I am feeling amazing today and I hope you are as well. I feel great because today was a day where I just nailed it in the morning. Got the whole morning routine in, up at four in the morning, got to the gym, Really solid workout, got my sauna in, all my stretching, came home, had time to cook breakfast to everybody, [00:01:00] read my book for a while, practice my Spanish, did my daily gratitude, my meditation, all that type of stuff, and got to work Right at around 7 30 really settled in easy to the day and got it all done.

So now I feel fantastic and that was a lot of stuff this morning and that's usually not how it goes. Today was a really unique day because everything that I wanted to do this morning. I actually got done like my whole morning routine actually got done. But the reality is I only really get all of that stuff in like 60 or 70 percent of the time, because that's a lot like getting up at four in the morning is already difficult enough.

I try to go to bed quite early. I usually get to bed around nine o'clock, but it doesn't always happen. There are a lot of variables in life. I have family that lives nearby and they're not really on the same sleep schedule as me. So if I go to dinner with [00:02:00] them the night before, we have some sort of occasion or get together, it's going to be really difficult to keep that sleep schedule.

And even when I do, it's still pretty early. I don't always get the best workout in because it's really early in the morning and sometimes I'm just really tired and I kind of half. But it at the gym when I should be going a lot harder and when I get home, sometimes I had a really hard workout and I don't feel like reading or journaling or meditating.

I kind of feel like going back to sleep, but I push through and I make breakfast and I do my best and sometimes I get it all done about six or seven times out of 10. I get it. And I just feel so great. I have this burst of energy that carries me throughout the day. And I wish I got it done like that every single day.

Because when I get all of my routine in, I usually have like a lot of momentum throughout the day. Because I just feel like so much of the stuff that's really meaningful to me, has already been accomplished. But, we kind of live in a [00:03:00] society, Where our hyper alpha, super macho, modern society will make you feel like if you have anything less than a perfect morning, every single day, then you're just like not doing good enough.

You're definitely failing at life. You might as well just like cash in your chips, because unless you get up at two o'clock in the morning, Run a marathon, read a book, write a book, an entire book every single day. Unless you do all of those things and then you have to meditate for like two hours.

You have to eat only grass fed food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and then you have to make sure you get your cold plunge in. Spend another hour in the sauna. If you don't do all of that every single morning, you're way behind everybody else. That's at least how society will make you feel that's how social media will make you feel 

that's how like every little bite size clip that's posted online will make you feel like everybody else is out [00:04:00] there Getting up earlier than you are getting way more done while you're still sleeping if you don't keep up with them Your way behind you stand no chance as far as reaching your goals.

I have some wonderful news for you today. None of that is true. Well, none of that is entirely true. The reality is we all have different versions of our morning routine. We have the perfect version. We have the things that are really important to us and we have the things that are going to get done no matter what.

Like, you know, if we have kids in school, I would hope making sure they have some sort of lunch or food to eat or arranging for that is one of the things we're always going to get done. I hope waking up and not sleeping until noon. Is one of the things that we're always going to get done. And then we have the extreme where we get it all done.

We have everything we'd like to accomplish. We're going to have this perfect way to get into the day. And that normally involves a lot of exercise, a lot of hydration, a lot of reading, some meditations, some journaling conversations [00:05:00] with close family and friends, things that 

you really want to get in and it would create a lot of energy and momentum in your day if you got them done every single time. And that's usually a much more in depth version of a morning routine. My morning routine in its purest form. It does start at four o'clock in the morning.

My wife is a very early riser. I am a very early riser. We prefer to get up, get moving, get to the gym right away. I feel like I do my best work in the mornings because once the stresses and exhaustion of the day really settles in, I don't like going to the gym later on in the day, it's usually more crowded.

I'm usually more tired. My mind is usually in a different place and I feel like I get more done in the morning. So we get up early and before I even have a chance to think. I just drink a bunch of water to pattern interrupt my brain, get myself out of sleepy mode and we get to the gym. And then once that's done, we're really fortunate.

We have a cool gym that has like saunas and massage chairs and things like that. I like to [00:06:00] take my workout in stride. I do really hard work for about an hour. And then I take a nice sauna, sometimes I'll do a massage chair, I'll stretch for about 20 minutes normally in a perfect scenario.

