A GOOD MORNING ROUTINE!

There are two schools of thought on what determines how successful a person can become. The first is a fixed mindset. It basically says you're born with a certain level of talent and that's that. If you're good, you're good. If you suck, you suck.

The other is a growth mindset. This mindset says that while people are born with a certain level of talent, skill is a different animal and can only be achieved through relentless practice. It promotes the idea that only through continual improvement can we reach our full potential.

One of the things that held me back early in my career was being stuck in a primarily fixed mindset. I didn't have low self-esteem... on the contrary, I thought that I was already good enough to be able to coast through life.

What a pile of BS! The growth mindset is where it's at, and I quickly found out that no matter how much raw talent you may have, someone who persistently and continually improves will race past you before long.

The sooner you embrace the growth mindset, the sooner you'll reach your full potential and find your way to true happiness. So without further ado, here are some of the best habits that many of the world's most successful people use to continually improve.

1) Get up early and have a morning routine

You may not be a “morning person”. I know I’m not. But that may be worth changing as most super successful people wake up early. A lot of them wake up at 4 or 5AM. While you don’t necessarily have to do that to achieve success, waking up early gives you an opportunity to get ahead while everything is quiet.

As with any habit, if you start small (wake up 30 minutes earlier) and develop some easier habits to help you (put your alarm clock across the room or reward yourself with coffee or a hot shower) you can get there. No matter when you wake up, having a morning routine is key. Here’s a sample morning routine that can really kick your life up a notch.

• As soon as you wake up, stretch out as big as you can
• Practice mindfulness for one minute
• Practice gratitude for one minute
• Make your bed
• Drink at least 8 ounces of water (this one is actually pretty important as it will fuel you for the rest of the day)

2) Practice mindfulness

As mentioned, this works great as part of your morning routine. It literally only takes a minute (although you can extend it to 3 or 5 if you like) to melt away anxiety and stress.

Simply relax, close your eyes, and notice everything around you. Imagine starting in your toes and notice all of your muscles as you work your way to your head. Open your eyes and notice everything in the room. If you do it correctly, you won’t daydream or think about anything but what’s there in your body and your environment. Your mind will feel relaxed and cleansed.

3) Practice gratitude

This should be done deliberately at least once per day. But it can and should also be done throughout the day whenever you feel like complaining. All it takes is thinking about what you’re truly grateful for. It doesn’t have to change much from day to day and can include things like health, family, friends, shelter. The simple practice of gratitude is like health food for the mind, and it puts us in a state that attracts success in life. Keep at it!

One trick to feel grateful without even thinking about it is to just repeat "thank you" to yourself several times whenever you want a boost. If you repeat "thank you" either out loud or in your mind 10 or 20 times, your brain works its magic, and you can transform yourself into a better state in no time.

As with a lot of these things, it may seem a little silly, but your brain is a neurochemical machine... and things like this literally alter the chemical state and begin to improve your brain. Try it!

As with most things in life... you can make it work for you if you like or you can dismiss it as stupid and carry on. 

4) Write at least 10 ideas per day

This will keep your mind and creativity sharp. And it should be a quick task. Make yourself do it in 5 minutes or less. If you can’t think of 10 good ideas, great – write down the dumbest ideas that come into your mind. It’s not important what they are… you’re just pumping iron with your idea muscle. The people in the world who have the most good ideas also have the most bad ideas. Again, don’t worry if they’re good, just come up with 10 ideas every day no matter what they are.

5) Welcome “problems” and discomfort

This one may sound a little crazy, but it’s a miracle worker. Have you ever put off something important because you just knew it would lead to more headache and problems? 

Here's the trick... learn to welcome those problems. Successful people realize that challenges are opportunities for growth. If you run into a problem, think of it as a chance to get ahead of everyone else who doesn’t feel like dealing with it. And the bigger the problem the better for growth. Much like lifting heavier weights, big problems make you that much stronger.

Big problems are often big business opportunities too. If you run into a big, common problem it’s like money waiting to be scooped up by someone who solves it. The ultra-successful actually try to create more problems (of the right kind) for themselves. They have too many customers and now have a staffing problem. They sell too many tickets and now they have a seating problem. Try creating some problems like that for yourself, and you’ll be well on your way.

If you don’t have problems, and you're not failing very often… you’re not trying hard enough. Problems and failure are the keys to growth. So don’t get discouraged when you fail. If you’re not failing, it's a sign that you’re not pushing yourself enough.

6) Set goals and divide them into small tasks

If someone never had a goal to become a swim champion, what do you think their chances of winning a gold medal in swimming are? 

If you don't have a goal, your chances of getting it are pretty much zero. So if you want big things, have big goals. 

But don't stop there... make them a reality by breaking them up into small, measurable, and achievable tasks. When you have a goal, start by picturing the end point, and then work backwards from there until today… that will shed some light on the steps that need to take place to make it a reality. Remember, consistency is key so make the steps small and keep inching toward that goal every single day. 

7) Evaluate your time and tasks

This one is a HUGE performance booster. Schedule 30 minutes once per week to review your time and tasks. The 80/20 rule says that 80% of the good stuff in your life comes from 20% of your tasks. By scheduling a small block of time to actually review your time and try to make adjustments can really boost your productivity. Go ahead and do it now… pick a 30 minute block once per week and put it on your phone calendar. Use that 30 minutes to review what you did, what went well, what went not so well, and where you could tweak how you spend your time to get more of the good stuff in your life. 

8) Read for a minimum of 30 minutes per day

This one is simple, but few of us do it. Think of the power when you multiply that small block of time out. Top CEOs read about 50 books per year. Most people barely read at all.

If you read for just 30 minutes a day, that’s over 10,000 minutes or 182 hours of reading per year… which is probably a huge increase from last year. 30 minutes is nothing, but 182 hours of extra knowledge under your belt each year is the kind of advantage that can put you in the big leagues.

Pro Tip: if you drive to work, use that time to listen to audio books. More traffic problems means more reading opportunity.

9) Exercise and try to eat right

It’s no coincidence that most successful people do some amount of exercise. Studies have shown that it’s not only good for the body, it’s good for the brain. Energy is important if you’re going to conquer the world, so make time for exercise and try to eat right. Remember, if you just can’t bring yourself to hit it hard in the gym every day, do any small little thing you can think of. Even 1 minute of exercise a day (especially in the morning) can work wonders. No matter how small… 10 jumping jacks, whatever you want. Make it CONSISTENT; make it a habit!

10) Surround yourself with success

They say you’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Who are you currently the average of? This doesn’t mean that you have to dump your friends or your family if they’re not filthy rich, but it does mean that the more people who you can be near that have already done what you want to do, the better. If you find successful people and do what they did, you’ll also find success. Try to seek out successful people and network. Send a message on LinkedIn, ask around, whatever you can do to be near the ultra-successful will pay huge dividends.

I hope this list provides a good starting point. No matter what, find something, anything you can do consistently each day to improve. If you can improves just a small amount each day, time will be on your side, and you'll be amazed at how much progress you make year after year.

Paul Nichols <paul@dolearnrepeat.com>

245/06/2020.