It’s finally 2021 and what better way to kick things off than to talk about the morning rituals. Here I talk about how to create a morning routine you could follow and and transform into better leaders.

A client was talking the other day about how to really make changes stick in their lives and really embrace and continue to deliver on and live the way in which they’d managed to create but wanting to do that ongoing. And one of the key things is about creating rituals for yourself that instill what you want to achieve in everyday life, so it’s no longer a new thing. And one if the key things is morning rituals.

Everyone speaks about the importance of breakfast in the morning, but really, it’s actually about having a ritual in the morning that sets you up for success for the rest of the day. And if breakfast is it, then fantastic. And you’ll hear lots of people giving insights about their own individual morning rituals, about this is how to kind of so it. I don’t believe there is any one set morning ritual that is absolutely ideal. I think it is about having one.

I’ll share with you briefly what mine is. I actually start my day at 4:30 in the morning, that’s because I go to bed pretty early, and also, I realized that those first 2 hours in the morning from 4:30 to 6:30, I’ve got two young kids, that’s when the kids’ wake up, is kind of like dead time, really. If you go to bed earlier, you can have those productive 2 hours there, and it really sets me up. So some of the key things that I do in the morning. 4:30 in the morning, first thing that I do, because I’m kind of sleepy, want to make the most of the day, is I meditate, is the first thing. So I can actually meditate for 30 minutes to an hour and ½. obviously if I meditate for an hour and a ½, I only have 30 minutes for the rest of the things that I have. If I meditate for 30 minutes, then I’ve got longer for the other activity, so it’s kind of like a pick a mix with regards to the durations that I do, depending on how I’m feeling, and depending what I’ve got on that day. So meditation is definitely the first thing that I do, it’s just the duration there that I kind of look at. I then tend look at my phone to look at if any emails have come in overnight form US, etc. So that I can make sure that I’ve prioritized my day, and that I know what I’ve tangibly got to do for the rest of the day. And then can prioritize the rest of the time I have in the morning.

It’s at that time, then, I do exercise, and exercise is really important because if you do exercise in the morning, it actually helps the quality of your sleep at night, that night, and you don’t actually have to do a lot. So 15 minutes. 30 minutes, is absolutely kind of ideal. Just do something. I think I’ve shown you in a previous video my little crow-trainer that I’ve got. I can just use 15 minutes of that. Or where we live, just 30 minutes, just running down the lanes enough to get my cardio kind of going. And then when I come back, I then spend about 10-15 minutes actually doing stretching, ‘cause sitting down at a desk, travelling if you’re commuting, really important just to stretch out your kind of muscles. Otherwise, overtime you’ll come kind of crunched up. And then after that kind of period time it’s a quick shower, and then it’s 6:30 in the morning.

And I feel like I’ve done so much for myself in the morning up until that I point. And breakfast kind of fits in. I made myself a smoothie between 6:30, 7:30, 8:30, that time, it’s kind of flexible whenever I start work, ‘cause I’m with the kids, help them get set up for the day, and then I’m ready to go into work anywhere between 6:30, 7:30, 8:30, depending on if I take the kids onto school or whatever, or if I have work to do. So that’s my daily ritual. What’s yours?