Having a good morning routine is one of the most crucial steps towards success.

“How you start your day is how you start your life.” – Drew Canole

Right now, think about a few successful people you look up to in your life. Imagine in your head what they do after they wake up in the morning.

Done?

I guarantee your visualization didn’t consist of them rolling over and hitting the snooze button. And it more than likely consisted of them running a few miles, meditating on a mountain somewhere and optimistically breathing in the fresh morning air.

The point is, you don’t even have to know what it is they do, but you know that they definitely have some sort of morning routine that breeds success. So why on earth would you not do the same? If you want to be successful, and you’re not doing what established successful people are, you’re crazy.

Having a good morning routine is not something that just happened to people like that. It is something they chose to take part in. And while it is now a part of them, it was one of the key things that transformed them into the success of harboring machines that they are.

So how can you make a good morning routine that starts to change who you are?

It’s easy, and we’ll show you how below. But first, let’s take a closer look at the importance of a good morning routine and the dangers of a bad one.

The importance of a good morning routine

The quote at the start of this article sums it up.

[quote]“How you start your day is how you start your life” – Drew Canole[/quote]

Drew Canole is the man behind Fitlife.TV. He is in great shape, he is successful & surprise, he is a huge advocator of having a good morning routine. Like so many other successful people, Drew takes his morning routine extremely seriously & he attributes much of his success to it.

We will go into Drews entire morning routine later in the article. But first, let’s take a look at a small comparison of a good morning routine vs. a bad morning routine. Good being similar to Drews and bad being hitting snooze a few times, rushing out of bed and skipping breakfast to get to work on time.

Good Morning Routine

– Supports relaxation & lowers daily stress

– Have a clearer and sharper mind all day and less brain fog 

– Get more accomplished throughout the day

– Have more energy throughout the day

– Healthier & happier

– Long term success & wellbeing

– Allows you to build momentum and grow, day after day.

Bad Morning Routine

– Sets you up for a stressful day

– More poor choices throughout the day

– A domino for unhealthy eating

– Less energy and more lethargy

– Increased anxiety & depression

– No long term benefits

– Causes you to stagnate at the same level in your life, day after day.

This chart seems pretty up in the air, but its true. And drew actually put it all to the test.

Options for a good morning routine

There’s a lot of different things that you can do to create a great morning routine. But at the end of the day, it’s up to you to figure out which ones you want to use to tailor to your own personal life.

Below is a list of perfect activities you can use to create a good morning routine. Try some out, and pick a few that you enjoy and create your own custom routine. You don’t have to use all of them, but if you can that’s fantastic.

1) Be grateful

Being grateful is one of the easiest, most powerful things you can do.

A big trend amongst successful people is that almost all of them mention that they take time out of their day to feel grateful for what they have. This is as simple as looking around you and noticing all the great things you have in your life. From the blankets on your bed to family members you love. Just feel grateful for these things every day when you wake up and you will notice a change in your emotions overtime.

James Altucher, the man who has sold multiple companies for millions of dollars, has said many times that one of his secrets to success is that he always notices the abundance around him. Even if he’s stuck in traffic he will appreciate the abundant amount or cars in his society. He firmly believes that this shift in his thinking has allowed him to attract more and more abundance and greatness into his life, and I believe it. (See James Altucher’s article: The magic trick to be happy right now.)

Also, being grateful and thankful to your body can have a great effect on your health and well being. Take a look at this rice experiment. It shows how a jar of rice that is told its beautiful & loved every day for a month flourishes, while a jar of rice that is told its ugly & hated rots and degrades. It’s nothing short of incredible.

Just google rice experiment, there are hundreds of results and they are all the same. Or take a looks at a short clip of it below.

Its science; thank your body, thank your God or thank the Universe for what you have. Do it every day, and you will start to see why James, and myself, are so adamant about it.

2) Exercise

This is obvious and is already a common element in the morning routine of many people, and for good reason.

Research shows that exercise provides a boost in mental acuity that lasts from 4 to 10 hours. This is exactly what you need before you going out to crush it in the world. Also, exercise in the AM boosts your metabolism and keeps it revved up throughout the day. This means more calories burned and a trimmer, better you.

The important thing when it comes to exercising in your morning routine is to reach that level of aerobic effort that results in chemical changes in the brain, a release of lactic acid & the positive effects. FitnessVerve recommends to try to get a good sweat in or run at least a mile. I find that just a few pushups and situps aren’t enough to leave me feeling the positive effects all day.

You can also start practicing shooting, is a great sport that will help you develop better focus and can be fun.

2) Visualization

With the number of successful people I have spoken with and heard interviews with, it’s crazy how many of them practice visualization in their morning routines. It is upwards of 90%. It clearly works, but people are lazy and tend to neglect anything that doesn’t give them instantaneous results.

So how do you go about visualization?

A simple visualization practice is to simply close your eyes and imagine yourself where you want to be. See yourselves achieving your goals and feel all the emotions associated with it. Feeling the emotions of that success is the most important part.

4) Meditation

Again, after listening to over 50 episodes of “The School of Greatness,” and hearing how some of the greatest people of our time start their day and live their life, over 80% of them meditate.

If you see some and wonder “wow, they are incredible, what’s their secret?” Their secret is probably that they partake in daily visualization and meditation. If you’re not where you want to be and you’re not meditating daily, stop complaining.

