Morning Mindset

Before I take you through my tried and tested ideal morning routine, I want to hit you up with a little confession or two…

Sometimes I press the snooze button on my alarm and sometimes I sleep right through it. Sometimes I skip my morning meditation or dont have the patience for yoga.

Sometimes I’d rather spend the morning drinking my body weight in banana and peanut butter smoothies rather than get to the gym. And sometimes I’m simply not in the mood to journal out my gratitude.

Sometimes life gets in the way and I’m a little bit human.

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It could be a party that takes three days to recover from or some form of a knock-back that takes me by surprise. It could be as simple as one negative seed that’s planted into the fertile soils of my busy mind and all of a sudden I just don’t feel like coming out from beneath my duvet.

Whatever the reason, I know from experience that if my morning routine comes to a crashing halt, then so do I.

If I don’t leap out of bed and do my sit ups or allow myself fifteen minutes of meditation on my favourite rainbow cushion then chances are I’ll be shuffling down the stairs towards the kettle.

Instead of a deliciously good cup of ceremony grade raw cacao (sounds hilarious, tastes heavenly) for shake-free, heart-opening highs, I’ll dig out my rose gold cafetière for a good old fashioned caffeinated pick-me-up.

My sleepy eyes will take longer to open and the brain fog will take longer to clear.

I’ll sit in the garden listening to the birdsong and my posture will be a little slumped. And even if I do still find the energy to journal out my Morning Pages, my scribbles are notably more pessimistic than the day before.

I’ll be focusing on the not-so-good stuff and I’ll blame myself for never doing enough. I’ll wish I would have done those sit-ups and that meditation this morning but I’ll know that deep down there’s no intention to get back to it all until tomorrow.

Two coffees later and I still won’t feel like putting on my.neon orange ultraboosts for my morning run. It’s raining outside, my trainers are in the wash or I’ll go later on when I’m more awake – any excuse will do.

And so instead of my success-guaranteeing morning routine I’ll shuffle my way back upstairs to the office, take a seat in front of my computer and get straight into my work.

I’ll be productive, there’s never any doubt about that – I always work hard no matter how my day has begun, but something will be missing…

That buzz. That positive energy. That lust for life.

Without my morning routine, a trillion tiny moments will send me off down a different path, I’ll be slightly off balance and my day will never quite work out the way I want it to.

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One if my go-to gurus on this subject is Tony Robbins.

Whether you love him or hate him, he’s the world’s most famous life and business coach and at 57 years old has a busier schedule than most of us. So I think we can at least listen to what he has to say.

He travels the world for about 60 events (which can last an hour or several days) each year, goes on media tours for his latest projects, monitors the 33 companies he’s invested in and directly runs 12 of them, consults businesses and professional sports teams, and works with a small list of personal clients like the billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones.

He talks a lot about the importance of morning routines, or priming, and says that if you can’t spare yourself at least 10 minutes every morning then you really don’t have a life at all.

For Robbins and many of his followers, the benefits of a morning routine are glaringly obvious and the results are instant.

It all comes down to cultivating the right mindset.

You have to go sleep excited to wake up and get things done. You have to focus on the results you’ll achieve rather than the challenges you’ll face and know that they’re totally worth it. You have to know that if you want things to change, you have to take action – massive action.

If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.