How to Create An Ideal Morning Routine with Alex Sanfilippo

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Do you have a consistent morning routine that is meaningful and sets your entire day up for a win? Creating an ideal morning routine for yourself can be the very thing that propels you into new levels of success in life and business. One of the most common questions I’ve received recently from listeners, and people I’m in business with, is about how I manage my day. Because of this, I’ve decided to share with you a 4-part solo episode series explaining my morning routine, evening routine, my daily habits, and lastly, how I create more margin in my life for great things to happen. Get ready to create your own ideal morning routine!

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE: HTTPS://PODMATCH.COM/EP/155

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

You're listening to the Creating a Brand Podcast, where we deliver weekly interviews on topics to help entrepreneurs make their first or next step in business the right one. I am your host, Alex Sanfilippo. Do you have a consistent morning routine that is meaningful and sets your entire day up for a win? Creating an ideal morning routine for yourself can be the very thing that propels you into new levels of success in life and in business. And now get ready to create your own ideal morning routine. Welcome back for another solo episode of the Creating a Brand podcast. I'm super excited to be jumping into a four-part series, which this is the first time I've ever done anything like this on the podcast. But I really appreciate how many of you have reached out and actually asked for content like this. Makes me really excited to be able to bring it to you. So I've got a lot to cover in this episode, so I'm just going to jump straight into it here. First and foremost, we're talking about creating a morning routine. I have to mention that this is an intentional action that each of us has to be willing and coherent enough to be able to take. Here's what I mean by that. You're never going to wake up one morning and be like, oh, my morning routine is just so amazing. Everything's so excellent. It grows me. I'm doing amazing, right? That does not happen for any of us. We have to make an intentional action to say, you know what? I'm going to do something that stretches me a little bit so that I'm able to create a better morning and ultimately a better day for myself. All this is part of further developing into self-mastery, which is going to help you in your personal life and in business as well. So remember, first and foremost, having a morning routine is an intentional action if you want it to actually grow you and take you further in your life. What I'm going to share with you today is what I've developed for myself that's working exceptionally well. It's helping me achieve my goals that I set for myself every single day. This is a very meaningful morning routine, and I hope you're able to pull a few things from it. But before I get into what I'm actually doing in my routine, I actually have eight disclaimers. I know eight is a lot, right? Eight Disclaimer 1. Don't have anything on your morning routine that you dread. I hate taking cold showers. Yes, it woke me up. I was no longer tired afterwards, but I dreaded taking that freezing cold shower every morning. And then another one that I was doing that people were highly recommending and just raving about was at least 10 minutes of meditation every morning, where you just stand there quietly, have some light music in the background, don't let your mind think or anything like that. I absolutely dreaded that more than the shower. I'd rather stand in the shower for 20 minutes than have to do that time. But I did do them for a little bit. Now, here's why I say don't have any on your morning routine that you dread. What ended up happening in the long run is I just stopped waking up because I didn't want to get out of bed because if I got out of bed, it means I have to do these things I absolutely dread doing. You cannot have things on your morning routine that you dread regardless of what people tell you about them. If people say, oh, you've got to take the cold shower, you've got to meditate, don't do them if you dread them. If you actually somewhat enjoy them or can tolerate them enough that they are growing you and expanding you, then do it. But if they are past that line, do not do them. Because again, if you just dread a morning routine, then you're never going to actually do it. So at the same time, you can't be like, ooh, I'm going to have a piece of cake every morning when I wake up because I'm excited to wake up to do that. Don't do something like that. Like I said, it's got to stretch you a little bit. It's all about self-mastery. Disclaimer number two, this is my morning routine. yours will not be the same. My hope is that this episode actually just inspires you to get creative with how you can make a meaningful morning routine for yourself and maybe even give you some good ideas. But don't try to do what I'm doing. You have to chart your own course and success leaves clues. Yes. So find the clues in this episode. But ultimately, you have to do what's best for the path that you're walking in your own life. Disclaimer number three, I live what is called a zero variability lifestyle. Simply put, this means I am not responsible for any other living thing. I don't have any