How would you like to achieve even more everyday?
What i
f you could be even MORE productive, happy and energetic on a daily basis?
There is a way… and successful people have been utilizing it for centuries.
It’s called developing a morning ritual.
Creating your own morning ritual is one of the most powerful things you can do to transform your life.
I’ve broken down my entire morning ritual process step-by-step below. This is everything that I outline in the above video, so that you can follow it for yourself. Of course, you’re free to modify it, take what works for you and create something uniquely your own.
The purpose of incorporating a morning ritual into your life is to empower you to be at your best everyday. By being at your best, every experience and result of your life changes. You get MORE from your day and your entire life.
How you start the day is how you end the day. (Tweet This!)
- Smile
Smiling is the most important thing that you should do the moment you wake up each morning.
By smiling, you are starting your day off perfectly by reminding yourself that today is a gift. It shows gratitude and appreciation for another day of your life.
Not only that, but smiling also changes your biochemistry – it begins to put you in a positive state. You will immediately begin to feel good.
- Priming/Meditation
The next part of my ritual is something I do called “Priming”, as well as meditation.
Priming is something that I learned from Tony Robbins at Unleash The Power Within, which is a 10-minute exercise that primes you for gratitude and strength. It’s totally new and it’s been something that I do every morning while sitting in my bed. I also combine this with meditation, which helps me feel at peace and feel grounded.
Here’s how it works:
- Sit upright on your bed with your legs crossed (as if you’re meditating). Close your eyes.
- Take 30 explosive breaths in and out through your nose, while raising your hands up and down. Make sure to inhale and exhale through your stomach and do it rapidly.
- Think of 3 things in your life that you are grateful for. Make sure at least TWO of them are small things that you can be grateful for (such as a rain drop or a pen), while the other can be big. By thinking of small things, you’re forcing yourself to find gratitude in all of the small things in your life.
- Do another 30 explosive breaths in and out through your nose.
- Think of 3 things you want to create in your life. It can be things you want to create for that day, that week, that month, year, or at any moment. It can be anything you want. Focus and visualize those 3 things. See them as if they are real.
- Do another 30 explosive breaths in and out through your nose.
- Spend a few minutes just meditating. Quiet your thoughts and silence your mind. Feel totally at peace and at ease.
- Finish by thanking the energy source that created you, while asking for any healing or power for that day. Open your eyes.
This process has been powerful for me and really uplifts me for the day.
Breathing was an important step as part of my original morning ritual video blog, as oxygen is the most important thing that the body requires from a health perspective. By doing this exercise, I am also consciously focusing on my breathing and taking in deep breaths. This helps to cleanse and vitalize the cells of my body.
Of course, you can modify it as you wish. If you prefer, you could just meditate for however long you like. I’ve been finding more and more benefits to meditating each day and how it helps me feel more at peace and improves my state throughout the day.
- Drink Water
After oxygen, the next most important thing that our bodies require is water.
70% of our bodies are made up of water.
When you wake up, you are massively dehydrated. Your body is craving water. That’s why the next part of my morning ritual is to head to the kitchen and begin guzzling water.
I drink 9.5 alkaline water, which is filtered and comes from my water ionizer (I drink Kangen water from Enagic). If you don’t have a water ionizer (or can’t afford one), then make sure you’re at least drinking filtered water. You can also alkalize the water by adding lemon to it (lemon is acidic, but metabolizes in the body as an alkaline form). I also usually add a greens powder to my water as well, which further alkalizes it and gives my body essential nutrients.
I make sure to drink at least 1-2 glasses of water to ensure that I’m fully hydrated.
- Juicing
During the next part of my morning ritual, I juice vegetables with my Omega J8004 juicer.
I’ve found juicing to be one of the most powerful things that I do everyday that gives me unstoppable levels of energy.
When juicing vegetables, you are removing the pulp and fibre from them. This makes the absorption of the juice easy and immediate for your bloodstream. The result is you get this incredible high and burst of energy, as well as it helps cleanse your body as well. It’s important to do this first thing in the morning, before you eat, as your body won’t have to expend any energy digesting food.
Click here for a video blog I did on the life-changing benefits of juicing.
- Move Your Body (Rebounding)
The next most important part of my morning routine is to get moving. Movement is one of the easiest and fastest ways to change your state.
Emotion is created by motion. (Tweet This!)
