HOW TO BUILD A MORNING ROUTINE FOR SUCCESS AND HAPPINESS
In this episode, I share my morning routine and what I learned from the morning routines of so many successful people.
So many people think the morning routine starts with the morning, but it really starts the night before.
How we end our day sets the tone for the next morning and day we will have.
As we end 2021, I feel this is the most important thing one can do for themselves to prepare themselves for success.
Have a listen and let me know what did you take away from this episode?
Transcript
Well, I
Speaker:was come everyone to yet another episode of Saw
Speaker:Entrepreneurship, Spirituality and the Downs of Life.
Speaker:I'm your host Manpreet Bawa, and this is another solo episode.
Speaker:I'm really excited about this episode, because today I'm going to share
Speaker:about my morning routine and how it has helped me transition from,
Speaker:you know, a very technical career to a witty, creative career.
Speaker:And there are things that you can find online,
Speaker:and everybody has their unique way to approach the morning routines.
Speaker:But it is one of the key components of the change that I believe
Speaker:helped me grow and transform my life
Speaker:in the last twelve months.
Speaker:So I'm really excited to share about it, my journey with the,
Speaker:you know, the routine and how I build that.
Speaker:The very first thing that I want to talk to you about is that,
Speaker:you know, everybody has their unique way to approach their day
Speaker:and every career, every stage of life has a different needs.
Speaker:So be mindful of what your needs are for the for the work you do
Speaker:and where you headed with your goals and whatever you're trying to do in your life,
Speaker:because what works for me may not work for you.
Speaker:More works for Warren Buffet may not work for me, right?
Speaker:So take what works for you.
Speaker:You can try. You can play.
Speaker:That's all we have.
Speaker:Like, you know, get that playful experimental with your days
Speaker:and see what works and wallop the routine that fits your work, your needs
Speaker:and allows you to get ahead in life.
Speaker:But what I'm going to share is what I learned through the different mentors
Speaker:I had.
Speaker:What I have studied in the box, there's so much
Speaker:wisdom.
Speaker:There's so much information available on the subject.
Speaker:If you look back to the you know, you can go back
Speaker:4000, 5000 years back
Speaker:and still there more emphasis on the morning.
Speaker:And you know, the weather was your geeks or whether it was mistakes,
Speaker:whether it was, you know, warriors,
Speaker:everybody had a different way to approach your day.
Speaker:But there is a really, you know, clear
Speaker:indication and clear signs, clear
Speaker:statistics and data available to demonstrate that you know
Speaker:the way you Belgium warning bells your be.
Speaker:So with that, I want to jump right into it.
Speaker:The first thing to realize or the first thing I realized
Speaker:as I was trying to make the change
Speaker:and trying to build the morning looking for the examples.
Speaker:The first thing I learned was that my morning does not start in my morning.
Speaker:My morning really starts the night before, right?
Speaker:The whole way, the way I and my night before,
Speaker:the way I sleep, the way the number of hours I sleep.
Speaker:And what I think about before I go bad is what is exactly
Speaker:what is going to shape my morning.
Speaker:And it was a
Speaker:big change for me because prior to this,
Speaker:I would go to bed answering three e-mails, answering to whatever messages
Speaker:or watching television, Netflix movies.
Speaker:So there were mix a mixture of things that I would do
Speaker:and sometimes worry about in the meeting that I had next to
Speaker:or worrying about the issue that I had to respond to the customer.
Speaker:All those things that I would go.
Speaker:So in a way, I was not setting up my night for a better.
Speaker:The next day I was in a reactive mode
Speaker:and the next morning would I would wake up straight away, pick up the phone,
Speaker:look at whether it was somebody who needed me , whether it was email,
Speaker:WhatsApp message, text message, phone call.
Speaker:I was just looking at all.
Speaker:I need to, you know, make myself available for
Speaker:what is it that calling for me that I need to,
Speaker:you know, react to?
Speaker:So I was always reactive because I was just always
Speaker:on the go for looking for the things that I would have to address
Speaker:because I had never thought that I could wake up.
Speaker:And on the day, without being reactive to the day to hope, that makes sense.
Speaker:Like, I don't know if you can relate.
Speaker:But if you're somebody like me, the person I was picking up the phone,
Speaker:I can tell you your day does not go very smooth.
Speaker:You always are reacting, jumping from one task to another, one email to another,
Speaker:one phone call.
Speaker:And it's always, you know, one phone call away from having a bad day
Speaker:or one email in today's world or having a bad day.
Speaker:And that was me
Speaker:and I left, you know,
Speaker:like that life for more than ten years and all of these
Speaker:I would feel exhausted by the day south by responding there.