pets. I don't have any kids I don't even have any plants nothing that breathes am I responsible for I guess you could say I'm responsible to keep my marriage healthy and obviously myself healthy but outside of that I don't have anything that can cause a variability in my day or my life now I'm not saying that you can't have a morning routine if you have kids or a dog or plants for that matter but what I am saying is that what I'm sharing won't necessarily work for you again it's about finding your own path so you have to pull the things out of what I'm sharing today that can work for you but don't be like oh I can't do any of this because I have a kid or I can't do any of this because I have a dog. No, you can still pull pieces out of this and create something for yourself. But just know that what I'm sharing today is my own experience. And it's a zero variability lifestyle, which is something I have chosen for myself. But it's not the path for most people. I will say that. Disclaimer number four, know that tomorrow's morning starts tonight. Tomorrow's morning starts tonight. I once had the opportunity to hear a billionaire talk and someone asked him about his morning routine. And his only response he gave was very interesting to me. He said, forget the morning routine. It's all about what you do the night before. And he didn't actually elaborate anymore, but immediately I knew what he was talking about. What he was saying was, if you want to have a successful morning routine, you have to plan for that the night before. And I'm going to dive into this a little bit more throughout this episode and actually into my next part of this series, which will be about my evening routine, because it is very important. But just keep in mind, you can't just ignore your day and your night and expect your mornings to go well. You actually have to think about all these things. And again, we'll dive into that. But just make sure to keep that in the back of your mind. Disclaimer number five. This goes right along with disclaimer number four that I just shared. I actually don't have an alarm to wake up in the morning. I naturally wake up around seven, give or take 20 minutes, maybe on either side of that. But because my morning routine starts the night before, I always make sure to get into bed to be falling asleep eight to eight and a half hours before my body naturally wakes up, which is after eight hours for me. And this is where self-discipline really comes into play. I make sure that I've trained myself to go to bed well. And for a long time, I actually had an alarm clock so that I would actually go to bed on time. But I just realized that part of my morning, I like to be able to wake up Wake up just naturally because I feel the best when I do that. you have to stop this. Let me see if I can help you a little bit by giving you a little bit of a different perspective than you might normally have with hitting the snooze button. What if I told you I could give you an extra two days to complete anything you wanted this year? Would that be meaningful to you? If you press snooze one time every day, just once every day, after 365 days, that nine-minute snooze that most of us press, is what I think that phones do, amounts to a full two days by the end of 365 days. So by snoozing, you are actually just losing that time, two extra days to do things. That's huge. So if you can get yourself up, that's going to be really helpful. One other thing I'll mention is that you're subconsciously already emitting defeat of your day by pressing snooze. Now, you might be like, Alex, that sounds extreme. I am telling you there is research that shows that in your brain, that when you hit snooze, you are admitting defeat, that you are no longer in control of your day. You are tired. Your body is going to decide what happens and what wins and what loses. I consider it to be like one of the seven deadly sins of morning routines. You cannot press snooze. So I probably just lost the majority of my listeners. But to ensure that, going into disclaimer number six, I'll lose the rest of you for sure here. Disclaimer number six, I don't touch my phone until two hours after waking up. That's right, it doesn't move until 8.55 a.m. So around 7 a.m. I'm getting up and 8.55 a.m. is the first time I pick up my phone and that's for less than five minutes when I actually pick it up. I can quote all the reasons why you shouldn't pick up your phone in the morning, but you've already heard all of these from everyone else in the world. The data, the science, all of it is conclusive that it is terrible for you to do. And I honestly just pray that you develop a strong conviction and almost religious belief around this as I have. If you want to be in the top 1% of the top 1%, you have to avoid your phone at all costs. Not just in the morning, you have to avoid your phone at all costs. Even if you work on it, you have to learn how to do this as I have. I'll get into that more in a couple Bye. Bye. like an incredible human being alone. You can almost forget everything else I'm saying. But again, I know that loses like 90% of people that are listening now, because you're like, there's no chance I can do that. I'm telling you, if you do it, it'll be good for your life. Disclaimer number seven, eating is not part of my morning routine, nor is drinking coffee. I only drink water in the mornings. And you can drink coffee, there's no problem with that. Again, I'm just