RISE & Shine: Transform Your Morning in Just 6 MINUTES

Mornings. I wake up every morning at 9 and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name's not on it, I get up. Benjamin Franklin. I'm not a morning person. I'm not the guy who hits the snooze button 6 times and wants to stay in bed all day. I actually don't use an alarm. More on that later. But I don't usually wake up super motivated and ready to take on the day. It takes me a while to get started. Struggle. I used to struggle with this a lot. I saw successful entrepreneurs and it looked like they were always on. It looked like they never doubted themselves or had days when they weren't motivated. I worried that if I wasn't super motivated like them, I wouldn't get the success I was after. Why wasn't I just naturally motivated every morning? What's wrong with me? So I looked for motivational videos to watch when I woke up. And it worked, for a while. The problem was, if you watch the same video over and over again, it stops becoming as motivational. At least that was the case for me. Highs and lows. I couldn't understand how I could have a great day yesterday, be on top of the world, feel so motivated and passionate, and then wake up the next morning and have to start from scratch. Like yesterday didn't even happen. The feeling of excitement and motivation just disappeared, and I had to start all over again. I wasn't depressed or sad. I just wasn't super motivated. I was a bit lazy and slow. Routine. After a lot of searching and struggling, I finally found something that worked for me: create a daily morning routine that inspires you. My routine evolves as I evolve, but If you can create a routine that serves you, it's a great way to kickstart your day and get you ready for action. Here's what my morning routine looks like right now. 8-9 AM: Wake up. I don't set an alarm and prefer to wake up naturally. So I don't wake up at the same time every day. I wake up when I wake up. Forcing an early wake-up time and being tired all day, especially after a night of salsa dancing, doesn't seem like a winning strategy to me. 9:00 to 9:30 AM: Breakfast and Social. First thing I do is go to the kitchen and drink a large glass of water. When you wake up, your body is dehydrated from a night's sleep and needs water. There are also a number of health benefits to having water first thing in the morning that I won't go into here. Google it. I'll grab my breakfast, which usually consists of spinach, lentils, and 2 cut-up hot dogs Starting the day with protein is another amazing life hack. But here's the key. Over breakfast, I'll check my social media comments and engage with my audience. You guys! I love doing this because the comments are always overwhelmingly positive, and it starts to get me motivated and wake me up. For example, here's one that came in this morning on YouTube. Wow, great advice Evan. P.S. I discovered your channel yesterday, and it's still shocking how you're not trying to sell yourself "and you always give away so many valuable tips others would charge hundreds for." "I think I know who my dream mentor would be." I get these every day. How can you not get motivated reading comments like that? 9:30 to 10 AM: Waits. Next, I'll do a quick workout. I find that by physically being active, my mind starts to get active as well. I'll usually work out while watching sports highlights from yesterday and thinking about some of the comments people left for me. Seeing athletes push themselves on TV makes me push myself harder in my workout. I'll finish with another glass of water and a protein shake, then come back to the computer to finish up any remaining social media comments. 10:00 to 10:30 AM Cardio. Up next is a 30-minute run. I put my headphones on, load up some YouTube videos on my laptop, and start running on the spot. I watch videos that will make me think. Videos that challenge me to change. Right now, some of my favorite ones are by Jonathan Fields and Eric Thomas. Go look them up! I give a thumbs up and usually a comment on the ones that I like. To find new ones, I find the YouTube "What to Watch" videos does a pretty good job in suggesting interesting clips to watch based on my past history. 10:30 to 11 AM: Shower, get ready. I then hop in a shower and think about everything I learned so far. I think about the social media comments and the new videos I just watched. I think about how I can apply it to my business and what I want to accomplish today. I find a lot of great thoughts come to me in the shower, and especially after being hit with so much positive information. 11:00 to 11:45 AM: Miscellaneous. This is an open time slot for me that I fill with various activities. On Wednesdays, I have media training that goes through the whole time. On Tuesdays and Fridays, I have a call with my agent that usually lasts for 15 minutes. Every second Thursday, I have my radio show. In the extra time I have, I'll fill it with whatever inspired me, usually an idea that came from the shower. 11:45 AM, leave. I usually leave at 11:45 to get to the office for noon. "You start at noon?" This is a common response when I tell people about my schedule, and yes, I I start at noon. I also leave at 3:15 to go pick up my son from school and hang out with him. 3 hours of solid work with a 15-minute break in between. But my mornings are when I do a lot of my real work, the hard work, the thinking, creative, future direction of the business work. You don't get your best ideas when you're stressed out, not sleeping, not taking care of yourself, working 18 hours a day. You get it when you're relaxed, when you're active, when you're in the shower, when you're inspired by someone or something. So I give myself all of those things every day to give me the best chance of success, and I turn my mornings from being the worst to being the best part of my day. Your turn. Believe.