I remember several years ago, this was the typical start of my daily routine. I would wake up, go to the bathroom checking my phone, browsing social media, texting friends, family, and making unimportant calls. Next thing you know, an hour or two goes by with me on my phone. Then I’m checking the fridge for food and maybe after, taking a quick drive to get a latte from Starbucks. Then I’ll open up the inbox to see hundreds of emails to sift through with demands from other people looking for me to respond...Ok, let’s pause this for a second. How productive or motivating do you think my day went waking up every morning like this?
It was horrible, let alone I felt like crap and was not in the best mood emotionally. I used to always wonder why I was in a mediocre mood or even bad mood during the course of my days. I couldn’t figure this issue out. I really thought there was a problem with me. I would be short fused with people that had done absolutely nothing to me, let alone my focus was set to a minimum with a result of looking back at night to very little done that day. Does the lack of motivation to getting things done throughout your day sound familiar?
It wasn’t until I started my day with a morning ritual that gave me the “aha” moment that what I was doing previously was causing me to be unproductive, causing me to not be motivated, and feel somewhat toxic about myself period.
A morning ritual puts me in a state that I need and must be in to be at my best and feel great! It gives me the power to help me feel more in the present moment with friends, with family, people I meet, doing business, and completing projects and deadlines on time.
Hope is not a strategy. When I go present a business plan to an investor, when I’m negotiating a deal, when I’m coaching students, or anything that requires my meaning and value, I don’t hope that it’s going to go well, I don’t hope that I’m going to be confident, I don’t hope that I’m going to feel great, I put myself in a frame of mind through the power of my morning ritual that sets me up with unleashed greatness.
You want to make sure first thing in the morning is to take care of you! This is your “me” time and this is something that should be non-negotiable. If you look at the most successful people today, I guarantee they all have some type of morning ritual.
I’m going to go through my morning ritual and as you read how I start my day, I want you to analyze how effective your day can be if you implement some or all of these habits into your life, if not, create your own morning ritual routine. The key here is to make you more aware of how important giving yourself some “me” time before you start your day is critical.
I know everybody’s morning ritual will be different but the important thing is having one and making it a habit to get into when you wake up, like the habit of breathing air.
Ok, so the first thing I do when I wake up is smile. I thank GOD for the fact that I’m alive, that today is a new day, and I can start fresh with an even better attitude than yesterday. That alone is a great feeling, the fact that you have the opportunity to see another day.
Most people start their day depressed, dreading to wake up and saying “not another Monday”. They create a habit of hitting the snooze button on the alarm clock multiple times before they even get up. Instead, just wake up with a smile appreciating life and visualize what opportunities could be possible for you now. Flip the negative to positive thinking.
The second thing I do is go to the bathroom and wash my face and brush my teeth. I’m sure most people do this, but here is what I do differently. As I’m brushing my teeth, I’m looking in the mirror and saying affirmations to myself out loud. Another thing I do is wash my face with cold water and splash cold water on my face. This instantly gets me in full wake up mode to where I know I’m alive and well.
The third thing I do is drink my bottle of water that was set beside my bed the previous night before I went to bed. Every night before I go to bed, I set two bottles of water next to me, one I drink right before I go to bed and the second bottle is set for me to drink in the morning when I first wake up.
As I’m drinking this bottle of water, I’m feeling energized from the hydration of my body. Most people will go directly to a cup of coffee, which dehydrates you. If you are going to drink coffee, wait until about 2 to 3 hours after your morning has begun. Instead, drink water as soon as you wake up in the morning to give your body hydrates. I found that to be best.
The fourth thing I do is intense stretching on my body for about 10 minutes. As I’m stretching, I’m making sure I’m breathing fully, and focusing on the tightness of my muscles from the stretching as my muscles slowly loosen up on each stretch. Your muscles are like a car in the morning on a freezing cold day that has been sitting all night. You don’t want to just start the car and drive off without warming the car up. Instead, you want to warm the car up and let the engine wake itself up from the bitter cold. Your body is the same, when you are laying there sleeping in one spot in the bed all night, your body’s muscles naturally tighten up. You have to wake them up with exercises, and stretching is a good way.
Most people will get straight out the bed without any stretching and wonder why they still feel tired. Outside of lack of sleep, part of this reason is not waking up their muscles through dedicated stretching.
The fifth thing I do is I go running to my favorite music on Pandora. When I plan my running, my goal is to get out there and run no matter the performance. I feel a great amount of accomplishment just to get out there and run and know that I completed my goal. This makes me feel amazing. Some days I do great with the run and other days I feel lazy about going to run but still force myself no matter if I ended up doing horrible. At the end of the day, I still feel a success from completion, just for at least taking action and not making any excuses.
Most people say they will go run the night before and when the time comes, they procrastinate and never get that run in because they let that “self talk” take over their motivation to go out there and run. If you just go out there, whether you feel like it or not, just do it anyways. I found that once I stepped foot to run, it was just of a matter of me taking the action to do it that made me feel greater than the actual performance.
The sixth thing I do once I come back from my run is drink another bottle of water and make myself what I call my “Incredible Hulk” smoothie juice using a blender. At this time I’m up, feeling great and ready to give my body the extra boost on top of how powerful my mind feels emotionally. What I put in my smoothie juice is crushed ice, an organic banana, sliced organic apples, sliced pineapples, kale greens, an organic squeezed lemon and some almond/coconut milk. This is my breakfast.
I tell you, this drink is incredible! I make enough for two cups and as I’m still sweating from my run, I drink down both cups and it feels like my body is flourishing similar to Popeye when he eats his can of spinach.
By this time, most people will be buzzed on their third cup of coffee, getting ready for a non-motivating crash. Instead start your day with Antonio’s “Incredible Hulk” smoothie juice before you even touch a coffee.
The seventh thing I do after I gulp my two cups is I take a nice cold shower. Most people might ask why I take a cold shower. It’s because I’m set in a state to crush my day and I’m feeling great. The cold shower increases my alertness, gives me the power to be in the present moment, and it also gives me the power to be in uncomfortable situations. I learned that in order to be great, you have to get used to being comfortable being uncomfortable and a cold shower serves me well. Another reason why I take cold showers after my run in the morning is because it relieves stress, kills any depression I could be feeling, and it gets my blood to circulate efficiently, which improves my immune system. As I’m taking the cold shower, I’m talking out loud again saying affirmations to myself. Things like “I’m great”, “Antonio today is going to be an incredible day for you”, “I feel like a billion bucks”, and “I’m going to create new realms