telling you how I do all this. But water is the only thing I'm really drinking throughout the day. And there's a reason that eating is not part of my morning routine. That's because intermittent fasting is very healthy. And I encourage you you to actually start looking more into that if it's not something you do. I have a great episode on that. If you go to creatingabrand.com slash 148, go listen to that and it'll really help you understand how to properly start eating in the morning and really set your whole day up for a win. But that's a really important thing there. So be sure to check out that episode. I'll link to it in the show notes as well. And finally, my last disclaimer, number eight, you don't have to wake up at 3am and to be in the gym by 4am and finish work before everyone else is awake to have a successful morning routine. Honestly, this is such a silly thing. And I feel like a lot of like the big celebrity type influencers that are into fitness say that like you have to wake up before everyone else, you have to have work finished before anyone else. I've even heard some people that are, again, super successful. I mean, top 1% of top 1% say the only way to find more time to work is to wake up earlier than people. It's so silly. I mean, I'll share more about this and when I get into my daily habits my evening routine and how I actually achieve more but I've found ways to do that sleeping exactly the way I want to and honestly it doesn't make sense for a lot of people I actually had an opportunity to record with Daniel Pink on this topic talking about when you should be doing certain types of work based on your natural rhythm like the way you are naturally wired many of us actually most of us are not wired to wake up super early and start getting into things we actually think a little bit better later on if that interests you which I have I'll see you next time. Hey, Alex Sanfilippo here, and I want to take a quick moment to intentionally serve the world with you. Here's what I want you to do. Think of the one person you know who would most benefit from listening to this episode today. Now, I want you to send it to them, but also include an encouraging note explaining why you share this episode with them specifically. By doing this, you're helping me grow this podcast and you're also adding value to the people you care about. With that said, thank you for your continued support. It means the world to me. And now let's get back to today's episode. All right, finally, here we are. We're actually getting into my morning routine. And I really encourage you, if you haven't already, take some notes with what I'm sharing and figure out what's going to work for you in your life, not just what you're hearing works for me and mine. Make sure that you're thinking about it from your perspective of what could really help you. Now I have a checklist that I actually check off every single morning. That's seven parts. So I have seven different things in my morning routine and I don't want to have to remember them in my head or think and wonder if I missed anything. So I write all seven things down every morning and I just check them off. I already have that, that list printed every month. It's basically like a 30 day thing. I just check off as I go through the days, making sure that I hit all seven parts of my morning routine. So as I just mentioned there, seven parts, this is like all part of the same ritual, if you will. And I'll provide an overview for each right now. And then I'll dive into each specifically. So here they are, the seven parts of my morning routine. Number one, get dressed in hygiene. Number two, rise, which is an acronym for rehydrate, illuminate, smile, and exercise. Number three, morning ritual page and express gratitude. Number four, visualize the day and create my schedule and priorities. Number five, exercise creativity. Write out one idea and explore it. Number six, go through the neuropsycho process. And number seven, spend time with God before starting my day. These things, these seven things I mentioned take me two hours. So I have devoted a two hour period to time block on my calendar. It starts at 7am and it ends at 9am. So I don't actually start work until 9am. And when I'm up at seven, I jump straight into these seven things. It takes me really two hours is just the right amount of time for me. So the first thing I'm going to jump into here, just going back through that list to get give you a good breakdown of all of them. Number one is to get dressed and hygiene. Those things probably make sense, right? Like as soon as I get up, the very first thing I do is I think throw on my clothes for the day. And I also brush my teeth and all that. That's super important. I think that all of us should do that. And I do things like wash my face, fix my hair. And I start with these because it takes no mental energy because I'm doing these things since I was a child. Additionally, as I mentioned in one of my disclaimers, I actually prepare for the morning routine the evening before by lining up my clothes that I'm going to wear. And I go a step further than that. I put them in the order that I like to put them on. So and I also line up my toothbrush, my deodorant, my hairbrush, all those things I line up in the way that I like to use them. So there's literally no brain power being used. So at this point, I want to quickly pause and mention a concept that many are unfamiliar with, and