Five Things to Do Before 9 A.M: Early Morning Habits
Try these simple habits and transform yourself into the next version
Five years before, I was driving an SUV inside South Africa’s major wildlife sanctuary — Kruger National Park in search of the “Big Five” animals. As the name suggests, Big Fives are Elephant, Lion, Cape Buffalo, Rhino & Leopard. You can consider yourself lucky if you are able to spot these 5 on the same day. We were able to spot four animals except the Leopard. I was discussing the unique habit of Leopards with my friends while driving.
After every hunt, Leopards climb on a treetop and keep the prey in the tree forks and have their food. We were discussing this habit and eventually, it has turned to a useful conversation about the key habits of our life. That is when I have realized the significance of habits that play a major role in shaping up one’s life.
The following are the five habits I have been practicing since then and it has changed my life positively in many ways. It has given new insights about life, changed the way I see this world, increasing the source of income, a huge improvement in self-confidence and many more.
“People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.”
― F. M. Alexander
1.Monthly Goals Challenge
I have read lots of books on goals but when it comes to implementing the same, it is one of the toughest as we will be off the track very often easily due to various distractions like social media or people around us. To avoid it, instead of setting a monthly goal I set a monthly challenge and “track” it in a spreadsheet. If you keep tracking your goal and reviewing it on a weekly basis, your progress will gradually improve and within the timeline, you would be able to achieve it for sure. I have been doing this for years now and my success rate is always above 95%.
Key take away on this habit: Tracking
2. Gratitude Journal
Being grateful for what we have is an important habit which will give you many benefits, Following are the few: It improves your mental strength, it increases your self-belief, it gives immense happiness to your heart and more. Have a journal and write at least 5 things you have grateful for. Do this in the early morning and in the night before you off to bed. In the beginning, I used to say thanks few times and within few hours I start complaining about life, once I start “writing” it, it has changed me a lot and the complaining part fade away.
Key take away on this habit: Write it
3. Sub-conscious Self Talk
We all know how self-talk can help us before we start any task, but to develop it as a result given habit, speaking to self during a particular state of mind is essential. That state is the “Alpha” state. To give you an easy example, When we sleep we are in alpha state. If we want to enter into that state, meditation is one of the easiest ways. We need not do meditation for hours like a sage, however, a few minutes of daily meditation will be a big help to calm your mind and kill your unnecessary thoughts. Immediately after the meditation, do a quick self talk about your goals, things to achieve in life, happiness or whatever you wanted to feed to your Sub-conscious mind. This has helped me a lot and I was able to achieve many things.
Key take away on this habit: Quick Meditation
4. Early Morning Me-Time
We are living in a world which keeps us in a busy mode always. We keep running and living for others most of the time, we work for our boss’s dream, we do all the hard work for our family but are we spending some time with ourselves every day? If you spend an early morning “me-time” only for you, only for your ideas, only for your thoughts, only for your health you will see a massive change in your outlook, in your self-image and self-improvement. You will see the next version of yourself in a year. This seems to be a simple habit but it is one of the powerful habits helped me a lot.
Key take away on this habit: Me-time
5.Nature walk
I live near a hill and every week I walk up the hill in early hours along with my friends. I do not carry my mobile phone and speak to those beautiful clouds, roadside flowers, butterflies, birds and a healthy conversation with friends. It is always needed to reawaken the child in our inner self. After the two hours of hill-walk, I sit down to write and that is when most of my articles born with a different insight about life, self, and self-awareness.
Key take away on this habit: Speak to Nature
These five habits have helped me to overcome failures, bring happiness, achieve the goals and lot.
Back to that South African ride, we were about to exit the sanctuary and that is where near a bush, we saw a leopard walking towards the road. After a few steps, she pauses for a minute and returned back to the bush and vanished. We have spotted the Big-Five in a day.
You can try these five habits and change your life to the next level in a year!
© Rajesh Vairapandian 2019
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