Speaker:So the first thing that I realize is in order to break away from me
Speaker:being in reactive mode, I needed to respect my time.
Speaker:I needed to set some boundaries for myself.
Speaker:So the first boundary of that I added
Speaker:for myself was not checking my emails
Speaker:or phone or messages,
Speaker:you know, 30 minutes before I go to sleep.
Speaker:And not watching TV and, you know,
Speaker:not going to bed right after watching TV, something, whatever it was,
Speaker:I was giving myself a 30 minutes break from the digital form.
Speaker:The screen 30 minutes before I went to the bed
Speaker:was a hard thing to break because it is so compulsive, right?
Speaker:Picking up the phone is so compulsive.
Speaker:Husseini we don't always enjoy.
Speaker:Like sometimes if you notice you have you had the phone?
Speaker:Your fingers are stalling
Speaker:the thing Ebola receiving our WhatsApp,
Speaker:Instagram, Facebook, whatever you use, right,
Speaker:you were scrolling through, but you are enjoying it.
Speaker:Or literally you're not there.
Speaker:You're just scrolling for no reason
Speaker:and you don't even know like, it's so addictive.
Speaker:And that's how those apps are built on.
Speaker:They want you to scroll and do get engaged.
Speaker:But that's a compulsive pattern
Speaker:that you are not now enjoying, but you are addicted to it.
Speaker:And that was me to break away from.
Speaker:It was a hard thing.
Speaker:Thing I do before the night is, is this just that I got to
Speaker:cut myself from the technology? Then
Speaker:I want to
Speaker:think something positive, whether I'm reading a book,
Speaker:whether I am thinking something positive or
Speaker:envisioning something positive for my next day,
Speaker:whether I'm just listening to some audible book or something, I'm
Speaker:doing something that brings me
Speaker:into a state of calm,
Speaker:pleasant mood
Speaker:with which I can go to bed.
Speaker:So I take I create an environment that allows me
Speaker:to sleep easily, right?
Speaker:And obviously, there are exceptions.
Speaker:There are days,
Speaker:even though I warned I cannot control like I struggle with doing that.
Speaker:I'm not saying I'm perfect.
Speaker:They can do it every day, but that is what I aim for.
Speaker:So now the night is done, I'm prepared.
Speaker:I did what I could to prepare myself for the day I sleep, you know?
Speaker:Um, better.
Speaker:I take my eight hours sleep for me, eight hours as minimum.
Speaker:I know when I go lower than eight, I can do it for some days when I need to.
Speaker:But really, in order to be really productive, being available
Speaker:and having my full energy, I need my eight hours
Speaker:sleep on my mornings and I start again my morning with the whole.
Speaker:But this rule of not touching my phone for at least 30 minutes, right?
Speaker:I do more.
Speaker:More often than usually, I do that for two hours
Speaker:like sends up to two hours, but minimum minimum.
Speaker:I don't want to touch my phone for the first 30 minutes of my
Speaker:morning when I get up.
Speaker:Why? Because I don't want to be in reactive state immediately.
Speaker:I want to do something for myself, be really getting appreciative about,
Speaker:you know, what I'm going to do during my day and then I want to go
Speaker:make myself available for the rest of the world.
Speaker:And again, there's an exception.
Speaker:There are days when I do
Speaker:pick up my phone, for example, if I'm expecting some email or,
Speaker:you know, there is something urgent that needs to happen that day, and I
Speaker:already know it needs my attention right after I get up.
Speaker:Either I get up early or I would pick up my phone and I address,
Speaker:but I am conscious about it.
Speaker:It's not that first thing I do is pick up my phone.
Speaker:And then once I had,
Speaker:you know, once I got an up, I knew what I need to do.
Speaker:You know, I'm brushing my teeth, going to toilet.
Speaker:Then I try to sit down and meditate.
Speaker:That could vary from five minutes to an hour.
Speaker:Some days less.
Speaker:Some days more, depending on what I have planned for the day.
Speaker:But I don't have this strength to do 20 minutes.
Speaker:I want to do 20 minutes.
Speaker:That's the number that works for me.
Speaker:And that's the number that science has proven
Speaker:that should be done in order to center yourself.
Speaker:So I do that.
Speaker:Some days I do yoga.
Speaker:Some days I listen to some podcasts.
Speaker:Some days I read a book something devotional, some uplifting music.
Speaker:Whatever it is to prepare myself, fried myself for my day.
Speaker:And, you know, having a good breakfast.
Speaker:So I basically agreed.
Speaker:And why a man that blames myself to go on and make myself over?
Speaker:Well, but for my day to do what I, what I needed to do in the day,
Speaker:and that's what I do my morning,
Speaker:and it's all cultivating the habit.