it's called decision fatigue. And it's a very real thing. Each of us can make unlimited decisions in a day, but our ability to make good decisions is very limited. And this is called decision fatigue. And it's something that you need to start fighting the moment you wake up. I'm a firm believer in this. This is why I'm so extreme with this with my first decisions I'm making in the day, because I don't want to make bad ones later on by wasting my good ones on stupid things. Again, I line up my toothbrush, my toothpaste, my hairbrush. I get that decision out of my head of like, oh, where do I put my brush? Or like, what do I do next? I'm so tired, I can't remember. And with the clothes, I just put them in order. So it's not like, okay, where's my shirt? Where's my shorts, right? Like I have all of that ready to go. So I'm not using any brain power at all. Like literally, it is set up like an assembly line for me every day. That way, I'm not using good decisions on things that I already can set up in advance. And I know that this sounds super extreme. But I am telling you that when I started doing this, my decisions I make throughout the day have gotten so much better. And yes, I'm very extreme. Like when I was actually commuting to work, I actually would back my car in the night before. So I was pulling it out enough to think about what could have been possibly behind the car. My ultimate goal with this is to make zero decisions before I start my meaningful work for the day. So from seven to nine, I don't want to be making any decisions. I want everything lined up. That's also why I have a seven part checklist that is my morning routine. So really important that you think of about this get all your stuff ready the night before it's very easy to do takes just a few minutes and it gives you the right mindset and I'll jump more into that in the next episode when I talk more about evening routines but again I'm first thing I'm doing is getting dressed and hygiene all right back on track number two is my acronym that is rise which stands for rehydrate illuminate smile and exercise and I do it in this exact order so the first thing I do here is I rehydrate now you might be saying well Alex there's a lot of science that you should drink water the second you wake up right drink your eight ounces right away and sure That's good. But I should give a disclaimer here. What I'm about to share is kind of gross. But here's something that happens while you're sleeping. Your body attempts to do some house cleaning by detoxing itself. And one way that this happens is through your throat and your mouth. So When you're sleeping, your body says, we don't need any of this garbage. Let's get that up into the mouth and we'll get it out the next day when we wake up. Again, sounds disgusting, right? But here's the thing. If you drink water before you brush your teeth and use a tongue scraper or brush your tongue or whatever, guess where all that nastiness goes? That's right, right back inside of you. And for me, I just don't want that. I think that's disgusting. So what I do is I brush my teeth. I do use a tongue scraper. I do all that before I drink water. So again, that's why that's number two. But I do start off with drinking that water. So I drink that ounces, I turn on the lights, and then I smile. Smiling has a lot of positive effects that many people don't really think about. But if you're tired, notice that your face is always frowning or you almost look mad. That's what people look like when they wake up. If you smile, you are changing that whole positioning of your face, which actually impacts your mind, impacts your heart, changes things. Energy comes from joy. When you're smiling, you're positioning yourself to receive joy. There's, again, a lot of science behind this, but if you start smiling in the morning because you'd say, oh, I just can't wake up, smiling alone, looking in the mirror and doing this will help you more than anything else. I can tell you that. I don't even need to jump into the science. It's a really cool thing. And lastly is exercise. Now, I'm not the person who goes straight in the gym in the morning. What I'm talking about is just doing some very light stretching. And additionally, I stand on something that's called a vibration plate, an incredible investment. Literally, it's a flat surface that you stand on that just shakes super fast. My wife and I actually call it the jiggle machine because it doesn't matter how fit you are, you don't look good on this thing because it just shakes everything super fast. And I actually do 10 minutes a morning on this. because it just, man, it gets my muscles like loosened up. I'm ready to go. And as a matter of fact, I'm not just staying there doing that. I'm actually doing number three while I'm standing on this vibration plate. So I'm kind of like multitasking a little bit here. So number three, let's jump straight into that. This is my morning ritual page and gratitude session that I do. So this is a really important part of the morning routine. It's probably the most difficult to get down properly, but I think it's one of the most impactful parts. It only takes 10 minutes. Again, I'm doing this while on that vibration plate. So I'm standing there shaking pretty aggressively, but I can still read and you could probably do the same as well. So I'm holding in this morning ritual page that I've created in gratitude session is a single page document that