June 2020 - The Future Mindset

WHAT TO EXPECT!

In today’s article, How To Start Your Day With A Successful Morning Routine. I will show you my morning routine and how it helped my performance increase, overall wellbeing and how these habits have changed my whole outlook on life. Having a winning morning routine develops you to strengthen the mindset to deal with any challenges in your day effectively. Change your mindset, change your future!

My Morning Rundown

We all have a morning routine. I’m sure we all want to wake up in the morning firing out the blocks for a great day, but unfortunately, it’s never that simple and it can be more like a chore to wake up early. Then one day I had enough of my comfortable warm bed taking control of me and so I researched how to start your day with a successful morning routine.

There was an amazing amount of articles, books and videos on the subject. Everyone had their own style, timings and tasks they did that set them up for a great day. So I decided to find the patterns that came about the most and put them to action. Plus I added in a few of my own that would help me with what I really needed.

So here are my top morning tips on how to start your day with a successful morning routine.

How To Start Your Day With A Successful Morning Routine

1. Pick A Time And Stick To It

The most important part of your whole routine is getting up. Sometimes this can be a challenge as the comfort of your bed and more sleep will try and get the better of you. This is normal for everyone but you still have a choice.

So the night before, you need to set an alarm that you know you can wake up to. Make sure you’re going to bed 6 -8 hours before you have to wake to make it an easier experience as the first few days, it’ll be very challenging to wake up early.

Once your brain knows when you want to wake up, it has an amazing effect of waking you up just before your alarm apart from the days when you haven’t had enough sleep or your body is exhausted from the previous day.

This is when you have to take control of your mind and just get up. This will be your most important win of the day because you have already beaten most people who don’t

2. Drink Water To Re-hydrate the Brain

Waking up the brain quickly in the morning makes everything else that you’re trying to do a lot easier. Overnight your body was of course still working, so rehydrating it before you start anything helps keep it in top-notch shape.

3. Read A Personal Development Chapter

For me getting my brain firing on all cylinders is reading a book that can develop you and unlock new ideas. Reading in the morning is like fuel for the brain that gets it operating for the day ahead. Also, reading can be difficult once the day gets going due to commitments and at night your brain will be tired to take in the new information. So it’s a great time to do it in silence.

4. Start Writing

Straight after reading, I start writing. This is a great way to put all your thoughts on paper. From doing this action – I have started writing blog posts more often, and it has given me a greater understanding of my thoughts. It also makes me feel great after the whole experience.

Writing straight away in the morning also takes away the procrastination of doing it later. When your minds busier with daily life. Especially when your children want your undying attention.

If blogging isn’t your thing then journaling just for your eyes only is exactly the same process. If not, find what works for you.

5. My Purpose & Vision

An important part of my morning routine is knowing where I’m headed throughout my day and life. That’s why I designed a vision board of the top things that I want to achieve within the next decade. This helps me stay positive and focus on what I need to achieve.

My goals for the day mainly revolve around achieving this objective.

This is a real personal experience. It doesn’t matter how you put it all together as long as you know clearly where you’re headed.

6. Gratitude Time

To lift yourself up is being grateful and thankful for anything in your life that comes to mind. It can be family, your home, the earth or just to be alive. When you’re grateful it releases positive emotions. Being grateful takes you into your day in a positive mental state. As well as keeping yourself balanced as a person.

7. My Victory List

It’s easy to see other peoples successes which can either lead to inspiration or jealously. The most important person you should reviewing for successes is yourself. We take for granted all that we have done in our lives.

So I created into sections the decades that I’ve lived and all of my achievements I could think of. Early on that, I learned to walk and talk.

My second decade was Winning the cup double and going to university. My last decade was opening my own business and having a wife and children.

When you have this list. It allows you to know that you are a success and you are worthy to be in this world. It also allows you to visualise what else you can add to your victory list

8. Breathing Meditation

Any form of mediation has been proven to boost your mental and physical capacity. The one I chose was the breathing meditation led by Wim Hoffs techniques. This is such an amazing journey to go on. I have definitely seen the benefits of being more balanced and calm as a person. I highly recommend this format but go on your own journey to find yours.