The way that you use your body biochemically changes how you feel. By moving your body, you begin to take on more oxygen, which gives you more energy. It also changes your emotions, as every emotion you experience is through a specific physiology. You can easily enhance your state every morning by moving your body radically.
Moving your body can mean going for a walk, running, dancing, jumping up and down, or anything that gets your blood flow moving.
In my case, I love either going for a walk in the morning, or using my rebounder (a mini-trampoline).
There’s many health benefits to rebounding. The biggest benefit I get from it is that it helps to stimulate the lymphatic system, which is the sewage system for the body. By jumping up and down, it helps my body get rid of lymph and take in more oxygen, which gives me more energy. The movement and act of jumping up and down also radically enhances my state, which is useful as part of my daily ritual.
- Incantations/Affirmations
While I’m moving my body (walking or rebounding), I’ll also focus on conditioning my mind through incantations or affirmations.
Incantations are positive statements said out loud with emotional intensity. When you speak things out loud with emotion, you begin to condition your nervous system into believing what you’re saying. There’s a lot of power in this in shaping your own beliefs and emotions.
Here is part of the process that I go through when doing my incantations/affirmations:
Mission Statement
I speak my mission statement out loud, by saying the phrase:
“I, Stefan Pylarinos, see, know, hear, and feel that the purpose of my life is to be even more fully alive, grow and make a difference in the lives of others!”
Values & Rules
Knowing your values and rules is something that I learned from Tony Robbins at his Date With Destiny event. Every morning, I speak my values and rules that I want to condition and make part of my life.
For example, if health and energy is my #1 value, then I will say out loud:
“I, Stefan Pylarinos, see, know, hear, and feel that I am healthy and energetic!”
I will also read out loud my rules/beliefs about what it takes for me to be healthy and energetic:
“I am healthy and energetic anytime I consume healthy fruits and vegetables, or drink water, or do anything that enhances my physical well-being.”
Empowering Beliefs
I have a list of empowering beliefs that I like to choose from to read out loud. They can be simple sentences, or even longer paragraphs. The key is to consciously choose what you WANT to believe and begin to condition it daily by saying it out loud.
For example, some of the empowering beliefs I condition everyday are:
“I love my life!”
“What I do today, shapes my today and creates my tomorrow.”
“Nothing tastes as good as being healthy and fit feels!”
“I eat to fuel my body, not satisfy an appetite.”
“I am generous and loving everyday!”
Power Virtues
My power virtues is something I discovered at Tony Robbins Date With Destiny. They are 4 virtues that I commit to living by everyday that allow me to live my life at the peak. I also speak these out loud.
“I, Stefan Pylarinos, see, know, hear, and feel that I am confident!”
“I, Stefan Pylarinos, see, know, hear, and feel that I am determined!”
“I, Stefan Pylarinos, see, know, hear, and feel that I am loving!”
“I, Stefan Pylarinos, see, know, hear, and feel that I am happy!”
Ultimate Vision/Goals
I also read out my ultimate vision for my life, as well as the specific goals that I have set for the month or year.
Focusing on your goals everyday is an extremely important part of achieving them. They allow you to constantly be reminded of them and focused on what you want in your life.
Whatever you focus on, you will move toward. (Tweet This!)
By speaking your goals out loud with emotion, you are reminding yourself of them and conditioning yourself to BELIEVE you will achieve them. The key is to speak of them with certainty and belief, as well as to phrase your goals as a powerful phrase.
For example, here are some of the goals I set for my goals and resolutions:
“I will easily be making $60,000/month consistently by December 31, 2014!”
“I will easily buy and be driving the 2014 Corvette Stingray by December 31, 2014!”
“I will easily be 160 lbs at 6% body fat by December 31, 2014!”
- Empowering Questions
During the next part of my morning routine, I will direct my focus by asking myself empowering questions.
Whatever you focus on you feel. By directing your focus, you will change your state. The most powerful way of doing this is through questions.
Here are some of the questions that I ask myself every morning:
What am I happy about in my life right now?
What am I excited about in my life right now?
What am I proud of in my life?
What am I grateful for in my life?
What am I passionate about in my life right now?
What am I committed to in my life right now?
Who do I love? Who loves me?
What am I going to give today?
I often come up with more questions throughout the day that I use as part of my daily ritual, which keep me in a peak state.
While answering these questions, I like to continue doing them while I’m moving, as well as speak them out loud. This helps intensify the emotion from it.
Primary Question
I also ask myself this Primary Question every morning, which I also learned from Tony Robbins Date With Destiny, which is:
How can I become even better while appreciating even more of who I am and the love that is inside of me right now?
