3 Pillars of a Masterful Morning
3 Pillars of a Masterful Morning
Learn the secrets to a morning routine that sets you up for success and fosters sustained personal transformation.
In today’s newsletter, we’ll focus on tackling the challenge of creating a deliberate morning routine that will set you up for success.
I’ll share why it’s important to be deliberate about your mornings and the 3 pillars behind a successful morning routine which you can then make your own.
A crafted morning routine can, and if you’re consistent, WILL transform your life.
It can:
Calm your mind
Keep you focused
Calibrate and boost your energy
Without a deliberate morning routine, you may find yourself feeling scattered, reacting to stimuli, overwhelmed, anxious, feeling unaccomplished as you start your day.
That’s a recipe of a low-performing day and ultimately, over time, a life of reacting to other people and circumstances.
Many people try to create a morning routine by setting their alarm earlier and forcing themselves to adopt new habits overnight. They are following too many people talking about this and are trying to implement too much in a short space of time. It’s overwhelming.
This approach usually leads to burnout, inconsistency, and a quick return to old patterns.
Let’s keep it simple, practical, and adaptable.
Why are mornings important?
How you start the day dictates the tone for the day. The morning is the only time when you’re not being bombarded with messages and requests and things to firefight.
As you focus on creating the life you want and craft the person you want to be, it’s important to step into a life of deliberate creation i.e. you create your life as you want it and not be dragged along by life.
This means being in charge of your mind, your thoughts, your energy.
In the morning, you are blessed with a blank slate (in your mind) and whatever you feed it will have a powerful impact on your day. I think of it like a blank canvas. Paint it deliberately, feed it the right seeds, and you’ll incrementally reap rewards.
The pillars I share below are ones you can follow at any time of the day. Whether you’re an early riser like me who gets up at 4.45am or you wake up at 10am. You have to figure out what works for you. Everyone has a different body clock but with these pillars - timings do not matter.
A few tips before we go into the pillars:
These pillars can be done at 1 minute, 5 minutes, or 20 minutes each. Start small and increase over time.
Consistency over intensity is more important as we develop new habits.
Be ok with failing, you'll struggle and it’ll be difficult. It’s part of the process. Stay on the path.
Pillar 1: Solitude
Purpose: Finding inner alignment and feeling good
I start every morning in solitude. I don’t start the day doing the “most hardest thing first”. I start my day with ease, joy, and importantly…alignment.
It’s time to connect with the greater energy within us. To connect with our power, intuition, and inner wisdom. I allow myself to feel good. To feel joy, aliveness, and peace. For the scientist and clinicians amongst our group, I want to activate my parasympathetic nervous system.
Ideally, when the weather is good, I sit outside listening to the birds, focusing my attention on the dull sound of traffic. I allow myself to imagine, dream, and practise the energy of feeling how I would feel if all I deeply desired became a physical reality. What a beautiful energy be practice!
Some can call this visualisation or manifestation. I call it energetic calibration.
Rather than reacting to the world, or picking up my phone and reacting to social media, I set the vibrational tone of my day. Done daily, this creates a deliverable life.
Other benefits:
Improves emotional regulation
Increases awareness
Increases resilience
Enhances creativity
Reduces anxiety
Pillar 2: Deep Work
Purpose: do the most important task first
Deep work, as termed by MIT professor, is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.
Cal states in his book, Deep Work:
"Two core abilities for thriving in the new economy:
1) The ability to quickly master hard things
2) The ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed.
Both of these depend on your ability to perform deep work."
I would argue that an hour of deep work in the morning is more productive than 3 hours of distracted work.
Once you get the most important task of the day completed, you have started the day in good momentum. It feels like it’s already been a successful day and it’s only just begun.
It increases your confidence, your mood, you are being who you said you would be.
I currently work full time. Whilst my job is super flexible, I create at least 90 minutes in the morning to write and work on the business rather than in the business. It’s when I create these newsletters and write my content. It’s when my creative energy is at its peak. I’m currently working on making that 3 hours in the morning rather than 90 minutes….work in progress :D
For you, it could be 5 minutes at first writing an important email. Focus on whatever the most important task is (not urgent).
Bonus tip: Write down the relevant task(s) for your deep work slot the night before. Overnight, your subconscious is already preparing for it and you’re much ahead when you sit down and do it the next morning. There’s a reason for you to wake up early.
Pillar 3: Physical Movement
Purpose: Boost energy and maintain fitness
The final pillar is physical movement. I don’t need to share the benefits in detail of this - you already know this. You’ve experienced how you feel after a workout.
A physical workout:
Boosts your mind health
Transforms your energy and focus
Keeps you fit and healthy
Improves sleep
This doesn’t need to be 2 hours at the gym (although it could if that works for you). It could be doing a 15 minute YouTube workout in the morning whilst you look after your child. I get my daughter involved when I’m working out at home!
If you’re a beginner, it could be doing a circuit of 5 push ups, 5 press-ups and 5 sit ups. Or getting some steps in in the morning with some fresh air.
My standard is an hour workout in the gym. But my baseline and minimum is 15 minute workout at home.
Ready to go deeper?
I’m going to start hosting 60 min Lead From Within Community calls (free to join).
Agenda: 15 minutes of me sharing something and 45 minutes of Q & A.
Want to be surrounded by other growth minded leaders? Join us.
We’re getting started next month Wednesday 8th May 7:30pm BST. Here’s the link to join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7053060039
Put it in your calendar!
I currently have 3 1:1 coaching slots available. If you’d like to explore what that may look like - just reply to this email and I’ll send you a few questions to answer.
Want me to speak at your next event? Drop me an email and tell me more about it and we can explore if it’s a good fit.
Your next steps:
Create a routine around the 3 core pillars 1) Solitude 2) Deep work 3) Physical movement
Start small and consistent, increase over time
Come to our call with any questions you have!