Have you ever wondered how some people wake up happy, vibrant and full of life?
You know who I am talking about!! Those crazy people who are bursting with endless energy, productive ninjas, fearless confidence, and passionate about life.
They seem to glide through the day on autopilot as a force to be reckoned with. And no matter what happens, nothing seems to phase them. They’re a beacon of joy and energy, and as a result, people are naturally drawn to their positivity they radiate.
What makes these people different from the rest of us is NOT a “natural ability” or an inherent talent that they were born with.
They possess no clear advantage over anyone else.
The difference is that they’ve made a CHOICE to be this way.
These people have DECIDED to live their life the way they want and have cultivated a consistent, daily ritual that makes them the way that they are.
You are what you repeatedly do every day.
You are defined by your RITUALS – what you do consistently.
If you’re always miserable, unhappy, anxious, living in fear, etc.… it’s because you have RITUALS that may not even be aware of, that are creating these emotions in your body on a consistent basis.
You’ve literally TRAINED yourself to be this way through practice and conditioning.
Can you change it?
YES.
Can you be happy, confident, and passionate each day?
YES.
How?
SIMPLE, YOU MAKE THE DECISION TO CHANGE.
As a business owner, I have come to realise that you have to manage yourself before you manage your business.
Ultimately your business is a reflection of you and to inspire your team; you need to be able to lead by example.
To give you some assistance in making these changes in your life, I thought I would outline the steps I have made to my life. These are tried and tested principals that successful leaders in business follow – so if it’s good for them, then it must be good for us. ☺
My life is far from perfect, and yes, I have days that go pear-shaped…
…that’s life, and I guess what I have learnt is that s*** happens, and you can either dwell on it, or you can accept it for what it is, you draw a line under something that has gone awry and focus on getting back on track asap.
So here are the steps I take to lead a life that is continuing to improve for me and enables me to have a lot better days than bad days.
I have always had the drive to be the best version of myself. I believe we only have one chance at this life and I want to live the best possible life I can.
As I said above, I am far from perfect, but I am brave enough to admit I don’t know everything, so what do I do?
I look for the “expert” who can help me with the particular issue I want to improve.
In relation to making the most out of my life and getting order, I read an incredible book called “The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)” by Hal Elrod.
This book outlines how a morning routine built around 6 key practices that the author describes as “Life S.A.V.E.R.S” can help you get more done and live your best life.
Most people don’t think they have time to change their lives or achieve their goals, but Hal Elrod has proven you can start achieving your goals today by devoting a minimum of only 1 minute to each of these practices every day.
These Life S.A.V.E.R.S have proven instrumental to the success I am starting to experience more frequently in my life.
Life S.A.V.E.R.S stands for…
S – Silence
A – Affirmations
V – Visualisations
E – Exercise
R – Reading
S – Scribing
MY “MORNING” RITUAL
I want to share with you below my ENTIRE “MORNING” RITUAL – what I do every single day to set myself up to win.
How you start the day is how you end the day.
On a good morning, I was already doing 2-3 of the SAVERS, but something was missing. That constant battle with my inner ego and self-doubts were not being addressed.
That’s where Silence, Affirmations and Visualizing have come to the rescue.
1. Silence
Each morning after I wake, I get up and have a large glass of water with a slice of lemon. For most of us, our bodies are severely dehydrated the moment we wake up.
Your cells not only need oxygen but water as well.
“70% of your body is made up of water, and so it only makes sense to fully hydrate your body so that it can be start off the day at a peak level.”
And don’t just drink a sip of water – literally down 1-2 glasses. You have no idea how much your body needs it.
After that, I sit down on my living room sofa in silence for 5-10 minutes.
At first, I focused on my breathing, but just recently, I started using the app called Headspace which has been really helpful in quieting the noise in my head and being able to give me more clarity.
Starting my day off with silence in meditation has become my way of taking control of the day.
I’d usually jump to my computer and start checking email.
In my silence, tons of ideas and thoughts pass through as I acknowledge them and let them fly by.
Between focusing on my breathing and following the guided meditation of Headspace, I’ve ended my sessions very relaxed and refreshed instead of the frantic and reactionary approach to my emails.
2. Affirmations
Following my silence, I go to my affirmations.
According to Success Consciousness, affirmations are aimed to affect the conscious and subconscious mind.
The words composing your affirmation, automatically and involuntarily, bring up related mental images into the mind, which could inspire, energize and motivate you.
Repeating affirmations affect the subconscious mind, which in turn, influences behaviour, habits, actions and reactions.
I wrote my own affirmations using the template provided from the Miracle Morning book as my guide.
I read them two times every morning.
I broke out my affirmations into categories and had one for each of the following categories:
- What True Success means to me
- My 3-5 Top Goals
- Purpose
- Family
- Finances
- Health
- Rest, Relaxation and Fun
- Reflection
Reading these over and over helps me battle that inner ego and has helped me in gaining further clarity on why and what I want to achieve and what it will be like when I’ve reached my goals.
As someone who constantly self-doubted himself, this exercise has quickly become my favourite part of my miracle day – I say “Miracle Day” because I have adapted the process so that it fits with me.