9. Yoga

For me getting older and having more responsibilities led to less time focusing on my body. Then I decided if I want to live a healthy life as I get older this has to change.

I thought Yoga was for women and now I know how wrong that statement was. This is for anyone at all different levels and my experience of this has been an absorbing one.

I practice with Breathe and Flow. It has shown me that my whole body needs work in flexibility and core strength. For you to add Yoga into your morning routine. It will definitely impact you later on in life. As well it will give you a great mood and accomplishment boost to start your day.

10. Full Body Workout

We all know the benefits of working out our body and the endorphins that get released from them. For me, it’s just committing and doing it. The mentality approach I have when I’m doing it is by saying “just one more.” That could be one more rep or one more set to go. This helps me stay present and get through the workout fully disciplined. You can research all the benefits but the answer will be to just do it!

I set aside 2 hours of my morning to do this. It has changed my life when it comes to happiness and productivity throughout the day.

If anyone out there may be suffering from anxiety, stress, forms of depression. Please create a morning routine. It will literally change your whole outlook on your day and eventually with hard work, your life.

What I Enjoy About My Routine

For me, the best thing about having a morning routine. Is that I have already won before I have even started my day. Every morning I work on 10 tasks that I need to achieve on my to-do list. Once that I’ve ticked off everything on my list, feel like a winner.

With that positive energy, the momentum takes me through the rest of my day with purpose. The number of times I have got into the state of flow because of my morning routine. Is too many to count.

There is a reason why athletes and successful people in all walks of life have a morning routine. It allows them the best possible start to their day.

What Can Set You Back

At first, this can be a big change in someone’s life. Especially with all the hurdles that can be thrown your way. For instance, if you needed more sleep and you woke up later than planned. Don’t write off the whole routine, just manage it the best you can.

For me having a 1-year-old wake you up at 4.am can be a real challenge to start your day with only 4 hours of sleep. It could be you have an important meeting that’s in the middle of your routine. It’s not ideal but we just have to adapt and not be so hard on ourselves.

We are not robots we are humans who are built to adapt. So you can use it as a strength and still get great results from your morning. It’s just our mindset towards it.

Final Thoughts

I hope now you know how to start your day with a successful morning routine. It’s definitely changed my life for the better. Before I end this post, I challenge you to create your own morning routine. It could be 1 thing you wish to do or it could be 10. Take action and commit to it and watch your life change for the better. Let me know how you get on. I would love to know!

THE FUTURE MINDSET

At Future Mindset, we are here to push the boundaries of our thoughts and actions. By chasing discomfort in our lives, it can lead us to unlock things inside us we never knew was there. Let’s change our mindset to change our future.

For all of our latest blog posts on developing your mindset. Make sure you sign up for our weekly newsletter to stay informed. Thank you so much for your support. We would love to discuss any comments on this post. If you have any suggestions on future posts. I’m more than happy to research and deliver that for you.

Chase discomfort and have a great day wherever you are!

Chasing Discomfort

This blog post I’m going to write about today is something I want to have more of. I want to be chasing discomfort and understanding why it’s important for growth.

The world we live in today is getting more and more comfortable compared if you looked back 200 years ago.

Life has never been easier. You want food, we just go to the Supermarket or if we want to wash our clothes we just use the washing machine.

We don’t have to hunt any more and we definitely don’t have to wash our clothes by hand. Of course around the world, not everyone is living in comfort but on the whole, especially in the western world, we are for sure.

Looking Back On Past Experiences

When we look back on our own life, of course, we see the challenges and the hurdles we have faced. When I looked deeper and analysed my past it just shows me how comfortable a lot of my life has been.

In the short term, comfortability feels great like a warm shower or comfy bed to snuggle into. In the long term is the habit of being comfortable making us happy or is it creating amazing moments.

When we feel comfortable that’s a sign that we are safe and that was important thousands of years ago to know when we should rest the body and mind. When it comes to a fulfilling life it just doesn’t cut it.

