My morning routine 1/2 — the first 60 minutes of my day…
By: Marek Truumaa
Tags: Exercise, Visualization, Morning Routines, Breathing, Gratitude

Sometimes, getting out of bed in the mornings can be challenging.

You could do everything right with sleep hacking, wake up before the alarm, have your body battery on 100%, and still feel sleepy.

This is possible (happens to me as well).

And then you have to make a decision …

When you're committed, you´ll get up, but if you're not, you'll procrastinate. And if you're doing it here, I´m sure you're doing it in other places as well.

Still, this is nothing to feel bad about…

…It's just how our brains are wired.

Our brains are programmed to help us survive, but they're not as concerned with helping us thrive. In order to overcome it, you just need to rewire your brain (there's a really great post from my current virtual mentor, John Assaraf, on how to start rewiring our brains).

But this wasn't the decision that I was referring to in the beginning.

I like to think that if you're reading this you're already committed to trying new things and getting out of bed would be a sure thing. 😊

The decision that I'm talking about is when you're already out of bed and you need to decide, do I make myself a cup of coffee, or am I willing to try something else to get rid of the sleepiness?

Just recently, I saw a poll in an entrepreneurial community on the same topic. The majority of the members preferred to have a coffee and some even commented “isn´t it like this for everybody?”…

Well NO, this has never been my choice. But I understand people who want to have coffee.

And if you decide to implement the following morning routine then know that you will nevertheless be better prepared for your day.

So what do I do instead of coffee?

For more than 5 years now, the first thing I do each morning is exercise. I started with some simple pushups and sit-ups. And I say “simple” because they don't require any fancy equipment to execute… you can do them pretty much everywhere.

Having this freedom is crucial when you're doing them every morning. You'll never know where you'd have to do them… (a variety of hotel bathrooms come to my mind when I think back to my own experiences) 🤣

Over time I've added 2 extra exercises and my morning workout now looks like this. 110 squats, 110 situps, 90 pushups, and a 5-minute plank. This all takes me about 25-30 minutes to complete and it helps me to get rid of all the sleepiness, dizziness, or headaches that I might experience in the mornings.

What´s also important to notice (at least for me) is that it enables me to have a fit body without ever having to go to a gym (a valuable extra hour that I can gain each day without having to commute).

Now, an important thing to know about the morning workout is that the number of repetitions or even the specific exercises is not a must.

A much more relevant thing here is the time and intensity that you are doing them.

You can easily choose your own exercises and the number of repetitions. Whatever suits you the best to start.

If you have a possibility to check your pulse rate while you exercise then it should get up to around 100 peats per minute. If you don´t have this type of a watch, then just start as I did… focus on getting sweaty. 😃

After completing the workout, I drink 3 glasses of water (room temperature tap water). If you have access to mineral water then this would be even better but prefer still not carbonated.

As our body is about 70% water and we're constantly losing water (even while we're not very active) then in order to not get thirsty, drinking water is crucial. Especially in the mornings after a night's sleep and a workout.

It's recommended that a grown-up drink at least 8 glasses of water every day. This is based upon a glass being about 8 ounces or a total of about 2 liters a day.

Drinking water is something that I've been conscious about for a while already and now learning more about it in a health program that I´m participating in. All to improve my general energy level. You know the “habit junkie” in action again. 🙃

Ok, now back to my morning routine…

After I've drunk the water I continue with mental exercises. Having more and more distractions in our lives has made the ability to get focused and stay focused a really powerful skill.

So I've implemented these exercises to help me to get my thought aligned and to be able to focus better.

I start with journaling. I do it for about 10 minutes (max). Usually, I write about things that went well yesterday. Something worth highlighting. Just to keep score and to feel grateful.

And if I have something that bothers me then I use journaling to write it out.

It's strange how well journaling can help in that case. Robin Sharma writes about it in his book “The 5 AM Club” like this “It's miraculous how you'll release toxic emotions and low energy from your system when you write down your suppressed hurts, freeing up maximum creativity, premium vitality, and unmatchable performance.”

After journaling, I continue with a breathing exercise. Something that I learned from Tony Robbins while I attended his “Unleash the Power Within” event in London (2016). According to Tony, “70% of the toxins inside of our body are removed through the lungs. Breathing is the key to physical and mental well-being, and if done properly, it can boost energy, relieve pain, and transform our lives.”

The exercise that I do is called the 1:4:2 power ratio. In my case, I use a 10-second ratio. This means that I breathe in 10 seconds (through the nose), hold my breath for 40 seconds, and then breathe out 20 seconds (through the mouth). And I don´t use my watch to measure the seconds, I just count the numbers in my head at an equal pace. I started with a 5-second ratio so pick a ratio that you feel most comfortable with.

There's also a lot of other things that I´ve learned from Tony. Another strategy that I´ve implemented is called N.E.T. — No Extra Time (it was first introduced to me by my first sales coach Tarmo but it originally comes from Tony).

That´s the time you spend commuting, exercising, or cleaning the house that you can use to feed your mind with high-quality coaching and powerful information that will help you achieve your dreams. You just put your headsets on while doing them and hit play.

In my morning routine, I use N.E.T. while I do my breathing exercise. Only that I don't listen to any audio, instead I visualize. I visualize one of my biggest goals and I do it in a way as I've already achieved it. I try to make it as real as possible by experiencing all the colors, feelings, and emotions while being in the moment.

This will make me feel good and helps me to stay focused on my goal. Having my goal constantly in my focus also helps me to get creative to identify ways to achieve it.

From there on, after I've completed breathing and visualizing I move on to another visualization like exercise, where I visualize leading energy through my body. I start from my head, (while breathing in) move all the way down to my toes, and then (while breathing out) move back up to my head again. I do this 5 times in a row. I use this exercise to get focused and centered. It also enables me to better feel my body and to get my energies aligned.

And from there on I move to a gratitude exercise. I think about (and name them in my head) 10 things that I´m grateful for. This helps to remind me of what I've already accomplished and who are the most important people in my life.

And finally, I go through some other important goals that are also in my 1 to 2-year plan. Just to remind them to me and to keep them in my focus as well.

And this pretty much tops the first hour of my day. After completing all these exercises I'll take a shower and continue with other relevant things that I'll cover in my next post…

That became a longer post than I was anticipating but still if you have any questions or want to ask anything specific about any of these exercises then feel free to leave a comment or send me a note on any other channel.

To your success,

Marek