All it takes is to put a 10 minutes timer on your phone, sit up straight & breath in and out while focusing on your breath until the timer goes. You will find your mind wanders a lot, and thats fine, but just slowly bring it back to your breath. When you progress, you can start to use meditation as a combination with visualization.

Meditation is the hardest one the stick to, but is the one thing that I will not start my day without, because when I do, I can really tell.

20 practical tips for quieting the mind

5) Drinking water

Drinking water immediately upon waking has numerous health benefits. It is a Japanese tradition that attributes to the fact that they have more 100+ year olds than any other country in the world. Check out this full article on why drinking water after waking up is one of the best things you can do.

6) Juicing

Juicing is another amazing thing you can do for your body, and is even better when done on an empty stomach.

The list of benefits of fresh juicing could go on for a hours. But guys like Lewis Howes, Drew Canole & Joe Cross are all advocators for fresh juicing. I literally just listened to a Lewis Howes School of Greatness podcasts where Rich Roll went from not being able to walk up the stairs without taking a break, to being an ultra man. If you don’t know what that is, it’s essentially being one of the fittest men alive. Learn more about that here.

Anyway, Rich Roll went from being a fast food king who could hardly move to doing a week-long juice fast, to staying on a healthy juicing regimen & vegan diet, to going on to compete in 3 Ultraman world championships. All after the age of 40!

It’s just a testament to how incredible juicing is, you should really think about starting. I use the Jack Lalanne juicer, and I highly recommend it.

6) Goal Setting

Goal setting is simply setting your goals for what you want to accomplish in your life, but more importantly, for that day. In the grand scheme of all your massive goals, all that really matters is what you do today.

Will Smith said it best;

“You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say ‘I’m going to build the biggest, worst, greatest wall that’s ever been built.’ You don’t start there. You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid. You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall.”

Focus on your goals for the day and what you can do to lay your perfect brick today.

Options for a bad morning routine (Avoid at all costs!)

1) Checking email

Waking up, rolling over and going straight to your inbox is one of the worst things you can do to start your day.

Tim Ferris, Pat Flynn, numerous pro bloggers and hundreds of other great people all say the same thing time and time again. Do not check your email before 10 AM. Tim even goes as far as to have certain times once a day to check email because he sees it as that toxic.

Checking email during his morning routine is what lead Drew Canole to receive a Zen score of 18 using his Tinké. That’s terrible, so avoid it all costs.

2) Hitting snooze over and over

When you’re hitting snooze, you are starting the day with weakness and failure immediately. The first thing you are doing during your day is giving in to easy temptation.

How can you expect to break the temptation of fatty foods, laziness & skipping workouts if you start your day giving into the temptation of 10 more minutes of sleep?

Positive change builds on positive change. It stacks up and momentum is built, one positive choice after another. You are resetting your slate back to zero every time you hit snooze in the morning.

If you do your homework, you should know what you want to put into your morning routine. This is fantastic, however, it is still incredibly easy to stray from your morning routine once you have a late night out, or you get a little lazy. It is important to keep your morning routine daily and build up momentum.

For this, Drew likes to use a chart to track his morning routine so he can literally check each thing he does off. He has a million things going on, and this helps him stay on track. I 100% agree with this approach, especially for the first few months when the habit is not formed. Below is a printable PDF chart to help you track your morning routine for the first month or even every day after.

Click the picture, print it out, write in your activities & check them off every morning. After a month you will have developed the habit and be on your way to success and prosperity.

Drew Canole’s morning routine

Drew Canole:

Drew has an incredible morning routine that actually sparked my inspiration to create this article. I am so passionate about this, and truly feel that if any one person added this to his life, it would improve him exponentially. So let’s break down Drews morning routine.

1) Drew gets up at 5:30 – 6:00 AM.

2) Upon waking he lies in bed for 7 minutes. As he opens his eye the first thing he does is feel grateful. He feels grateful for waking up, for his family & even for having a body to be able to transport him around. He thanks God for his family, friends & everything. He takes being grateful so deeply to even be grateful his feet are touching the ground as he gets out of bed. There are hundreds of things to be grateful for and you should notice and feel all of them.

3) He then heads to the kitchen and drinks a liter of water immediately.

4) He then eats a handful of almonds, some flax/omega fish oil & a protein shake.

5) He then heads straight to the gym.

6) After a great workout, he heads home and gets really excited about reading, and reads the bible.  Drew’s very religious, maybe your not, I’m not. But you can read anything, preferably something self-improvement, but just read.

7) Next after reading, Drew meditates for 10 minutes. His meditation is simple. He sits quietly and tries to have no thoughts. He is then able to channel the thoughts that he states he wants to get to God, without all the clutter.

8) After that, he showers, get changed & heads to work.

What’s incredibly important to note is that drew states he has something to look forward to every morning. He looks forward to continuing to build on the momentum he started the previous morning and keep growing in this positive direction. That is the most powerful thing about a morning routine.

Check out Drew’s morning routine video in more detail below.

A few of us here have been following our own version of Drew’s routine for the past two weeks and are amazed at how we feel and how much we look forward to building on the previous day. This is truly something that you can do to start changing your life as soon as tomorrow.

So what’s it gonna be?

Are you going to reach out and hit the snooze button tomorrow? Or are you going to start taking steps towards success?

Guess you’ll find out soon enough..

Additional resources:

1) Morning routine printable PDF chart

2) James Altucher’s Website

3) Drew Canole’s Website

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