicking on the life-optimization button below. Sometimes the quickest and most efficient way to get things done is through and with others who have already done what it is we want to do.
