We live in a world full of disagreement. Yet one of the few things that people, specifically high achievers, do agree upon is the impact that a solid morning routine can be on creating a successful and a significant business, career, family and life.
I have been making iterations to my morning routine for years and I feel really excited about the recent updates that I’ve made and what it is doing to help give me a great life now as well as put me on the track to the even better life, filled with more impact, that I aspire to create for me and my family.
A key, I have found, is to have everything that matters most to me, done before the dew dries on the grass.
Here’s my current morning routine:
9:45 pm- “Wait, I thought you said ‘morning routine?” you’re probably asking yourself. And you’re right, I did.
And know this: every morning routine plan, preparation and good intention in the world will be minuscule in comparison to the overwhelming need for more sleep if you don’t know how much sleep your body needs and reverse engineer the time that your head needs to be hitting the pillow. For me, I can live comfortably with 6-1/2 hours of sleep, so being in bed by 10:15 pm allows me to be up by 4:45 am.
9:45 pm- I start preparations to be in bed with a grateful heart, a clear mind, connected to the Divine and ready to pop up with my alarm at 4:45 am.
10 pm- plug in my phone and my Apple Watch. Floss, take my vitamins, wash my face and lay my workout clothes for the morning
10:10 pm– journal, personal prayer and couple prayer with my wife
10:30 pm- head hits the pillow
4:45 am- alarm goes off. I roll out of bed and say PERSONAL PRAYER, get dressed, use the bathroom, put on my watch and grab my phone.
5 am- 30 minute EXERCISE begins while listening to spiritual sermons through my phone.
5:30 am- shave, shower, get dressed
5:45 am- open my journal, put the date at the top, list 10 things I’m GRATEFUL for, then READ SCRIPTURES for 15 minutes while journaling insights and inspiration that comes. I then write 7 AFFIRMATIONS, one for each key area of my life including: spiritual, family, mind, body, job, business, and money. The list below includes the affirmation (in bold) followed by the ONE Thing that I must do in that particular area of my life that will make everything else easier or irrelevant:
- Spiritual- I AM a child of God and a true follower of Jesus Christ- I seek out someone who I can help today.
- Family- I AM a great husband and father. When at home, I always choose to look and play with my children rather than my phone.
- Mind- I AM a big thinker and movement maker. I spend one hour reading or listening to audio.
- Body- I AM a high-performance athlete. I do a workout every day.
- Job- I AM the nation’s highest producer and an industry challenger. I lead with a national media presence and make 5 prospecting contacts.
- Business- I AM a Funnelhacker and Two Comma Club-X winner. I spend one hour creating content.
- Money- I AM a philanthropist and mutli-millionaire. Of our gross, we give at least 10%, invest 10% and save 10% and then live off of the rest.
6 am- I spend an hour WRITING my book.
7 am- scriptures and BREAKFAST WITH MY CHILDREN
7:30- leave for work
8 am- write a blog post
8:30 am- live interview prep
8:45 am- LIVE INTERVIEW
9 am- video post-production
9:30 am- PROSPECTING
Looking at the list of affirmations, and then looking at my schedule… on an ideal day, and I fight to make each day ideal, the action item following each of my affirmations is DONE BEFORE 10:30 am. Imagine that… the activities that will give you the successful and significant life that you want… DONE BEFORE 10:30 am.
Assuming that you closed out each day taking care of anything that would be required of you before noon… the magic in all of this is that you control these hours and everything can wait without anyone being inconvenienced or without your level of service dropping.
Implementing this will change your life. Here are the next steps to help you to implement:
- reverse engineer your sleep to know what time you need to go to bed
- have a 30 minute before bed prep period to get your mind and your logistics in place for the next morning to be a success
- actually go to bed on time
- write an affirmation in each of the seven areas listed above (who are you and what is the impact you want to have in each of those areas, is one way to write an affirmation)
- write the one action, such that by doing it, will best ensure that you become the person and make the impact stated in your affirmations.
- work each of those seven things, or as many make sense to have in a daily routine, into your schedule as early as possible.
When those of us in the real estate industry get really intentional with our time, especially that time where we are most free from distractions, we become the kind of people that our ideal customers are willing to wait for, pay for and refer.