Waking up, rushing in the bathroom, grabbing a snack on my way out and hurrying to work because I was already late. That was my typical morning for as long as I can remember but one day, I decided to adopt the millionaire morning routine and it truly changed my life. You want to know the detail? Then let’s go back to the start.
You know how they say that the morning is the most important part of the day? Well my morning(s) were always acting. I had trouble organizing myself so instead of getting the most out of these early hours, I was running to work half a sleep. Needless to say, my chaotic morning messed used the rest of my day and I went home exhausted and angry at myself. One day, my messy morning routine ruined my work presentation and I decided enough was enough after all there has to be a better way to do this right, after spending some time on the internet I found exacting what I was looking for” the millionaire morning routine!”.
Apparently, millionaires attribute huge part of their success to their morning routine and if you follow all of the steps you too will be able to start your day feeling relaxed, rested and inspired. Here is what I have to do every morning during my little experiment.
First, I had to wake up earlier because there is no way I will complete the whole routine before going to work if I don’t wake up early enough. For instance, Richard Branson, Aliko Dangote, Tim Cook and tons of other successful entrepreneurs are early birds right, so from that moment on, my alarm was set for 5:30 in the morning.
Next step was meditation, doing this practice in the morning allows you to connect with yourself and kick-start you day with positive energy. After that it is good to do an easy 2-3 minutes workout, nothing out of the ordinary just a couple of crunches or push-ups to get your body going after a night rest. Many waste time for the typical morning routine we all do; showering, brushing our teeth and in some case for men shaving. When that part was complete, I go into the kitchen make myself a tasty cup of tea or coffee and write down my To-Do list for the day, including my personal goals and work tasks and on that note, it was time to go to work. Now that my morning routine was structured and my journal for notes was bought, it was finally time to start living like a millionaire. To be honest, my first few days of my experiment was a nightmare. I am a night hour so it was almost impossible for me to get up as exactly as I planned. As a result, the first few mornings of my experiment were pretty much the same as the old.
However, I finally pulled myself together on day four, figured out my sleeping schedule and started to wake up exactly as I intended to. Practicing meditation didn’t go as smoothly at the beginning, I have never meditated before so all my attempts to do it right after I woke up made me so relaxed that I went straight back to sleep. After trying numerous techniques, I found that simple breathing works best for me. Sometimes I use this time to visualize my dreams and the person I wanted to be and it worked. Every time I reached a new level of inner harmony and understanding of what my perfect life should be. This made it way easier to figure out the steps I need to make this vision a reality. Workout wasn’t a problem for me. It helped me get my body and shake off some of the tiredness before shower.
By the way, another thing I tired is having a cold shower, even the thought of it seems horrifying I know but in reality, it helps to increase your heart rate which pushes blood through your entire body. This process wakes up your body completely I highly recommend it.
The next step was my favorite part of my new morning routine. Making To-Do list for the day turned out to be exceptionally fulfilling and motivating. By day 10 I began to make 2 list a day. One for my personal goals, and another for work tasks and responsibilities. Moreover, after surfing the internet a bit more I include two more lists in my morning routine: A To-Feel List and A To-Be List. This experience made me grow as a person and become a better version of myself every single day. This change alone is worth all the trouble. If you think that every weekend, I had 2 days off you are mistaking. I wasn’t going to fall back into my old ways. Apart from repeating my brand-new exciting routine I use these days to do a brain-storming training using some special apps, catch up on my reading, and brainstorm for new projects and ideas.
About half way through my experiment, I got into time management which turned out to be another amazing discovery for me. So, my morning routine slightly changed again and instead of making To-Do List I was organizing my day using Time Management Methods. These made my life even easier and inspired me to reach a new level in my career. When I found ways to upgrade my career, I tuned to my personal life and added one more habit to my routine “writing morning pages”. This is basically when you write at least one page of all your thoughts no matter how weird they are. I did it before meditation and reread them every evening.
This endless stream of consciousness opened my eyes to numerous personal problems I never realized I had. 10 days of this practice was enough for me to figure out how I can improve my mental health and achieve inner balance and confidence I always dreamed of. Just like my work task, I incorporated all these little steps into my daily time management schedule and started to work in this direction too. It is not easy and I am still fair from my ultimate goal but I am moving towards it, that is already a great start right and just like that one month of my experiment came to an end.
To be honest, it was one of the greatest periods of my life and it opened my eyes to numerous possibilities and solutions I hadn’t noticed before. Of course, I didn’t stop doing these morning routines. I still enjoy my early minutes of meditation, morning pages, cold shower and time management and they have all played a role in creating the millionaire mindset in me.