In the book, it actually says to adapt it to fit what works for you but recommends following it as outlined.
3. Visualization
Once I’ve finished my affirmations I take 3-5 minutes to visualize what it will be like when I’ve accomplished these things.
I think about what it will feel like when I’ve reached my financial or health goals and more.
I’ve found the most important part of the visualizing process is not only visualizing what it will be like when you’ve reached the goals, but what it looks like on your way to the goals.
For example, when I started my Lean Lifestyle Challenge Program, I had one goal to get the new sessions full. So, I visualised each session we ran was full of happy clients working towards their goals and high fiving each other at the end of the session.
For me visualization has been more about visualizing the work needed to get there as it makes it less scary and less of an obstacle.
4. Reading
Here is an example where you’ll realize you don’t have to do these things in order.
I prefer to sit down at the end of the day and take out a book and read for about 10-25 minutes.
This really helps get my mind firing back up, giving me ideas and helps me read more books which were one of my goals.
I find I can read at least 10 pages of a good book a day.
Through this simple act, I’ve read hundreds of books. And I have so many more sitting on my shelf to read and go through.
I like reading books that will help me at the current state of my life that I’m in – whether it’s self-help, spirituality, health/fitness, finance, business, biographies, etc.… anything that will improve the quality of my life.
By the way, 10 pages a day equates to 300 pages a month – that’s a book a month, 12 books a year!
Think about how much better you’ll be in your life and the results you’ll produce just by making this simple action a daily habit.
5. Exercise
This one was going to be tough for me because I don’t like working out in the morning. Thankfully, when I realized how customizable The Miracle Morning was it really helped. As you will see I prefer to have a “Miracle Day” as opposed to a Miracle Morning.
The goal here is to get your blood flowing.
For me, I basically take 10-15 minutes and do the following:
- Foam rolling
- basic stretching/ yoga routine
By the time I’m done with this little routine, I feel looser, more flexible, and the blood is flowing around my body. Plus, exercise makes you feel a million pounds; you feel happy.
I usually perform what I call a proper 45-minute workout 3 times a week, but this 10-15 routine is something I do every morning now. My “main” workouts come later in the day when I am more awake.
Right after that, I hope in the shower and grab some breakfast (which is usually Proats, Protein granola or an egg-based meal).
6. Scribing (or in other words journaling – keeping a diary or journal)
I have known for a while that journaling was beneficial and is a practice performed by every successful individual I admire.
There are a variety of apps you can use, such as Day One (for Macs), Journey (for Android) or Penzu (which can be used on iPhone and Android devices).
I prefer to sit down and write in a physical journal and use a Self Journal.
As part of my journaling process (which I perform at the end of each day), I review my tasks for the following day and identify the ONE Thing that MUST get done that day or I would have otherwise been disappointed.
Once I have completed the Morning Portion of my Miracle “Morning”, I like to get myself a cup of steaming hot coffee and then I set out to attack my day.
Make It Your Own Miracle Morning or Miracle Day
Now, it’s important to know that you can make it your own. You can do them out of order or do each for a shorter period of time.
The author of the Miracle Morning, Hal Elrod, states that he does each of the SAVERS for 10 minutes each morning, but he even shares a 6-minute miracle morning in the book as well.
I have shifted mine up based on my schedule and the day of the week, but I always get all 6 Steps completed.
CREATE YOUR OWN DAILY RITUAL AND COMMIT TO IT
That’s it! That’s my complete Daily Ritual as it stands today.
It has changed and evolved over the years. It used to be much longer, but now I’ve made it simple and customized it to the way that I like it for now.
It may change tomorrow, who knows.
I’m always changing it up, to make sure that I don’t get too bored with it.
Now it’s your turn.
You don’t have to create the same Ritual as mine but create SOMETHING.
Make it specific to you and make it something that you will enjoy.
This is what works for me, and it’s based on things that I’ve learned over the years, so it may be completely different for you.
Just use mine as an example, take what works, and discard what doesn’t.
The key is to make sure you COMMIT TO IT NO MATTER WHAT.
I suggest doing a 30-day Challenge where you commit to doing something like this every day for 30 days straight, or perhaps even try it for a week.
If you actually do take the time to do this each day, I guarantee you that your life will transform and go beyond to a level you’ve never before imagined for yourself.
And in my honest opinion, NOTHING you do throughout the day is more important than doing something like this for yourself.
Give yourself this gift – you deserve it.
The truth is, you already have a morning ritual that you may not even be aware of.
It could be that you wake up, drink coffee, turn on the news, check your e-mail, or visit Facebook.
But, are those things really empowering you?
Are they nurturing your body, making you happier, or bringing you closer towards the vision of who you want to be?
If the answer is “No” and you’re looking for a change, then perhaps this is for you.
I hope you enjoyed this lengthy, detailed blog post and video – I really wanted to be completely transparent with what I do each day, and hopefully, it will benefit you.
If it does, I would love to hear what you think and what your experience is.
You can connect with me via my social media channels @chrisvarnavas and @athleticdevelopmentclub or at https://athleticdevelopmentclub.com//.
Otherwise, have a FANTASTIC DAY!
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