Morning Routine: The BEST Morning Hacks To Achieve Peak Performance in 2024!

Good morning, Believe Nation. In today's episode of Believe Life, we're going to talk about the why and the how of creating a morning routine.

My morning routine is very simple. I get up every morning at 5 in the morning, and then I go downstairs to the kitchen, start reading the various different newspapers. Then go on my iPad, do all my emails and stuff like that, FaceTiming and so on. Go upstairs to the gym and work out 45 minutes to an hour, do cardiovascular training. And after that, have my breakfast. Stick around. Usually it's oat milk with bananas and strawberries and some blueberries in there. I mix it all up with some coffee, eat that, go and take my shower, and then go to work.

I'm like an athlete. You got to train your nervous system. Besides physically working out, I also train my mind to do, and my emotions to do, what's most difficult. And I do that in all kinds of ways. I like to play at my edge. You know, that's how you get better. So I put— I demand of myself. But the first thing I do every morning as part of that ritual is I jump in a Jacuzzi, which loosens the muscles, and then I jump in freezing cold water. I have a cold plunge, if you would. It's 57 degrees, and I pop into that thing. I also, for recovery's sake, I use cryotherapy, which was developed in Europe. It's It's amazing. A lot of athletes around the world are using it now. And it lowers your body temperature using nitrogen. So there's no water on you or you would freeze to death or you would burn. By using these gases, it brings the temperature down in your body down to -225°F, which is my— wow, for 3 minutes. And what it does is it like resets your whole nervous system and it takes all the inflammation out of your body. So I'm on stage and I'll do 27 miles on my most intense day of a 3-day program. So I'm doing like multiple days, an ultra-marathon, because I'm not standing there talking. I mean, people would not come— people won't sit for a 3-hour movie someone spent $300 million on to make for 2 hours. If they're going to stay with me for 50 hours over a weekend, I've got to deliver, right? And I've got the Paul Tudor Joneses of the world in there, the Oprah Winfreys, and Oprah tells me, "Tony, I love you, but I can't sit anywhere for more than 2 hours." And at the end of 12 hours, she's standing in her chair going, "On camera, this is one of the greatest experiences of my life." Well, to do that, you aren't standing still. I'm plunging the audience. I'm doing things. Spontaneous. So that's a lot of miles. So I'm literally doing a marathon, and I go into this machine, and 3 minutes later I come out. The next day, it's like instead of all these aches and pains and tears, I'm recovered. So I'm always looking for technology that can enhance my ability to perform and produce greater results and also stay healthy.

You know, I wake up really early every day, and I play tennis with somebody who's a lot younger and a lot fitter than me, and we play singles. And, you know, we give it everything we can and end up, you know, sweating big time and having a lot of fun as well. And then if the wind is up, you know, I'll go for a kite surf. Kiting's a lovely way just to get away from, you know, the mobile phones and just get, you know, get out on the sea. You know, after that, you know, come back, have a sort of nice healthy breakfast generally. Sometimes, you know, sometimes not so healthy.

We found your kryptonite.

Then I'm ready for the day.

What do you do by 10 AM?

Yeah, it depends what day, depends what's happening around the world. I'll be honest with you though, I'm more of a night guy than a morning guy, so I tend to start my day a little bit later. I'll stay up until like 2 o'clock at night reading briefings and doing work. Typically the girls go to bed a little bit earlier, like around 10, 11 o'clock. So I wake up at a pretty reasonable hour, usually around 7:00. I'll get a workout in. Then the first thing that I have in the day is what's called the Presidential Daily Briefing, and it is basically a book full of everything that went wrong in the world so that I know what I'm up against. And then I'll meet with my national security team. A lot of those issues tend to be sort of urgent emergency issues. I may have to make some quick decisions on that. So usually that's happened around 10:00, 10:30.

Usually before the sun comes up, I offer myself to something greater than myself. If it's for 1 minute, 20 seconds, or 10 minutes, I at least stop in that space in my house every morning. I have a little meditation space where I just go. I have beautiful spiritual readings there. I light my 3 candles there, daily word or something. And I express to this greater energy field than I that I don't want to be alone as I move out into the world.

At what time do you get up normally in the morning?

For me, it's usually about 7:00. 7:00, okay. But I go to bed late, so usually it's— I go to bed around 1:00 AM or so.

And you start the day with a real breakfast or just with a coffee or with water?