- Read A Book
I also make sure that I am actively reading and learning every morning. The habit of reading at least 10 pages of a book per day has been life changing for me. By committing to reading at least 10 pages a day, it equates to about 300 pages per month, which is at least a book per month.
I’ve been consistently reading at least a book every month for years now, which has become hundreds of books that I’ve benefitted from.
I enjoy reading books that uplift me and improve my quality of life. Here’s a list of my complete book library.
- Celebrate/Peak State
As the next part of my morning ritual, I spend a minute CELEBRATING my life and putting myself in a PEAK STATE.
I do this by putting on some music and either dancing or jumping up and down. I celebrate as if I just won the lottery, or my favourite spots team just won a championship. By doing this, it radically enhances my state and reminds me that I don’t need a reason to celebrate.
You don’t need a reason to celebrate. Celebrate everyday of your life! (Tweet This!)
The more that you reward something, the easier it becomes to do again and again. I celebrate little things all throughout the day, but even focus on this more during my evening ritual.
- Plan The Day
Now that I’m in a peak state, I begin to direct my energy towards what I want to get done that day.
The next part of my morning ritual is to sit down and plan the day, in detail. I use something that I learned from Tony Robbins called RPM, which stands for: Result, Purpose, Massive Action Plan.
This often consists of me taking out my journal and writing down what the Results I want to achieve for the day are. I then write out the Purpose, or reasons WHY it is a must for me to achieve this Result. Finally, I write out my Massive Action Plan, which is all the actions/steps I need to take that day to achieve that result.
Having a plan each day makes you PROACTIVE, instead of REACTIVE. It gives you something to move towards and achieve for the day. It’s one of the most important time management lessons that I’ve learned that helps me get a lot done.
When you talk about something, it’s a dream. When you envision it, it’s exciting. When you plan it, it’s possible. But, when you schedule it, it’s real. Tony Robbins
- Take Action On Highest Leverage Activity
Immediately after planning my day, I take action on the highest leverage activity that I have set for that day.
This means that I take a look at my Massive Action Plan and I identify what is the ONE THING that I could do today that would have the biggest impact.
This could be something in my business, or working out, or working on a big project. The key is to do the most important thing as the FIRST thing that you do in the morning.
This is because right after your morning ritual you will be in a PEAK STATE and it’s easy for you to use this energy to tackle whatever you’ve been procrastinating on. When you get the biggest, most important things out of the way in the morning, it will make you feel like the day was already an accomplishment.
There’s a concept called Speed of Implementation that is one of the most important things that allows me to get so much done.
- Workout
After I’ve finished or made significant progress towards my highest leverage activity for the day, I then like to go to the gym and workout. I make sure that I have my breakfast (a pre-workout meal) at least an hour before I go to the gym.
I’ve found working out or exercising EARLY to be extremely important, as the later you leave it during your day then there is less of a chance of you doing it.
It doesn’t matter what type of workout or exercise that you do, as long as you are doing SOMETHING to exercise everyday. There’s so many benefits of exercise that I won’t go into here, but this is the final piece of my morning ritual that helps me to feel unstoppable each day. It’s one of the most important things you can do to live a happy, healthy and balanced life.
Create Your Morning Ritual
There you have it!
These are the 12-steps that I follow everyday as part of my morning ritual that allows me to be unstoppable everyday.
Of course, I’m always modifying my morning ritual, but this is what I do currently.
Now it’s your turn.
It’s your turn to CREATE YOUR OWN morning ritual and to COMMIT to it.
Your morning ritual doesn’t have to be identical to mine. This video blog is just to show you what I DO and what works for me. If something here that I mentioned could benefit you, then great, use it! Otherwise I encourage you to create your own.
So how would you like to start your day?
What would YOUR morning ritual look like every morning?
Whatever you come up with, make sure to write it out step-by-step and put it somewhere that you can view it everyday.
My suggestion is to start with something small; something that won’t require too much of your time and that you’ll procrastinate on. Start with something that will be 15 minutes and then slowly build up to doing something that will be up to an hour.
My morning ritual takes me anywhere from 15 minutes to 60 minutes. I like to switch up my ritual from time to time, to give myself some variety. I also sometimes do a shorter ritual (15 minutes) and other days go 60 minutes and beyond. I also have learned to do rituals throughout the day, as well as my evening ritual before I go to bed.
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