What do the most successful people in the world today: Tony Robbins, Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Barack Obama and all have in common? They all have the Million Dollar habits – an Empowering Morning Ritual.
Ultra successful people proactively and consciously take time every single morning to take care of themselves first.
They make sure that they're strong.
And they're in a great state.
So that they can deal with the day, and ultimately create the day and the life that they want.
Proactive vs Reactive
Ultra successful people are proactive, and not reactive. You see most people are reactive.
They wake up and they hit the snooze.
They check their email, messages and Facebook.
They have stress and anxiety. They're worried about everything they have to get done that day.
They have an unhealthy breakfast and they're reacting all throughout the day.
Photo by Jose Chavez on Unsplash
The most successful people in the world they're all proactive.
They take time to make sure that their body, their mind and their spirit are strong.
Because when you're a proactive, you take care of yourself first, then you deal with all the obstacles and challenges you have for the day.
In a much different level you're not fazed as much because you're rock solid.
In this article, I want to share with you some of the morning rituals of the most successful, the most famous people in the world today.
Learning From the Best People
I've been studying and learning from the people: that most happiest, the most successful in business, emotions and spiritual; so that I can learn and model them.
One thing that I've learned is that all successful people or the happiest people or the fittest people and so on, they all do something differently from you.
They all have a specific practice – A specific ritual that conditions themselves, that helps prepare them to be at their best.
If you can model the most successful people in the world, then you can get a similar result to them.
Successful people do not depend on luck.
There's certain things that they do every single day.
I believe that you are what you repeatedly do every single day. Whatever you do every day is what you become.
So let's jump into it.
Tony Robbins
Tony Robbins is a great self-help guru. He is actually someone who inspired me and changed my life in many ways. He calls it his Hour of Power, or 30 Minutes to Thrive, or 15 Minutes to Fulfillment.
- He starts off every single morning doing some form of a morning ritual. He claims that a lot of his energy and a lot of his success comes from his morning ritual.
- He wakes up early and immediately jumps into a hot and cold pool.
- What that does is that it wakes up his body and nervous system. It also helps him be more alert and helps strengthen his willpower each day.
- He also does priming, where he spent some time meditating and also flooding himself with what he's grateful for and visualizing the day that he wants.
Tony Robbins has a morning ritual that helps him to be where he's at today and create the results that he wants in his life.
I've been doing this morning rituals since I was 20.
Whether that's gratitude, or cultivating emotions, or spirituality, or affirmations, working out on my body, eating healthy...
...all those little things have helped me to create the life that I now have.
What you can learn:
✓ Spend some time to mediate and write a gratitude journal every morning.
✓ Start your day awake and refresh by taking a hot/cold shower (or jump into a pool!).
Barak Obama
Barack Obama, the previous president of United States, starts off his morning ritual two hours before any scheduled event.
Think about the President of the United States who's a lot busier than you and I...
He actually has a morning ritual!
- He starts off working out for 45 minutes first thing in the morning to take care of his body and health.
- He has a healthy breakfast and avoids coffee. Instead, he drinks water, orange juice or green tea.
- The rest of his time will be more productive if he has time for workout.
- He avoids starting the day on a bad note. He does not read newspaper or watch news where he receives most criticism from the media and other people in the world.
What you can learn:
✓ Start your day with workout.
✓ Eat a healthy breakfast. Do not skip this meal.
✓ Put away your phone. Avoid reading emails, messages and social media at the start of your day.
Steve Jobs
The late Steve Jobs gave a great speech to the graduating class of Stanford University and it reveals something that's really powerful about his morning ritual everyday.
He said that for the past 33 years, he looked into the mirror every morning and asked himself: if today were the last day of his life, does he want to do what he is about to do today. Whenever the answer has been "No" 4 days in a row, it's time to change.
That's pretty powerful.
He reflects on his actions and how he's living his life.
What you can learn:
✓ Reflect on your life every morning.
✓ If your life gets mundane or stagnant, probably it's time to change.
Below are more examples of successful people in the world.
Mark Zuckerberg
One thing that's interesting about Mark Zukerberg is that he always wears the same thing every morning – the same shirt.
Because for him, that's one less decision to make for a day.
When you have to make many decisions every day, you easily get fatigue from that.
Wearing the same shirt simplifies his day and contributes to less decision fatigue.
Bill Gates
Bill gates starts off his morning taking care of his body by spending an hour on the treadmill.
He watches the Teaching Company while doing it.
He's actually feeding his mind as well. He's working out his body while learning which is a great way to start off the day.
Howard Schultz
Howard Schultz the CEO of Starbucks said, "I get up at 4:30 a.m. in the morning. I walk my three dogs and I workout."
He does his morning ritual by working out which takes care of his body
When you're taking care of your body, you're also taking care of your mind.
Because your mind and your body go together.
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin would wake up at 4 a.m. every morning. It would involve proactively thinking about what do you want to accomplish that day.
He would ask himself: What good shall I do today?
It's pretty powerful.
Asking yourself empowering questions and visualizing the day – that's being proactive instead of reactive.
Tips: Process your thoughts and write it down on a journal.
Richard Branson
Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin. He has an interesting morning ritual.
He says that, "I leave the curtains on drawn and the sun comes up at 5:45 a.m. and straight in my eyes. I love bouncing up early."
His morning ritual consists of a swim around his island or he goes kite surfing and then he also plays tennis before sitting down for a healthy breakfast.
Again, these are people that are much busier than you and I.
We're starting to see a pattern here...
They all take care of their body and mind first thing in the morning. They focus their emotions to prepare themselves for the day.
Jack Dorsey
Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, starts his morning ritual at 5:30 in the morning. He meditates first, followed by a 6 miles jog.
Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington begins every morning with 30 minutes of meditation.
She's so convinced of the benefits that she offers weekly classes to her employees.
Meditation is very powerful. It calms your mind, helps you focus so that you can deal with the emotions in a lot different way throughout the day.
Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres's morning ritual begins with a workout, followed by 20 minutes of meditation.
She has said that the quiet and personal time is what gives her the energy to carry on with her busy entertainment schedule.
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga's morning ritual begins with yoga as well as five minutes each day of self-directed love and gratitude through compassionate thoughts.
She does this every morning upon waking and carries the feeling with her throughout the day to help her stand tall in challenging times.
Again these are the most successful people in the world today.
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey's morning consists of clearing her mind with at least 20 minutes of meditation.
Will Arnett
Actor Will Arnett writes down 10 things that he is grateful for every single morning and it always starts with his kids.
Start writing a list of things that you are grateful for in a Gratitude Journal.
Final Thoughts
There's just so many more that I could go on but as you can see the common consistent things that they all have in common.
All successful people in the world have a morning ritual.
They all take time for themselves.
They put everything else on hold.
Because you have to make YOU the most important person in your life.
When you are taken care of first, then you can take care of other people.
You don't want to take care of others if you're not in a place that you are prepared to be able to do that.
So I'm big believer in morning rituals.
That has changed my life in so many different ways and it can help make an impact in your life as well.
So I highly encourage you to look at what is it that you're doing first thing in the morning.
- Does your morning ritual empower you or does it disempower you?
- Does it help you get closer towards your goals?
- Is this the life that you want?
- What is it holding you back?
Write your thoughts down in Journey.
First moment of the day and you spin it in a way to be grateful.
Take care of your body, your mind, and your spirit.
It's going to change the way that you look at the day the way that you look at your life.
So that's the morning rituals of the most successful people in the world.