Get A Klu Morning Coffee

Got Rituals? ?Spring Cleaning is one of the “all time” rituals we can all relate to and it usually occurs in April!

April is an exciting Month for so many reasons (my birthday, the start of Major League Baseball Season and the signs of Spring ?that represent growth and blossoming)…and, it marks the END of Q1 and beginning of Q2. ?Aren’t you one of the millions among us that exclaim, “Wow, it’s April ALREADY?!?” wondering how the year’s first three months flew by so quickly!?

My real question is, are you one of the millions among us that are still LYING about “time.” ?Saying things like, “I don’t have time” or “I ran out of time” or “I wish I had more time” or “I couldn’t make time” or my favorite of all, “I need better Time Management!”???

April is the month that reminds us, TIME MANAGES ITSELF! ?What WE must manage is our SELF and ACTIONS in time. ?If you want to learn more about “Time Management” and being productive, join me for my next OOHs Session happening Wednesday April 27th at 2pm. Sign up HERE. ?One of the most effective “Time Management” strategies I’ve known is to create daily/weekly “rituals” to ensure the most important things in your life get done consistently.

Today I want to share my morning rituals that help me kick off a successful day. Some people call this a morning routine, I call it my morning rituals because while my “routine” may change on a day-to-day basis, my RITUAL does not. ?Meaning, “routine” is about task and “ritual” is about the BELIEFS BENEATH THE TASK! ?I don’t do the same exact thing every morning. It really depends on how my day is structured and what is scheduled. Sometimes I have to wake up earlier to teach a class…or coach someone in a different time zone/country…sometimes I have triple daddy duty if my wife is traveling for business?and sometimes I have a little more time in the morning because my wife?offers to handle all the kid duty.

But, no matter what I have going on in the morning, these are the 4 things I do every day:

Hydrate- The first thing I do in the morning is hydrate?my body with water. I drink 40 ounces before putting anything else in my body (except vitamins, see below). I love the refreshing feeling I get when I hydrate first thing in the morning. Also, my health goals include a commitment to drinking 5 gallons every week…so starting each day with 40 ounces before I do anything else makes the “gallon a day” much more do-able. ?No matter how busy my morning is, I always make sure to hydrate.

 

Rituals Get A Klu Glass of WaterVitamins-?While hydrating my body, I take my daily vitamins and fish oil. My vitamins keep me feeling strong and?it’s the next best thing I can do for?my body after hydrating with water. This is another ritual that gets done no matter what the day ahead holds. ?From a “time management” perspective, its called “synergy” (doing one thing that serves two purposes)…so, vitamins while hydrating is a no-brainer.

Exercise- I do push ups and sit ups every day and USUALLY in the morning. ?Starting in January, I keep adding 10 each to the number that I do every 10 days (i.e. 10/day for the first 10 days of the year…then 20/day for Days 11-20…then 30 per day for days 21-30, etc.). ?So right now I’m up to 120 EACH of push ups and sit ups. It’s a wonderful?feeling to get my workout done first thing in the morning…and if I don’t do it (“routinely”) first thing in the morning, I DO make time to get it done some other time during the morning or afternoon (knowing that if I don’t do it before 5:00 p.m., its likely not to happen at all). ?My goal is to be doing 300+ pushups and sit ups per day by year’s end…I’m almost halfway there!

Mind Feed-?I have several books in each of my bathrooms because I KNOW that I will be going to the bathroom each and every morning. ?Without giving TMI, let me just say the morning trip to the bathroom is the perfect place to feed my mind with something good to read. ?Sometimes, its blogs and articles I find through social media or from email lists I’ve subscribed to…and other times it is a handful of pages from any of the personal/professional development books I read to stay sharp in my industry. ?Either way, our mind is NO DIFFERENT from our body…we are what we eat. ?Do you read at all? ?And, do you read GOOD/HEALTHY “stuff” first thing in the morning? ?I do!

That’s it! My four simple morning rituals I do almost every morning. What are your morning rituals? What is your morning ritual? Do you have things that you do before getting the day started? Please share with me in the comments.

For more Klu’s Briefs?on what I do for success, click HERE and remember to join me for my OOHs on productivity. You can join OOHs?HERE.