11 Morning Routines That Every Man Needs To Start Doing
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Mornings are a drag, but wasting your day is an even bigger one. One that adds up to one hell of a drag if it suddenly ends up January 1st and you realized you?ve wasted the entire year.
Whether you?re looking to improve your dating life, start that business you?ve always wanted to, write that book, or just lose a few pounds, your goals are always going to be measured in days.
Days you get right. And days you get wrong.
And as it?s the time of year where you?re probably looking in the mirror saying ?this time I?m gonna change!?, and writing down a million and a half goals, I figured I?d offer some helpful tips on how to start getting those days right.
Humans like patterns and rhythm. We like to eat at regular intervals. We like to work at set times. And we sure as hell like to sleep at set times.
Not only does this make a lot of sense biologically (a good nights sleep is like a full body massage for your hormones), but it also makes a lot of sense for the consistency of your days.
If you?re waking up some mornings at 8, others at 11, there?s not a hell of a lot that?s consistent about your life. Not only are you probably going to feel like crap, but the likelihood you?ll stick to any routine or plan of action is highly unlikely.
When you wake up at 11, you?ll have obligations (set by people with normal sleep patterns) that eat into the bulk of your day, forcing you to work later, go to bed later, and find it even harder to get up at 8.
It?s better you just find a reasonable time that fits with the majority of peoples lives and stick to it.
You?ll wake up feeling refreshed. You?ll wake up with a flexible set of hours to work in. And you?ll wake up with a sense of discipline.
Tony Robbins is often quoted as saying:
?It is in moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.?
Now, that?s a little Star Wars for me. But he?s right.
When it comes to self-improvement, changing your life, or any of that stuff – your decisions are everything. But the thing is, most of your decisions happen on autopilot. You don?t know they?re happening.
When you procrastinate, you?re making a decision. When you run from fear, you?re making a decision. When you tell yourself ?I can?t?, you?re making a decision.
Bringing awareness to your decisions helps to shape the direction your days are going in. So today, make a decision on how you?re going to act. What you?re going to focus on and do.
And then do it.
You can?t get where you?re going if you don?t know what direction you?re heading in.
Sitting down and planning your day as it starts gives you that direction. For some, this will be a minutia play by play of everything they need to get done. For others, this will be vague, broad goals they want to aim at.
In either case, the principle is the same. You?re giving yourself a direction. You?re giving yourself a roadmap.
This not only helps you keep moving in the direction you need to go in, but it also helps you take pride in your efforts. Everything you note down that you want to do is another thing you can tick off at the end of the day.
Your brain is not on your side. Don?t believe me? Try and not think about ninjas. Now try and not think about ninjas making rainbow uramaki.
Hard isn?t it?
I bet some of you don?t even know what rainbow uramaki is. Yet you still thought of something you didn?t want to.
Your brain likes to think. And rarely ever does it think about what you want it to think about. But if you want to have a good, productive day, that?s exactly what you have to get it to do.
To combat this, ancient wise men from the far east invented a little thing called meditation. And it?s all about getting the brain off this state, which some of them refer to as ?monkey mind.?
Monkey is mind is simply where the brain is leaping around like a monkey doing whatever it wants. Meditation is the act of sitting in silence, with your eyes closed, and getting that monkey to focus on the breath.
That?s it.
Every now and again the monkey will return to leaping around. Sometimes it?ll do this the entire time. But that?s fine, you just bring it back to the breath.
Not only is this a great way to set your mind in order for the day to come, but it has so many other mental health benefits that you?d be pretty foolish not to give it a try. Seriously, just google it. I?ll wait.
I?m sure that back in cavemen times, that when starving and needing food, one caveman still ended up browsing caveman memes on the wall instead.
We all put off the thing that seems hardest to do. This seems to be a human universal. Whether it?s because we?re lazy or stupid is irrelevant. We just do it.
But one of the best rules we can set ourselves to take control of our day is to take the hardest thing we have to do – and immediately do it.
Don?t wait. Just do it.
If you can do it without eating, washing, or dressing. Do it. Many famous writers have done just that.
Then, an hour or two after you?ve woken up – reflect on the fact that you?ve just got the hardest thing done.
How do you think that would make you feel?
I think you?d feel pretty damn good.
I don?t know about you, but I?m naturally lazy. I don?t really want to do anything, and it often feels like my body’s natural state is to lie down as much as possible.
And why not? Lying down is great.
Well, the thing about lying down is that it slows your metabolism to a crawl. You feel lethargic, you lose motivation, and you all around start feeling like doing anything is just a little too hard.
This is why mornings are difficult.
The answer to this is simple. Get up and wake your body up. Don?t wait for food. Don?t wait for your shower. Dive out of bed, put on some reasonably appropriate clothes and get some exercise.
Your muscles will wake up. Your cardiovascular system will kick in. Your blood will be flowing and you?ll be energized for the day.
This isn?t a joke. And it?s actually my favorite tip of the bunch.
Each a big breakfast. Like, a BIG breakfast.
Eggs. Avocado. Bacon. Go nuts.
Get as many nutrients in you as possible. It?ll get you full of fuel for the hardest work of the day.
On the flip side, you could ignore tip 7 entirely, because there are benefits to not eating anything at all.
When you start the day on an empty stomach and keep it that way, you enter a state called ketosis.
For some people, this seems to be the sweet spot. I personally prefer eating a huge breakfast to start the day, but hey, to each their own.
Ketosis has a whole bunch of benefits, some suggesting that it improves brain function. Try it out for yourself.
Your brain thrives on learning. Give it some new fact, or new skill that it thinks it can achieve, and it?ll want nothing else.
This simple principle is why many people are addicted to the internet. They?re always receiving new information, and in response, their brain rewards them with a hit of dopamine.
Use this to your advantage. Start the day by learning something new.
This could be as simple as practicing a new language to reading classic fiction. Anything that activates your brain and gets it working is going to help set you up for the day ahead.
After all, you?re starting the day by being disciplined and investing in yourself.
As I wrote in this article, the risks you take in life are incredibly important. Not only do they shape your ability to deal with fear, but they shape the outcomes of your life.
Every day you?re going to be confronted with risks. Many of these risks you?re going to know about in advance.
Address an issue with your boss? Assert a boundary with your friend? Ask that cute girl who works at the coffee shop out on a date?
You already know what they are.
Wake up in the morning and acknowledge the risk you need to take and make a decision to take it.
Because, sure, it might go wrong – your boss might dismiss your issue. Your friend might disrespect you. The girl might reject you.
But it also might go right.
And you?ll never know for sure unless you try.
But the best advice? Just get up and do whatever it is you want to do.
Write the book? Start the business? Get up and get started.
Start immediately.?After all, that?s why you?re here. You want to get it done.
Why wait?
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About John Matich John is a writer from the UK who splits his time between travelling the world and trying to find unconventional solutions to dating and personal development. You can find more from him at www.lifeuncivilized.com.
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