I really, really value flexibility and keeping my body limber. It helps all of your major systems of your bodies to be more flexible. And then we'll come home. We'll have a nice breakfast. I'll take my time cooking it. I'll usually cook us healthy lunches as well that we pack and we bring to the office.

Saves us a bunch of money and ensures that I'm making healthy choices on what I put in my body. I have more control over that because when you don't bring your lunch to the office, you're at the mercy of what's available around you. And those aren't the most nutritious choices.

And then I'll meditate. I'll usually do that in the sauna or right after we get home. If my wife is, is getting ready, I'll usually meditate on the couch for about 20 minutes.

Then I'll read. I'll usually spend a half hour reading just nothing too heavy [00:07:00] in the mornings. I don't really like to read something that feels like a textbook in the morning. I might even read fiction sometimes. Just something to kind of get my juices flowing, get my mind working a little bit and really prime myself for the day.

Then I'll do my daily gratitude journal. Normally just a couple of things that I'm thankful for. I believe that when you start the day off with a mindset of gratitude that you prime your mind. You're really going to feel that gratitude all throughout the day. Then I'll usually do my quick Spanish lessons.

Now, learning Spanish, becoming conversationally fluent in Spanish is one of the things I've talked about a lot on here that I love. I'm way behind on my goal. We have our big worthy goals and that is one of mine that I've always lacked on. And it's important to me to be better about my commitment to becoming conversationally fluent in Spanish.

So I'm trying to do a lot more of my daily lessons. Those take about 20 or 30 minutes as well. So when you add all that up. And it's like a three and a half hour routine before I even leave for the office, usually around seven 30 in the morning. That's [00:08:00] long.

That's a long time. I enjoy doing it. It feels really good when I get it all knocked out. And like I said, six out of seven days we normally will. That's still 30 or 40 percent of the time that I'm falling short of my perfect morning routine. so even though I'd like to think that objectively I'm pretty successful, modern society would tell me that 30 to 40 percent of the time is not going to cut it.

That's not good enough. I got to be there 90 to 100 percent of the time and that 10 percent that I miss, I better be sick. That's what most of what we see on the internet, on social media, that's what most of what we see coming through our phones and influencing us today would make us believe.

But that's simply not the case. The reality is that life is nuanced. Life is complicated. Life is going to throw a lot at you. And while it is absolutely valuable to stick to a routine, especially a dedicated sleep schedule, you're not going to nail your [00:09:00] morning routine every single time.

What I would encourage you to do and what has worked really well for me up until this point is identifying your dominoes and committing to those no matter what. Your dominoes are simply the parts of your morning routine or your day in general that you are going to have

ultimate discipline and commitment around, meaning when you do them and knock them down, the rest of your day tends to fall into place. Your dominoes are the things that give you the most energy, that relieve the most stress, that take the biggest thing that's going to be hanging over your head.

and just get rid of it right away. We all have all of these little things on our daily routine, but they're not all created equal. That's what society will make us believe is that if we're not doing all 50 things that we say we want to do every day, that we're failing In general, it's not a pass fail.

There's levels to this type of stuff. There's a spectrum of how effective we are, and we want to be as [00:10:00] effective as we possibly can in the parameters in which we're working.

So identifying the key things, the key two or three things that we need to do every day to make sure that we're putting ourself in a state of positive momentum.

Those are the things that we do need to get done nine out of 10 times. These are the things that are gonna be hanging over us. These are the things that are gonna be hanging over us.

Adding more stress rather than relieving it. These are the things that are going to put us in a downward negative state instead of an upward positive state. I'll give you great examples of my dominoes. The first one every morning is exercise.

I won't say that this is non negotiable for everyone. Everyone comes from their own place, has their own path, their own journey. So I'm never going to tell you that this should absolutely be one of your dominoes. But I will say that the science is pretty clear that exercising has more positive health benefits than just about anything else you can do.

So if I'm looking to create a state of positive energy first thing in my day, there are very few more [00:11:00] effective ways to do that than vigorous exercise.

