What you do in the morning sets your mind for the rest of the day. For me, when I sleep in I feel off for the rest of the day. I become less disciplined and become more likely to make stupid decisions. I feel like I always have to tell myself to make the right decisions and fight with my brain. So I came up with this routine to make sure that I am always on my ‘A’ game.
1. Think of My Dreams to Motivate Myself
I am a firm believer in the power of visualization. As a doer it is important that what I am doing has purpose. It is important that I know where I'm going every step of the way. According to Jack Canfield visualization helps program your brain to recognize and perceive resources you need to achieve my dreams and helps build my motivation to achieve my dreams. I wouldn’t be where I am without having this goal.
2. Drink Water
The second thing I do when I get out of bed is to drink water. Not only does this help me re-hydrate this also helps me wake up. A glass of water is incredibly beneficial. Growing up I only drank coffee and soda. After years of not drinking enough water I had 2 kidney stones. Learn from my mistakes and hydrate properly!
3. Clean the house while listening to educational material
Making the bed and cleaning up is not only good exercise but it also helps me save money. After years of being the best maid I could, I developed very high standards of cleanliness -- once a cleaning woman always a cleaning woman.
In order to maximize my time doing housework, I listen to podcasts and audio books so I am always learning. If we aren’t moving forward we are falling behind. I listen to a lot of different subjects on financial management, sales, inspiration, life stories of successful people, on and on.
4. My Goals for the Day
Being a CEO means I have to organize how my company is run and to make sure we are doing a good job. I need to constantly set goals for myself and my people to make sure we are not falling behind. To help with this, I use Microsoft’s To Do app and google calendar on my computer as it is synchronized with my phone. To read more about my time management skills check out (article).
5. Respond to Messages and Connect with People
I try my best to respond to messages before I head out for meetings. I want my messages to be the first thing they see when they get to work. The same goes with phone calls. I spend most of the day talking to people and I want to respond fast and take action on what has to be done immediately.
6. Eating Healthy
As a practitioner of Intermittent Fasting I skip breakfast and instead eat a healthy brunch with a fresh fruit and vegetable shake. These are easy to make, you just put it all in a blender and turn it on. I use some fruits and vegetables and some fruit juice (apple, pineapple, whatever). I make sure to get pure fruit juice not the powder drinks like Tang. Although unpopular with my kids, I make sure to put some ginger in the shake as well as it is very healthy.
Do you have any cool ideas that I am missing? Is there something I have said here that you will start implementing? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!