Today I’m going to talk about what are my daily methods for self-improvement, and this is a topic that I absolutely love talking about. But before I get started, I’m going to give you a reference to help you out.
Check out Hal Elrod, the author of The Miracle Morning.
Now, the reason why I bring this up is because he talks about the morning ritual. That’s just the focus of his book, and that’s what I’m going to talk about today, the morning ritual that helps jump-start my day. It helps improve me, emotionally, physically, spiritually, and mentally. I’m going to give you the steps that I use and you can tweak them and use them to best work for you.
Now, to make it simple, we’re going to put this in the form of an acronym, WAKEUP.
The W starts with water, and what that is, is I drink, first thing in the morning within 30 minutes of waking up, 20 to 30 ounces of water. It creates a thermogenic effect in my body. Now, in layman’s terms, what that means is it helps accelerate the fat burning process first thing in the morning, and that can improve the fat burning process upwards of 10%, based on various studies that have demonstrated it.
Also, even more importantly, you’re hydrating yourself because you are dehydrated throughout the night. The average person sleeps about seven to eight hours per night, and when you add potentially not eating for one or two hours before that, before going to bed, now you essentially have had your body in a fasting state for eight to 10 hours, so hydrating yourself first thing in the morning is crucial to help jumpstarting your day.
The second thing is A, appreciation. I have just such gratitude for the things in my life. I move forward in my life because I have blessings and gratitude for the things that I’ve already received. And I simply do this, each day, I write 10 things that I am grateful for. For example, it can be as simple as I was grateful for waking up this morning. I’m grateful for making this video to be able to present things to you. I am grateful for being alive today. Just being grateful for the things that you simply may take for granted, that you may not appreciate. I’ve been doing this for over a year, and I have pages and pages, 4,000 gratitude statements and still going strong.
Third is the K, kudos. What that means is just giving yourself a pat on the back. Have an appreciation for the little victories that you have accomplished in the day. It doesn’t have to be a major task that you accomplished. It doesn’t have to be a small one. Just saying to yourself, “Thanks for a good job, for the small things.” Don’t wait until you achieve the main task, the main goal, the main outcome, appreciate the little victories along the way. So that’s the K, the kudos.
E is for exercise. Now, that’s the big component. You can exercise as little as 20 minutes a day, and I recommend doing that three days per week, and that can be as little as power-walking. You want to get your body into a state where you’re just used to moving, where you have physical activity. And before you engage in any physical activity, do make sure that you check with your physician, to make sure that you’re healthy enough to proceed with that activity.
The U, one of the most important things in the day, that is the ultimate task. Now, I don’t believe in doing to-do lists. I don’t follow, like, a list of 10 to 20 things that I need to do throughout the day. I don’t have a mindless list that just makes me busy but doesn’t produce anything, because you can be busy with a massive to-do list, but you’re not actually moving forward towards the outcome that you’re seeking. So I set myself up for two to three outcomes, max, and I have a major thing that I want to achieve in each one of those outcomes for the week, so that’s my ultimate task.
And for the day, of those two to three outcomes, I pick the one task that I must complete no matter what, like for today, my ultimate task was to get this message out to you. So the ultimate task is the one thing that you must complete. Under no circumstances do you finish your day without completing it. Now, usually this may be the most challenging thing in your day, so I tend to do it first thing in the morning, so by 9:00, 10:00 in the morning, I’ve achieved 80% to 90% of what I wanted to do in the day, because I completed my ultimate task.
The last thing is the P. That’s the prayer. Now, prayer can be a touchy subject for people. You may believe in a higher power. You may not. That’s quite all right, but for me personally, I believe that there’s a higher power that is guiding myself, and I have appreciation by having daily gratitude and having daily prayer in the morning time.
For me personally, I read a source by Sarah Young, called Jesus Calling, and what that is, it’s like a daily devotional reading, and I read that. It takes me about a little under a minute or so, but it just helps keep me grounded, helps keep me gracious. So those are the things for my morning ritual, the things that I help to do to self-improve my life, the WAKEUP, water, appreciation, kudos, exercise, the ultimate task, and prayer.
You can take as much as this as you want, you can take as little, but set up a morning ritual for yourself and I’m sure that you’re going to be well on your way towards having a better you.
Take care and be well.