And that is going to look different for everybody. For me, I do like to work out very intensely, at least five days a week for you. It might be going for a nice long walk just to get the juices flowing just to get your body moving. By the way, walking, if you're not walking regularly as part of your exercise regimen, I don't care how little body fat you have.

You could be at 6 percent body fat. I'm still telling you, long form walking is one of the best cardiological exercises you can do. Our bodies are designed to walk very long distances. They're not designed for long form cardio. Our bodies are designed for short bursts of energy like sprints and long expressions of energy at a slow to moderate pace like walking. If you're not adding like a mile a day of walking to your normal exercise regimen, especially if you're looking to trim down, especially if you're looking to lose some weight.

Add in at least a mile a day of walking. I guarantee you it will do wonders. One of my dominoes is exercise because I believe [00:12:00] that is the fastest way to get me into a more energetic state and I want to carry that energy all throughout the day.

My second domino is a healthy breakfast. Now, I will not get into a large existential conversation around fasting and things like that here. I am NOT fasting right now I have in the past. I definitely see the health benefits and I think you need to find what works for you for me 

I do value having a nice meal in the mornings, especially after I workout. I do work out fasted, meaning I don't eat anything before my workouts. So I tend to find when I combine really intense workouts right in the morning with fasting, meaning I don't eat until like noon, I am incredibly sluggish around nine, 10 in the morning.

And then I'm just looking for another cup of coffee and I don't want to keep just blasting my adrenal glands with caffeine. So I like to get some food into my system after I've worked out. When I have a really vigorous workout in the mornings, it's [00:13:00] best for me and just my makeup if I eat a healthy breakfast afterwards.

My second domino though is making sure that I have a healthy breakfast. I want to get up and I want to make sure I'm doing two things. I want to be exercising.

And I want to be eating a healthy breakfast. That is where discipline outweighs motivation every single day, because there are going to be times when you don't want to get up, whether it's four o'clock, five o'clock, six o'clock, seven o'clock. And the first thing you do is go exercise and is where you have to be more disciplined than motivated.

And I promise you discipline is a much stronger skill set to adapt than your ability to be self motivated when you're disciplined and committed to doing something, you will do it. Even on the days where you're not motivated. So those are two of my big dominoes. I don't always get my reading in. I don't always get my meditation in.

Although that's probably an eight or nine out of 10 times thing. It's, that's probably the one thing that I do as consistently as anything else. [00:14:00] My journaling though, as well, I would love to read every single morning, journal every single morning, get everything in that I want to do. It's just difficult.

My Spanish lessons are a great example of that. I slack off, it's probably one of the first things to go. I'm rushing, or I'm a little bit more tired than usual, or I've just got a lot on my mind, or I get sucked into a conversation, or cooking breakfast and lunch takes a little bit longer than I thought it would.

And those are the first things to go. Here's the thing. I don't judge myself for that and neither should you. As long as I get up and I exercise and I have a healthy breakfast, I know that I'm set up for success throughout the day. There's always time later for me to make up that Spanish lesson. There's always time later for me to read a little bit.

There's always time later for me to do my daily journal. That doesn't take more than a minute. than a few minutes if I really wanted to, But I know that if I don't get exercise in and if I don't eat healthy, those habits start to carry over. It's way easier for me to say, I'll start again tomorrow. It's way [00:15:00] easier for me to say, I'll go to the grocery store and buy nothing but healthy food this weekend.

And I'll start on Monday. I make these my big dominoes because they're just the things that I'm going to commit to doing no matter what. And that also means that sometimes the versions of these big dominoes are not optimal.

Sometimes my healthy breakfast is simply just plain eggs. It's just the quickest thing I can make. I whipped up five eggs, wolfed them down and I was running late. So I headed to work, also I wake up and there are times when I just, my body isn't feeling it and my workouts are not nearly where they need to be.

The reality is if I'm feeling like that in the morning, I know I'm going to feel like that later on when I'm already kind of just exhausted from the day, I'm not going to want to work out. So I make sure that even if I'm tired, even if I'm not feeling a hundred percent, I do what I can in the morning because I want to check that box.

