Imagine waking up feeling excited about the day; you feel motivated and energetic to begin working on your dreams. You exercise, you plan for your day, you work on your most important task first, you get results, and you feel passionate about what you do. How is that for a great morning?
Morning is the most important time of the day because if you set things right, everything will go smooth and follow according to plan.
Sadly, most people only imagine going through a great morning and a great day, in reality, they always rush, skip their breakfast, get stuck in the jam and are always feeling tired with no energy when they reach their office (or begin the day).
So how can we turn this around? Simple, here are 7 morning rituals or morning routines that will set you up for greater motivation and productivity.
I have followed these routines for years, and I’m still feeling great and productive each morning. If you want to be successful and accomplish more in life, you need to learn to manage yourself and get things done in the morning.
Get Moving
The first thing you need to do to get motivated and stay productive each morning is to get moving. In other words, exercise and get sweaty.
Research has shown that when you exercise, your body will create a hormone called endorphin that will make you feel happy and excited.
When you move your body in the morning, you release the tension in your body and exercise makes you more alert.
You don’t have to get to the gym if you don’t want to. Just do some stretching or a short workout at your home.
Spend about 15 or 30 minutes to workout each morning. You will oxygenate your blood stream and feel more energetic after that.
Review Your Life
The next thing you want to do is to review your life. You should practice daily goal setting or visualization.
It is good if you can remind yourself of your goals and your dreams before you start your day.
Most people prefer to spend more time sleeping than visualizing their dreams. That is why most people are not living a successful life.
If you want to be successful, you must spend time envisioning the things you want to accomplish. You want to feel good about the achievement so that you will get motivated and able to work on your goals and your dreams.
Improving Yourself
Abraham Lincoln once said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
You have to spend time improving yourself and the best time to do it is in the morning. The reason being that morning time typically has the least distractions.
When the rest of the world is still sleeping, you have awakened and are working on improving your skills and knowledge.
What if you read a book in a week? Within a year, you will have read 52 books. Most people never read a book after their school years. Can you imagine how power and life-changing this habit would be?
You could become one of the most knowledgeable and top people in your field if you put the ideas and what you have learned into action.
Kick Start With Coffee
I know some of you don’t like coffee, but studies have shown that coffee can wake you up, make you feel driven and more importantly, help you get things done.
Coffee is the second largest commodity traded around the world. If I was given a chance to choose between drinking coffee and get work done or feeling tired and having no energy, I’d always opt for drinking a cup of coffee.
Now, I’m not suggesting you drink several cups a day, all I’m suggesting is to drink a cup of coffee to kick start your day.
First Things First
Do your most important task the first thing in the morning. As I mentioned, morning is the best time because there is no one to call you or to distract your attention.
Thus, do your most important and result-yielding task the first thing in the morning. Brian Tracy, the author who wrote Eat That Frog, suggests eating the ugliest and biggest frog first.
Once you have got your biggest and ugliest task done, the rest of your day will seem easier. You will feel lighter and able to attend to other tasks more easily.
Wake Up Early
It is important to wake up early. In fact, most successful people wake up around 5 am in the morning, most will spend their morning time exercising, some will spend their time reading, and some will do their most important work.
When you get up early and work on your dreams, you are one step ahead of your competitors. You will be able to do more and produce more results than most ordinary people who choose to sleep late.
Did you know that Apple CEO, Tim Cook wakes up as early as 4 am? Pepsi Co CEO Indra Nooyi arrives in the office at 7 am each day.
So what makes you think you can sleep more and sleep later if you want to be successful? Make it a habit to arise early to chase your dreams.
Take Breaks
You spend time charging your phone each day, why don’t do it for yourself? We rest because we want to go farther.
Success is not a destination, but a journey. And it takes time to accomplish big goals and achieve big dreams. Hence, you need to recharge and relax from time to time.
Take breaks when necessary. Try to work in blocks of time. For example, you can work for 50 minutes and then take a 10 minute break. And then continue to work for another 50 minutes.
When you focus on your work, you will use up your willpower. The longer and more brain juice you use, the more you will consume your willpower. This is why we need to take breaks to refresh our creativity and replenish our energy.
Final Word
Follow through these 7 morning rituals to make your morning productive and keep yourself motivated.
You can customize and create your own routine if you want to. Whatever you do, you must start your day great so that you can produce outstanding results throughout the day.
___________
Shawn Lim is the founder of Stunning Motivation. He has experience in the personal development industry for more than 7 years and has helped countless success seekers to achieve outstanding success in life. Learn more about him at StunningMotivation.com