You know, that also varies a lot. I think it's probably true that having a good breakfast is a good idea, but usually I don't have time for that, so sometimes Sometimes it's made for me, but probably half the time I don't have any breakfast. I just have like coffee or something like that.

And a Mars bar with it?

Mars bar, sure. Well, I'm trying to cut down on sweet stuff, so— but I think I probably should have like an omelette and a coffee or something like that. That seems like probably the right thing, and sometimes I do have that.

Do you have a morning ritual?

I get up, I stretch, I light a candle, I meditate for 20 minutes, I get myself together, I drive around the corner, I get my kids, I sit with them for 20 minutes, and I take them to school every morning.

I can't wait till I wake up in the morning. And you know what helps me out a great deal? When I wake up in the morning, I spend the first 10 minutes just thanking him. I don't even address any problems and stuff I got. I'm just grateful that I'm up for another day. For this, and I think every little thing. And I'll spend 10 minutes, and it makes your day start such a wonderful way to realize that you woke up, you're here, you have a life.

You do a gratitude meditation.

For 10 minutes.

My routines are usually focused on a number of things, including clarifying and confirming what those few things are that matter. So, I will wake up, I have tea every morning, but I'll usually wake up and I'll have I'll do 15-20 minutes of Transcendental Meditation. Then I will start my tea. I'll boil the water, or actually it's 185 degrees. I get very specific.

Coffee!

So I have a Cuisinart kettle that allows you to pick the temperature.

Oh nice.

And to 185 degrees, then I usually have a combination that you, just like you guys saw earlier, I have this stuff. So it's Pu-erh tea, which is an aged black tea, typically from China, combined with turmeric and ginger, and then I like to add in some type of green tea, oftentimes Essentia. And if I'm feeling sick or if I feel like I'm coming down with something, I'll add garlic to that, so minced garlic usually. But otherwise, that is sort of my morning tea. And then once I have my tea, I'll sit down and I will do one of two things. I'll either use something called the 5 Minute Journal. 5 minutes first thing in the morning, 5 minutes right before you go to bed. And it's really, really helpful for, I think, priming your mind for the day. And it does that through, you know, 3 things you're grateful for, forcing you to re-identify your priorities, and then having a basically a performance review before you go to bed. Either that or morning pages. So I will freehand journal and the intention of that is not to be a good writer. I think it's particularly valuable for people who never write or don't write actually because it allows you to take the self-defeating talk or anxieties or worries that you have, your preoccupations, and trap them in the form of words on a page so that you can get on with your fucking day. That gets us to, let's just say, 8:30, 9 o'clock. At that point, I like to do some basic mobility work. After that 20 to 30 minute exercise block, I will like to focus on some type of content, whether it be writing, audio, interviewing, etc. And then lunch, and then after lunch is where I do the grunt work. For research, I would put in that bucket, right? Not for broadcast, but for research. And on and on and on. So that's sort of the first 3- to 4-hour block of most of my days.

As you know, I'm known to be a highly productive person. I speak 100 times a year, I write 4 books a year, I run 3 businesses, I travel all over the world. People say, "How do you do it?" Well, I have a morning routine, and I developed this a long time ago, and it really works. What I do is I always get up 2 hours before my next, my first fixed appointment. So let's say I have a phone call at 8 o'clock, then I get up at 6 AM. If I have to be in the office at 8:30, I'll get up at 6:30. It's always 6, 6:30, maybe earlier if necessary, but always 2 hours before my first appointment. Then the first thing I do for the first 30 minutes is I exercise, and I'll do stretching exercises, I'll do yoga exercises, Sometimes I'll get up a little earlier and I'll do aerobic exercises on LifeCycle or elliptical machine or treadmill or a swim. I usually swim every single morning. But for the first 30 minutes, get your body working. And then, I like coffee, then I'll do a little bit of spiritual reading and I'll just relax and get my mind ready for the day and then I'll get started. Within 60 minutes of getting up, I've exercised, prepared my mind, showered, dressed, and I'm ready to go. Then I have the next hour to plan, prepare, have breakfast, and get to my first appointment. So give that a try. Get up 2 hours early, exercise for the first 30 minutes to get yourself going, read a little to prepare your mind, and then be ready to go 1 hour before you have to be somewhere.