I've created that consists of five different parts. And I'll quickly dive into each of these. The first section on this page is three little areas that I like to say that I'm always seeking increase in. And those three areas are ability, knowledge, and availability. And I have a little sentence that goes after them, basically about how I want my ability to improve. So that means I'm going to be taking care of myself physically. I'll make sure that I really prioritize my health. That second thing was knowledge. I'm going to make sure that I'm consistently reading books. For me, it's always jumping into the Bible as well, like increasing my ability to understand what's going on. And the I look at this in episode 140. That's creatingabrand.com slash 140, where I talked about automate, delegate, and eliminate. I always want to increase my availability. I don't want to get more and more stuck and busy in things. I also want to be more available. So I always look at those three things, and that's just A-K-A. Ability, knowledge, availability. So that's the first thing I'm always reviewing and looking at on this single ritual page, if you will. The next thing is my core values, and I have four of them. They're really important to me, and I'll read those off to you, and I encourage you to make some for yourself. I, Alex Sanfilippo, am devoted to becoming my best for God. I, Alex Sanfilippo, operate from a place of love and servanthood. I, Alex Sanfilippo, maintain a posture of joy and positivity. I, Alex Sanfilippo, have an extreme bias for action and results. Really important that you go over your core values. I have a little extra couple sentences under each of those just to remind myself of those things. I always challenge myself with them. Am I actually living up to these core values that I've set for myself? Section three on this morning ritual page is I get into what I call visualizing the future. And this is just a simple collection of 12 goals or habits that I'm trying to implement in my life. And I just speak them out in a way that I've already achieved them. So in my head, I'm already there. And I always do this on my next birthday. So I'll start off saying, on February 16th, 2023. And then it just jumps into those 12 things. I just basically list it off. Like one of my goals is I want to weigh 170 pounds and also have a six pack at the same time, right? So I write that there, like I weigh 170 pounds, I have a shredded six pack. And then I just kind of go into each of those things in detail, describing to myself who I am working on becoming. Super important to visualize that. Sometimes I even read it out loud just to reinforce it. Section four on this page is my morning declaration. In this, I'm just repeating my core values, but in a way that's authority And finally, the last section contains six powerful questions, which I'll read off right now. What are three things I'm excited about and expecting of that will happen today? What are five things I'm thankful for this morning? Now, this is where the gratitude side of things comes in. I take a little bit of time on these five things because I want that to be how I express gratitude, which just really is good for you to do every morning. It starts with positivity, super healthy. So again, what are five things I'm thankful for this morning? I encourage you to have that one on your list as well. Next is what is one word that describes the type of person you want to be today? which rolls right into what's one thing that I can do that is out of my comfort zone today? And what is one action I can take today to demonstrate real excellence or real value? And then the final question is, did I take time to review my 12 goals for the year? So again, I go instead of calendar year, I go from my birthday to my birthday. And when I was talking about visualizing the future, I talk about how I review throughout that my goals, but I also have them written out. So I want to go through and just look at them and make sure that I'm on track for all those things. And that's it. That's part of my morning ritual page and expressing gratitude. That is so important that you develop this for yourself. And it's really tough to get right. So if you're listening to this and you feel like you need some help, please feel free to reach out. I'll have a way you can do that in the show notes. But I can't dive into more of that in this episode just for sake But again, I am willing to help out if anyone needs it. All right, now we're back to the morning routine. The seven things that I do, we're on number four, which is visualize the day and create my schedules and priorities. This takes a max of about 15 minutes. And while I'm doing this, I actually queue up some music on a playlist that I've already created. And I'm not doing it on my phone. I have that on the computer. It's literally the press of a button, but it's the same music I like to listen to every day while I'm doing this part of my morning routine. And as I've also mentioned, I start my morning routine the night before. So I've already written down most of my schedule and priorities But now what I'm doing is I'm making sure that I'm finishing it 100% like getting it all good to go before I start my day. And to do all this, I use a planner, I use a journal, basically, I want to get it all out on paper, which I think is so important to do. And it's fairly small. So I actually carry this like little journal slash planner with