Speaker:I'm not saying that the day when when you do it, it's going to happen.
Speaker:And I don't even recommend doing everything in on day one,
Speaker:but pick up something that you want to do
Speaker:and do it for next seven days.
Speaker:Right? Commit to that next seven days.
Speaker:Whether it's cutting off from the technology, whether it's reading a book,
Speaker:whether it's, you know, meditating, whether it's exercising,
Speaker:you know, everybody has a different way to approach whatever makes you happy.
Speaker:For some people, when you get up, music lifts you up and do that for me.
Speaker:Meditation works for somebody.
Speaker:It's a physical exercise tool that somebody is just reading books,
Speaker:whatever it is, you know, just fill your cup up.
Speaker:It's, you know, a lot of times people think it's selfish
Speaker:to be
Speaker:working on yourself and you know, you need to be selfless.
Speaker:But only where you can be selfless is when you're self-will.
Speaker:And the only way you become self fall is when you devote
Speaker:some time, some energy to do the things that make you happy,
Speaker:that things that spark your energy, that create happiness in your life.
Speaker:When you do that, you are much more available for the people.
Speaker:You know, the problems become smaller.
Speaker:I know the days I meditate, I am.
Speaker:I've done my yoga. I've had my breakfast.
Speaker:And you know, the bigger problems can come, but I'm more calm.
Speaker:It does not mean those problems don't come,
Speaker:but I'm more conscious and more alert, more calm to,
Speaker:you know, be available for those problems.
Speaker:I am responsive. I'm not reactive.
Speaker:And during those days.
Speaker:And then there are days when I am not able to do any of those things,
Speaker:and I've seen the difference.
Speaker:But I get irritated easily by the smallest of the things.
Speaker:And then I wonder what happened.
Speaker:And every time I look back, it has been that something in
Speaker:my morning routine has been broken. So
Speaker:I think the best thing
Speaker:I could offer you is look at your morning,
Speaker:look at the, you know, the night before you go to sleep.
Speaker:Look at the 30 minutes.
Speaker:What are you doing in that period?
Speaker:Review that.
Speaker:See if that is aligned with you.
Speaker:Had it in your life. See if that is serving.
Speaker:Whether it's Netflix, whether it's music, batteries, food,
Speaker:whatever you're doing 30 or 40 minutes before you go to bed, look at it.
Speaker:How is it helping you question it?
Speaker:Challenge yourself on changing something to air
Speaker:and similarly, make a change in your morning.
Speaker:Look at what you're doing.
Speaker:Because if you don't.
Speaker:Look at what's happening.
Speaker:Night before and the next morning,
Speaker:and if those actions are consistently seen that you're repeating in a way,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:a Dr.
Speaker:George Spencer says it best, he says if you're not looking at it
Speaker:and you're repeating the same action,
Speaker:same action, same actions every day, day in, day out, night in, night out,
Speaker:you're really leaving yourself in the past.
Speaker:So you're re-creating your past into your future because of what you did
Speaker:yesterday is what you did today, and that's what you're going to do tomorrow.
Speaker:So you're predictive, your guaranteeing yourself
Speaker:that you're using that path into and future.
Speaker:So you're creating your future that was two days ago or your boss
Speaker:or a month ago, you were just recreating your past into your future.
Speaker:And the way to break away from is being conscious,
Speaker:being aware of what is happening in those moments.
Speaker:Those are the key moments before you go to bed and after you get up.
Speaker:And if you win those
Speaker:time periods, you're going to win your day.
Speaker:So that's all.
Speaker:Hopefully it was helpful, right? Right.
Speaker:For someone to pick up one thing, make a change in your night before
Speaker:go for seven days. See the difference.
Speaker:And if you want accountability partner,
Speaker:tell somebody, tell your wife, tell your best friend.
Speaker:Ask them, Do you know that I'm going to make this change?
Speaker:Ask them to keep you accountable.
Speaker:Tell them every day you're doing it.
Speaker:Building a habit.
Speaker:Maybe a high five with your children.
Speaker:If you have one hour, I fly with your wife.
Speaker:I fly with a friend.
Speaker:Whatever it is, I build something that gives
Speaker:you pleasure of making this change and make the change.
Speaker:Take care.
Speaker:See you in the next episode. All right.
Speaker:I hope you enjoy the show as much as I did and got some valuable nuggets out of it.
Speaker:If you liked it, there are other shows you can watch.
Speaker:They are exactly what you need, and I ask you to like, comment.
Speaker:Subscribe.
Speaker:Let me know what you thought of the show.
Speaker:Really, I want to hear from you firsthand
Speaker:what you found, what you liked, what you didn't like.
