Create a routine that works for you to start your day off right.
The way you start your day completely determines how successful the rest of your day will be.
If you start your day doing a bunch of shit for other people, it's going to be super difficult to reclaim your own space later in the day: your battery will be empty.
But what if you could start off your day charging your battery and setting the right focus for yourself instead?
The way you start your day completely determines how successful the rest of your day will be.
If you start your day doing a bunch of shit for other people, it's going to be super difficult to reclaim your own space later in the day: your battery will be empty.
But what if you could start off your day charging your battery and setting the right focus for yourself instead?
I have been into optimizing my mornings for a really long time. When I started my first side-hustle as a student, I was obsessed with researching millionaires’ morning routines. I would study all these articles, websites, and books to figure out the best cheat codes. But I realized that what was going to separate me from other people is actually following the advice these people gave and figuring out what works for me. It was time to stop researching, stop consuming and start doing.
Since then I have gone back over my ideal week so many times.
I look at my morning routines and nighttime rituals over and over again, and I keep on optimizing them. Because I change, my goals change, my environment changes, the world changes. So my routines need to change as well.
I really crave structure: it helps me be more disciplined, stay focused, and be proactive instead of reactive. So to help me stay on top of everything in my life and business, I recently created my own 3-hour Power Morning routine. Today, I’m going to share with you the ins and outs of what I do, and help you create your own power morning.
Ready? Let’s go!
07:00 Strong Mind
My life has changed a lot since I’m single again. Last year, I was used to super early and hectic mornings, making breakfast for my stepkids before I did anything for myself. Now my mornings have changed, I’ve decided to take this time for myself again.
I start off my day with my strong mind hour. This hour is all about having time for myself before I communicate with other people.
I wake up at 07:00 most days – I’m not perfect yet! – and try not to hit the snooze button. I use a wake up light as my alarm clock to stop myself from getting tempted to use my phone during this hour. I switch my phone off before I go to sleep and keep it away from my bed.
It’s so easy to check your messages and start scrolling. Then all of a sudden, it’s 20 minutes later. It’s never worth it: you could just have slept 20 minutes longer. The wrong kind of message in the morning can completely throw you off, leave you in a bad mood, and derail your morning. It’s so important to keep your phone away and stop yourself from getting distracted.
Hey, guess what? The world won’t end if you reply to your messages later in the day!
When I get up, the first thing I do is make myself a cup of tea, before doing some stretches in my room. After that, I’ll either meditate or journal. Even when things go wrong or if I wake up a bit later, I make sure I stretch while I’m in bed and do a quick 2-3 minute meditation. Then I go downstairs, cuddle my cat, grab something to drink, and make myself breakfast.
By the time it’s 08:00, I’ve had an hour completely to myself.
08:00 Strong Body
The second hour is all about creating a strong body. Either my personal trainer comes or I do this by myself, but between 08:00 and 09:00 I’ll be working out no matter what.
The hour to myself before I start working out is a game-changer: I used to wake up 5 minutes before exercising, and would be so tired and in such a bad mood that I couldn’t focus on my workout.
My workouts aren’t always super intense. I often use my treadmill or go for a walk with a friend. But I also really like to do strength training.
Strength training and creating a strong body really helps me deal with my muscle disease. When I don't work out, I sleep very badly. When I sleep badly, I'm not good at waking up. And then everything spirals: I don't take care of myself, my work suffers, my relationships suffer – the list goes on. But when I do work out at the beginning of the day, everything gets easier.
I remember a famous entrepreneur saying that you shouldn't waste your mornings on working out and that you should do that later in the day, so you spend your mornings doing stuff that really matters. If I don't work out in the morning, I won’t do it at the end of the day. I end up jumping straight into my work and it takes over the rest of my day, so I never get around to working out. That's just me being honest. My discipline and willpower aren’t endless.
So I like to spend my mornings doing the most difficult things first. And for me, one of those things is working out.
09:00 Strong Strategy
Before I go to change or shower, it’s time to work on my strong strategy. I set aside 15 minutes and grab my laptop or notebook. I then get started with my FastForward 15 exercise. This is a 15-minute mind mapping and brainstorming exercise, which I teach to all of my clients and helps me think more creatively.
Basically what I do is write down my top three targets in the middle of a piece of paper. These are usually long-term targets for my personal life or business, and could stay the same for a few months. These form the center of my mind map and I draw links to thoughts or ideas that come up about how I can achieve them.
It’s really important to think about what you’re focusing on achieving every morning. If you dive straight into your work, you have emails to deal with, meetings to deal with, and work to complete. Before you know it, you’ve spent a day or week doing work that’s completely reactive and doesn’t push the needle. So just taking those 15 minutes to focus on your strategy every morning and creating that discipline can play a big role in the future of your business.
Even if you spend 1 minute reaffirming targets you set months ago, that gives you 14 minutes to brainstorm how you’ll achieve them. It helps you think in opportunities and possibilities instead of in to-dos that you have for the rest of the day.
Unpopular opinion: a really good entrepreneur doesn’t have a billion to-dos. They focus on finding opportunities that will help them move forward instead of doing things to maintain the business.
Someone once told me that if you're maintaining your business, you're going backwards. I didn’t agree at first but in hindsight, I have to say that they were right. You might not want to hear this but if you’re not moving forward, at some point you're going to see that everything you've been doing is outdated. Other people have passed you by, the world has changed and you’re not able to catch up.
Creating your own Power Morning routine
What if you just don’t have three hours to spare before you get started with work? I get it: we all have different shit to deal with and what works for me might not work for you.
But even if you only have half an hour, you can still work on creating a strong mind, strong body, and strong strategy every morning. You can take 3 minutes to meditate sitting upright and it will center you – there’s your strong mind. Then go for a 20 minute walk or do some yoga, and you can tick off a strong body as well. Finally, spend the rest of your time focusing on your strategy, thinking about your targets and how you’ll achieve them. Take a notepad to the toilet for all I care – whatever works for you!
It doesn't matter if you're an early bird or a late worker. Just make sure that you start your day off well, because the start of your day will impact the rest of your day. Create your own power morning routine and you’ll change the course of your future. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s so true. You’ve got this!
If you struggle to fire yourself up in the morning, I have created the 29 Wake-Up Calls with FastForwardAmy mini-coaching series to help you start your day off right. Sign up and I’ll send you a new podcast episode, a written recap, and a practical tip every morning for 29 days. Subscribe for FREE via this link: www.fastforwardamy.com/29wakeupcalls
Watch this episode on YouTube or listen via iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and search for episode 126 of The FastForwardAmy Show.
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