me everywhere I go. And I think it's really important that you actually do the same practice on paper because again, it helps you visualize your day. So yes, I might be looking at my calendar while I'm writing these things down, but I want it all written down in sort of checklist form. With that said, I have the priorities on three big things. So I have three main things I'm going to accomplish throughout the day. And I just call this my meaningful work. Those are the three most important things I need to do every single day. And if I don't get to the rest, fine. But if those three things are done, I'm actually going to be able to drive my life and my work forward. And after I write these things down, I don't just like close up the journal. I actually visualize my day. So I think about, okay, those are my three most important things. And I have one done before lunch. The next two are going to be just after that. I'll have to take a little bit of time to take this call. Then I've got to check my email at this time. I'm going to do all those things and kind of think about and visualize my day. Visualization, if you can learn how to do this, is really a secret weapon. This also works the same for people that are Olympic athletes about to compete. They all talk about visualizing themselves as a win. Visualizing your day in the same way after you've written it down on a piece of paper in a journal in some sort of planner is so important for you just to make sure that you get that right mindset around your day, knowing what you're going to be able to do with it and complete with it. Now, if you're saying, Alex, this all sounds great, I'm not really sure how to pick the most important things to do in a day, I want to encourage you to go listen to another episode of this podcast with Jay Papasan. He talks really deep on this topic. And you can find that at creatingabrand.com slash 073. And of course, I'll link to it in the show notes as well. But I encourage you to check that out. It'll help you really set that meaningful work, those big three things that you're going to do every single day, and make sure that they get the priority. All right, moving on to part five of my morning routine. This is number five, exercise creativity. Write out and explore one idea. Creativity is a muscle. And when you work out that muscle, just like any muscle, it gets stronger. And as a software founder, being a creative visionary for solving people's problems is what gives me an edge. It's what helps me do really well. And I'll be real, I struggled with coming up with ideas for a long time. I wasn't really great at this. But then I figured out this practice and how important it is to actually write out creative ideas. And it helped me so much. And now I just feel like I always have great ideas. And it's because I've really flexed that muscle and strengthened it and done really well with it. So this is literally a 15 minute or less practice, another really short one. And I have a queued up playlist that specifically for getting me in that creative mode, right? And I just take another journal, a different one. It's just a blank piece of paper. And I write down one creative idea and really explore that in detail. And I'll say this, I don't do anything with 99% of the ideas in this book. But it's the practice that matters, right? It's just like people who compete in fitness, like 99% of the time, they're just in a gym working out, not doing anything with it. But then there's that one time where they show up to really crush it right in a competition that really matters. Exercising creativity is something that is really just healthy for the mind because we live in a culture and a society where that's just not really something that's prioritized anymore. But by doing this, you're able to really strengthen that side of things again and become, believe it or not, a really creative person. I had a really cool conversation with James Altucher on that topic. And if you want to hear that episode, which I encourage you to listen to, visit creatingabrand.com slash 099. Really insightful, super fun. But this is something that I encourage you to have some time in your day, even if it's not part of your morning routine, but be willing to exercise that creativity because it's going to do really well for you in your future. Number six, go through the neurocycle process. Now, this one sounds like a little weird, right? Like, what the heck is that? This has helped me so much. I actually learned this from Dr. Caroline Leaf, who was on the podcast. And that's another episode that I think that you should listen to if you're serious about your mental health. And you can find that episode at creatingabrand.com slash 086. And of course, I'll link to it in the show notes. Dr. Caroline Leaf was talking about how to overcome stress and anxiety in your life. And she had a five-step process for doing that. And since I implemented this, it has helped me so much. As a matter of fact, there's been certain things I've struggled my life for the last eight years that I've even been documenting these struggles. And I've actually had breakthrough in those areas and things that just eight years, no breakthrough at all. And in just 60 days of really following this neuro cycle process, I actually have experienced just like crazy amounts of breakthrough. And I could go on about this for a long time, but really just go listen to that episode. And again, this is about 