Prime examples in my life of when being comfortable held me back were when I worked in sales and marketing. Before I joined the company I thought tooth and nail to get it.

Within my first weeks, I was engaged and was learning at a rapid rate. Then when I applied all the information I became great at it.

Then the learning stopped, I knew everyone and everything and it became autopilot and that’s when I stopped progressing and as the months went on, I was on the decline and I didn’t know why.

Reflecting Why Being Comfortable Can Hold You Back

On reflection, it was down to finding my comfortability zone. This zone doesn’t want you to learn, meet new people or push yourself for the next challenge, it just wants you to stay where you are, and that’s safe.

I have countless experiences where being comfortable has held me back and I’m sure you have to. How frustrating is it when you look back and you didn’t say yes to something that would have been life-changing or just an amazing experience.

It came to point in my life at 30 where this can no longer go on. This can not be my norm for the rest of my life. Especially after seeing it make people miserable with their choices and actions as they have got older.

So I have challenged my self to chase discomfort on a regular basis. Is it going to be difficult? HELL YES! Everything inside you is going to say “no don’t do it just be comfortable”. That’s when we have to consciously take over and say “YES LETS JUST DO IT”

Some things I have challenged myself do are,

Create a YouTube channel and post weekly
Post pictures of myself and my story on social media
Do Yoga every day for 30 days
Climb the 3 peaks of the United Kingdom

All 4 definitely make me feel out of my comfort zone. So I challenge you to find 4 things for the next 30 days, that you can overcome your fear or doubt of by taking action and chasing discomfort.

Hang Around The Right People

Within your life, you will have many different challenges you have to overcome. Make sure you tap into that. It will give you the confidence to know you can do it again.

Plus having people around you who motivate and hold you accountable is important for your ability to persevere in the challenge.

Of course when you start telling people what you’re going to do. You’re going to find two types of people. The ones that will say “This is an amazing idea, I’ve always wanted to this too, your so brave” and you have someone else say “You are crazy, it’s never going to work”

Please do not listen to the latter because they are just giving you their own insecurity on how they think they can’t do it. Trust me you definitely can, we are designed to overcome challenges. It’s all in the mind.

Track Your Progress

When you start your challenges make sure you have a journal or a wall chart to track your progress.

Digesting your progress is so valuable to unlocking your accomplishments. It allows you to see where you need to improve. You can either do this by writing it down or videoing yourself. Plus one day someone may need help with overcoming the challenge your facing.

Some challenges need a visual aid to show your progress. For instance, doing the 30-day mile club where on the first of the month you run 1 mile. Then increase it a mile each day.

Tracking your progress not only shows what you have achieved. It shows the vision of how you’re going to achieve the task which both are motivational.

Find A Mentor

When starting any challenge you know it’s going have a lot more downs than ups. That’s why it can be important to have a mentor. They can either guide you or motivate you towards your goals.

You can find these mentors anywhere. You can watch them on Youtube and see how they broke through the barriers of their journey or you could hire one.

On any journey whether your an athlete or starting a business. Having a mentor helps you get to your endpoint faster rather than you having to go the long way around.

As painful and fun that might be, it’s not the smartest route you can take.

To Conclude

I hope this gives you greater insight into chasing discomfort and why it’s important for growth. Also why it’s important to apply it in your daily life.

Since I have been conscious of this I have become more confident, daring and adventurous because of it. It’s still a journey I’m on but one that’s so rewarding.

Imagine living a life where you don’t fear anything because you have overcome them all. That’s a life worth living and one where anything is possible.

So make a list of what discomforts you want to overcome. Then comment them below and where we can track your progress. Maybe one day we can do them together.

FUTURE MINDSET

For all of our latest blog posts on developing your mindset, make sure you sign up to our weekly newsletter to stay informed.

Thank you so much for your support and would love to discuss any comments on this post and if you have any suggestions on future posts I’m more than happy to research and deliver that for you.

Chase discomfort and have a great day wherever you are!