When you wake up each day— let's talk about productivity in general. When you wake up each day, the first thing to do is not go to the computer. The first thing to do is go exercise, go for a walk, take a long shower, is to open your body and engage. And in doing that process, whatever it is for you, some people it's a long run, some people it's a longer shower, some people it's a walk around the neighborhood. When you're doing that, here's what I want you to ask yourself, a couple simple questions. First, I want you to ask yourself, What am I excited about today or could I create to be excited about today? So what is it? I want you to begin your day with enthusiasm. Optimism is the magical formula that creates greater happiness in our lives. To have something to look forward to. Steal away someone's vision for a good future and you'll quickly see them fall into depression. But when we have a great connection to something in the future that we look forward to, even if it's just this day, That creates the charge within us. So walk around, take your laps, do whatever you have to do in the morning, but ask yourself, what is it that I'm excited about today or could be enthusiastic about today?

Are there any habits or behaviors you need to instill in yourself to achieve those goals? Make those behaviors or habits part of your morning and evening routines. So for example, maybe your goal is to write a novel this year. Make writing for 30 minutes uninterrupted the first thing you do every morning. If your goal is to learn Spanish, make studying a Spanish grammar book part of your evening routine. And if dropping 30 pounds is your goal, make exercise the first thing you do in the morning. Now, while the tasks you decide to include in your morning and evening routines are going to vary depending on your goals, I'd like to suggest one habit to include in yours. Every evening, review the day's work and plan your day for tomorrow. In the morning, review your schedule and your long and short-term goals. I promise that if you do these two things, you'll find yourself more focused and will accomplish much more during the day.

One beneficial habit that you can practice every morning is to get up and read 30 to 60 minutes in something uplifting and inspirational each day. When you get up in the morning and instead of reading the newspaper or watching television, you read something positive and constructive and inspiring, you set your mental stage or tone for the rest of the day. Throughout the day, from the first day that you try this, you will notice that things go better for you. You will be calmer, you're more productive, you're more creative, you're more alert. You'll actually be more resilient and will respond more effectively when you face the inevitable ups and downs of your daily life. Just like vigorous physical exercise in the morning will prepare you to be more resilient physically during the day, positive mental exercise in the form of inspirational reading will prepare you to be more mentally fit during the day.

My best strategy for maximizing your mornings, it probably gets lumped into 2 categories. So the first thing is manage your energy and not your time. So we often talk about time management. Everybody has 24 hours in the day. You only have a certain amount of time to get things done. But that time is relatively useless if you don't have the energy to complete the tasks, right? I've tried a variety of different times to lift. I did early morning. I did like mid-morning around 10 or 11. Then I also tried lifting later in the evening, like 5 to 7 PM. For me, that was when I got my best workouts in. That's when I arranged that task as well. This idea of managing your energy for the right tasks and not necessarily just thinking about getting things done for a particular time is very useful. The second thing is thinking about the distractions that pull you away from doing good work and when you let those creep into your day. So a lot of people, as soon as they wake up in the morning, they use their phone as their alarm. They look at their phone and then they see a flood of email, Instagram, Facebook, whatever. And so right away, from the very beginning of the day, their mind is filled with all the other urgencies of the day. They start to respond to someone else's agenda rather than their own. And I found that it's much more useful for me if I leave my phone in another room for as long as possible. So some— in some cases I can get to noon or 1 PM before I even like really look at my phone for the day. One of the most productive things I've done is not check email until noon. Now that doesn't work for everybody's job, doesn't work for every situation, but if you can do something like that, then it can allow you to just focus on your agenda rather than being pulled away on everybody else's fires and urgencies that you need to handle.

Well, as soon as I get out of water, I have a little glass of water. Just to get the digestion started. And then I have a little mat, a yoga mat that I put out outside my shower, and in 7 minutes, and I promise you, Tiffany, no longer than that, I do a series of calisthenics. It's basically sun salutation, which is a series of yoga poses, but then I do 100 push-ups and 50 jackknife sit-ups. And I do them in 7 minutes on purpose because I know I'm in a hurry. I just want to get going. It is my equivalent of caffeine because I have woken up by the time I've done that. And like everybody else, I dread doing them before I start. But as soon as I begin, I'm halfway through, because they're only 7 minutes long, and then they're out of the way. I don't have to worry about them anymore.

Thank you so much for watching. I made this video because Psych2Go asked me to, so if there's a topic you'd like to see me cover in the next edition of Believe Life, leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of the points in this morning routine series you like the most, is going to have the biggest impact on you. Leave it in the comments. How are you going to change your routine as a result? I'm really curious to find out, so leave a comment and I'm gonna join the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Have an amazing day. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.