15 minutes. And yes, I have a playlist specifically for this as well. And it's just something that I go through because I want to experience breakthrough and things that maybe I've struggled with since I was a child or things that hold me back. Going through this process is just so, so important. And it's a daily habit that I'll keep for the rest of my life. And finally, number seven, spend time with God before starting my day. Now, I'm not here to push any spiritual beliefs on anyone, but I am going to say that having some sort of faith or belief-driven practice at the end of your morning routine is a super powerful thing. We've all got to have some sort of faith or something that we believe in. That's important to dive into. And for me personally, it's faith in God and Jesus from the Bible. And I do my best to read some of the Word, to pray, to really meditate on it, to think through who I want to become and who I strive to be because, yeah, I fall short a lot, but I just want to do my best to be like Jesus and to serve people the way he did and to love people the way he did. And here's the thing. I make sure that this is the last part of my morning routine because I want to end on that note of reminding myself ultimately why I live, why my faith matters more than anything, right? It's just so important to end your morning routine in a way, again, where you have faith at the center of what you're doing so that way when you start your work, you can keep your mind right on that. All right, I digress. I'm not going to go any more on that point. But spending time with God before I start my day, again, super important, probably the most important part of my life. Quick thing here that I haven't mentioned, but in the last four to seven parts of my morning routine, I've got my planner, the Creativity Journal, the NeuroCycle Journal, and my Bible. And believe it or not, I line them all up in the order that I'm going to use them. Again, I don't want to think about where's my Bible or which one do I do next, right? I have my checklist, but I also have them lined up that way. At this point now, it's 8.55 a.m., and I'm ready to start my day, and I've made minimal decisions this morning this point, and I am primed to crush it with my day. Like I said, it's 8.55, and guess what I do at this point? That's right, I pick up my phone. I actually start work at 9, so this gives me only five minutes to use my phone, but something I do in that five minutes is really important. It's part of my gratitude expression. I actually am going to reach out to two friends, two people that I really care about. They could be any two people on my list of friends that I keep that I want to always follow up with. What I'm going to do is I'm actually going to send them a voice text. I'm actually going to just thank them for being my friend or encourage them in And by doing this, I'm doing two things. One, it encourages someone else at the start of their day. But two, when you express gratitude, it gives you energy. You feel better. It's a great way to start the day. And also, of course, just to connect with a friend at the beginning of the day. And again, I only use for five minutes. So from 855 to nine, I'm on my phone, finding those two friends, sending them a voice message, and then just putting it away. My phone gets put in the other room. I don't use it while I'm working. And there you have it. That's my entire seven part morning routine to go back over them all again. Number one, get dressed in hygiene. Number two, Rise, which is the acronym for Rehydrate, Illuminate, Smile, Exercise. Number three, Morning Ritual Page and Gratitude Expression. Number four, Visualize a Day and Create My Schedules and Priorities. Number five, Exercise Creativity, Write Out and Explore One Idea. Number six, Go Through the Neurocycle Process. Number seven, Spend Time with God Before Starting My Day. Now, I know I just covered so much, and I hope that you stayed with me the whole time. I really appreciate you all listening to this, and I hope it was really valuable. If you have any questions at all, feel free to reach out. I'll be sure to have a way for you to do that in the show notes. As some of you may have realized by now, whenever I do a solo episode, I like to end it with a quote, but I couldn't find one for this episode that goes along with morning routines, so I'll just say this. A great life was never created at random. It's an intentional action, and the Bible says a lazy man will not prosper. Get up, be intentional, and start your day off right. With that said, I'm going to end this episode. Looking forward to bringing you the next part of this four part series. Thanks again for listening, everyone. As I mentioned throughout this episode, I know my morning routine may sound a little bit extreme for many of you who are listening, but I will say no one ever grows from their comfort zone. If you want an ideal morning routine that's going to cause you to grow and experience self-mastery in your life, you must be willing to consistently embrace discomfort in your life. Key word there being consistency. A meaningful morning routine is developed over time and repetition. I appreciate you listening to this episode on a topic that I'm very passionate about. For links to resources that were mentioned, please visit creatingabrand.com slash 155. Thank you as always for listening. I'm looking forward to bringing you part two of the series next week.