When you wake up in the morning, what's the first thing you think? What's the first thing you say? What's the first thing you do? In life, there are two kinds of people: 1) The ones who wake up saying, "Good morning God!" and 2) The ones who wake up saying, "Good God! Morning!" Same three words, two very different types of people. If you want to create a life of joy, fulfillment and happiness, it begins by recreating the way you start your day. Whether you know it or not, you have a morning ritual. It could be as simple as wake up-brush-dress-have coffee or as intricate as wake up-meditate-affirmations- pray-work out-pilates-juicing-go to work. The problem with most people's rituals is that they are coincidental when they need to be intentional. When you create an intentional morning ritual and you back it up with consistent focus and consistent action, you activate the power of momentum in your daily life. It makes everything (including the day) operate at a new level. Here are 3 steps to creating a phenomenal morning routine: 1) Set up a solid sleep schedule and stick to it. As a coach, one of the biggest issues my clients have had with creating a solid morning ritual comes in not being able to get up early enough to actually do the ritual. You need a sleep schedule that you follow through on consistently. Without that, your morning ritual (no matter how wonderful) will be intermittent at best. 2) Start your day with the activity that will give you the greatest feeling of accomplishment, satisfaction, and energy. There was a time when I struggled between the morning ritual options of meditation and exercise. I wanted to begin my day meditating for twenty minutes. After all, Deepak does it. At the same time, I also wanted to get in my workouts early because I knew that waiting until the end of the day to workout was a 50/50 gamble. What it finally came down to was answering one question: Which activity is going to give me the biggest boost of energy and accomplishment that will last the rest of the day? Exercise was clearly the answer. 3) Track your consistency for the first 90 days. This is the tough part. Most people hate the idea of tracking progress. Nobody likes to jump on a scale if they're not losing weight or check their bank accounts if they know it won't contain more money. However, consistent action requires consistent measurement. Use Google docs or an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of how consistent you are with your morning ritual. Write your morning ritual on a 3x5 note card and keep it with you. Schedule your morning ritual on your calendar and send yourself reminders. Do whatever it takes to make your morning ritual happen day after day after day. Once you've hit 90 days of consecutive morning ritual activity, you've got the habit down. How you wake up goes a long way in determining how you experience your day. Choose wisely...