I want to knock that domino down. Because I have found that I have exponentially better [00:16:00] days and stay in better states when I just do a couple of big things, a couple of big dominoes, and then everything else tends to get a little bit easier.

So I want you to think about how you can practically apply this in your world. You probably have a version of the perfect morning routine. I think a really good thought exercise is this. For the next week, why don't you measure a few things. Measure how close you're getting.

Brian: Grade yourself on how you're performing on your morning routine. All the things that you want to get done. What time are you getting up? Well, really, what time are you going to sleep? Your morning routine really starts at night when you stay up really late, just sucking in all that blue light from your TV while you're watching Netflix.

You're already sacrificing tomorrow's time, that future version of use time to get done the things they want to get done. So grade yourself. How are you doing on your morning routine of all the things that you want to do? Whether it's exercise, whether it's journaling, reading, meditation, spending time, just having a few couple [00:17:00] cups of coffee.

Maybe you just want to read the newspaper. Maybe you just want to watch CNBC for 20 minutes and get educated on the markets. I have no idea, but I'm sure you probably already have the perfect morning routine. Grade yourself for the next week on how you're doing. If your morning routine involves six different steps, grade yourself on how well you're knocking those out.

Grade yourself on your efficiency and getting all that done. Are you currently operating at a 20%? A 30%? 100%? Fantastic! Great job! My guess is that you're probably less than 50 percent optimal. This is not a critique. If you feel like I'm talking to you, just realize that I'm talking to most people because the average person has a routine that they'd like to get done in the morning, but so many things get in the way.

Either they just never really ingrained the habits, they would just kind of stayed on the wish list and never got into the must do category or life just started throwing variables at them, especially those of us that have kids and other commitments, other lives and mouths that were responsible [00:18:00] for the mornings can be an incredibly volatile experience and so it can be really difficult to have a dense routine and get it all done.

My guess would be though that you're probably operating at less than 50%. Rather than say, wow, I need to start taking things off of my list and just give up on them because every one of those things was on there for a reason.

It was important to you. Why don't you notice in your next week when you're grading yourself? The things that you do every day, the things that are already standing out to you is being more important than the rest. I would venture to guess that exercise is one of them, but you probably have two or three dominoes that when you really create some awareness and really start to notice the way that you organically operate in the mornings, those are going to be the parts that you do consistently every single day.

And then I want you to notice, How your day is going, your state of energy, your state of productivity, your state of awareness, the way that you're carrying yourself throughout the day, notice on the days where you knock out those things that [00:19:00] feel more important.

How much more productive you feel throughout the day, how much more energized, how much lower your stress levels are, how much better your communication skills are. Those are going to be your big dominoes. Those are going to be the things that you need to start to rearrange your day. So that they're the first couple of things that you do.

When you knock out those big dominoes right up front, you're going to start to see that you have more time, and you're already putting yourself in a positive state to use that time. To accomplish the other things that are on your morning routine list and so you're going to do that at a higher level Organically because you've knocked over the big dominoes first thing and you're also going to see That when you don't get to those things, your energy levels are still higher.

Your productivity level is still higher. Most of us just don't identify the most important things that we need to be doing every day, every morning. Specifically, we kind of see our morning routine as being all equal, and it's not. You have big dominoes already. You just need to notice them, and [00:20:00] then you need to make them non negotiable.

You need to talk with your spouse, your partner, your kids, whomever. You need to set boundaries around those big rocks. You need to build a moat around those big dominoes in your world.

That these things are non negotiable and that you're not available as a human being until they're done. Because I guarantee you the way that you show up after those dominoes have been pushed over, you're going to be a version of yourself that is so much more energetic, so much more productive, so much better to be around.

And the people in your world are going to get energy from that. You're going to become a creator of energy because you've prioritized and you've committed to your dominoes every single morning. So take on this challenge, grade yourself on your perfect morning routine for the next week, see how you're doing, and then also notice what your dominoes are and commit, just make them non negotiable and see how the next week turns [00:21:00] out when you really focus on getting those couple of things done right up front.

I'd love to hear how this is working for you. Drop a comment below. Get in touch with me. I appreciate you hanging out for another episode and I'll talk to you soon.