Cold showers are invigorating and are in my books the #1 method to use to increase your self-discipline, grit and willpower.
If you’re able to turn the faucet in the shower as far to the cold side as possible and withstand the freezing cold water for 5 minutes, every issue that arises over the course of the day or task you were procrastinating on doing will become that much more insignificant and you will find a solution.
I attribute much of my work ethic in running successful businesses to my ability to start each and every day with a cold shower.
Improved skin and hair condition, increased Testosterone levels, a feeling of invigoration and increase in grit are all the outcome of consistent cold showers.
2) Perform Power Poses
“What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say”
Sitting hunched over with bad posture is a sure-fire way to put yourself into an unproductive, unhappy mood.
Luckily enough the exact opposite is true too, by performing several minutes of uplifting power poses (often referred to as alpha male posture poses).
Power poses involve taking up as much space as possible, when an athlete crosses the finish line and claims first place in their event they immediately throw their arms into the sky and lean back to acknowledge their monumental achievement.
By spending a minute or two each morning emulating power poses like the aforementioned expect to experience calming of the nerves, a brief surge of energy and a decrease in cortisol (stress) levels.
3) Exercise
No morning routine is complete without exercise. Spending the first half an hour to an hour of your day performing a style of exercise that suits you – perhaps this is strength oriented training, or if you’re older and don’t have joints that are quite as forgiving as the youngsters walking, running or cycling are also great options.
By performing this exercise or ‘road work’ you’ll experience an increased sense of confident and general well-being not to mention the fat loss and increases in muscle size and endurance. In order to be productive and work great you have to feel great.
Exercise is the key to unlocking that healthy, productive body that can put in the hard yards for your business or life ventures.
4) Read
Spend a minimum of 15 minutes reading a non-fiction book or biography each morning.
From both an entrepreneur and athletes standpoint having a mentor or coach is one of the most important tools you can have, instead of constantly stumbling and making mistakes that are delaying our inevitable success we can learn from books.
We may not have physical access to Bill Gates or Arnold Schwarzenegger but we do have access to their thought patterns, life lessons, and advice. With this we can identify roadblocks that ran into on their quest for success by reading the books they have written.
It’s a competitive world out there so I cannot stress the importance of reading enough.
To become an expert in your chosen field and have that edge over the competition (or just to become a well-rounded renaissance man) picking up a book daily is essential.
5) Review your Goals for the Day
Without a plan we become part of someone else’s plan.
Writing down your goals for each day the previous evening before you retire will leave you with no guesswork when you arise the following morning.
As I mentioned at the start of this article decision fatigue (the act of having to perform a plethora of different decisions, regardless of how large or how small and insignificant they may be) is one of the biggest killers of productivity and action.
Each morning you should be reviewing the list of tasks/goals you need to accomplish to call it a successful day. I recommend having no more than 3 – 5 items on your daily list.
6) Perform Your Most Important/Biggest Impact Task First
Upon reviewing your daily goals the task on your daily list that has the greatest impact is to be performed first, as more often than not this will require the most focus and brainpower.
Research has shown that we are in our most determined, productive state several hours after waking up… this is the ideal time to knock out those big important tasks before moving on to smaller, lower impact tasks which do not require the same high level of focus.
The key to dominating with your morning routine is to implement habits to improve areas of your life you are currently struggling with.
