#110 The 5 Morning Habits Of Successful People

Welcome to the Passive Income MD Podcast where we talk about creating your ideal life through multiple streams of income. I'm your host, Peter Kim. If you enjoy hearing about this stuff, make sure to hit subscribe so I can bring it to you every week. Now let's get on with the show. Hey everyone. Hope you had another great week. You know, I was talking to a group of friends and there were some other friends there of theirs and some of them mentioned that they listened to this podcast and I couldn't tell you how honored I felt. It was such a great feeling that I felt like I contributed in some way. So I want to thank you for everyone who listens to this. Thank you for giving us such great feedback. I see the reviews that people put up there on, you know, Apple podcasts, whatever you do. And again, it's not for reviews. We don't do it for reviews. But we know that, you know, as these reviews come in, people just click the little stars or they write something. We know that it helps with exposure and gets to people who really need this. So thank you so much for doing that. I'm going to read one quick review here, and this is from Matty at Podcasting. You says concise, relevant and practical advice in every episode. Really appreciate Peter's insights into financial independence and wealth management strategies through his experiences as an MD and highly recommend. So thank you so much. I promise I did not write that myself, but really, thanks for all the reviews and thanks for everyone listening to this. We're going to keep going to try to get you the best content and information available in a short period of time. This week. It's not exactly on investments, but it's on life type stuff. People ask me all the time, what is your morning routine like? How do you get all these things done? And I know I've shared some of these things on some of the podcasts before, but I thought I'd share my current morning routine with everybody and maybe I'd love to hear what you guys do now. I don't know if anybody out there has read the book the Miracle Morning. I've read it. It's changed so many things in my life. If you haven't, check it out. It talks about waking up an hour earlier and it gives you some sort of roadmap or guideline to how to spend that hour. You know, when you look at some of the most successful people out there, the Oprahs, the Elon's, whoever it might be, almost undoubtedly they all have some sort of morning routine. They start their day a certain way. And before most of us honestly wake up or. Or we get going, they've already accomplished so many things in that hour. And it helps them really set their day up right for success. So at the time I read that book a couple years back, I remember thinking, I have no routine. I mean, I wake up in the morning, I wake up the latest possible. I probably hit the snooze button at least once, sometimes twice. And then I would just rush and try to get everything ready in the morning with the kids, with the dogs, feed them, and go on a walk. And again, it was just a race against time. And every single morning, maybe I check my email, sometimes I go brushing my teeth and these kind of things just to get out the door in enough time to get to work or whatever it might be. And I don't know if that sounds familiar for any of you. That's what my routine was like. And it always felt like I was a little bit behind every day. Like I just couldn't get things done. And again, there's something that I would forget. And it was really, really a challenge to feel like I was productive in the day and I got everything done that I wanted to get done. But this book, the Miracle Morning, at least got me thinking differently. How could I set up my morning in a way that'd be extremely productive? Now, I had to do some planning. Cause that meant that I would probably have to go to sleep an hour earlier or two hours earlier, whatever it might be. Which meant that I need to spend that nighttime a little better. Maybe I would do less things at night. Maybe I wouldn't stay up on a YouTube death spiral until midnight like I used to do. And I'd have to change some of my habits so that in the morning I'd be up and ready to go and then make the most of my day. Now with the Miracle Morning, he talks about six things that he does or at least kind of recommends or that people tend to do. And he's found a pattern. I don't do all of these six things anymore. But I'll tell you what he talks about first. And you know, what it's become for me. He gives us the acronym savers, S A V E R S. And he talks about, you know, silence first, some affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading and scribing, which is also known as writing. So people spend time in silence. They do a little meditation, I'd say, affirmations. They talk about, like, what's good in their life. But also these, you Know things to, I would say, almost like, pump themselves up, letting them know, like, they, you know, these are these great things that they can do and they're capable of. They visualize the day or their future, and then they spend some time moving their body. They exercise. They might read something to feed their mind a bit, and then they write things down, their intentions, maybe what they're grateful for and whatever it is. And if you can set aside, like, 10 minutes for each of these things in the hour, then maybe you can get a lot of things done. So I started doing all those six things, and I was really, really diligent about doing each of those. I woke up an hour earlier, and if you know, you don't know by now. I'm an anesthesiologist, so I'd have to get to work pretty early, and so I'd have to wake up even an hour earlier. So there started being like a four or five in front of that time, and it was a challenge for me. But of course, the first couple days, it was painful. But then eventually it started to become routine for me. It started actually being nice because I'd wake up and it was completely quiet. My kids were still sleeping, my wife was sleeping, my dogs were still sleeping. Nobody was asking anything of me. And it was kind of like my protected time again. I was never really, like a person that was into meditation or these kind of things. Sitting silent is not typically a thing that I enjoy doing. My mind always feels like it's racing or I have to, you know, whenever I'm bored, I have to, you know, go to my phone or that sort of thing. And so this was a challenge for me, and it was really kind of like an exercise in discipline and trying something different. But just like with anything else in life, you try to find things that are good, just like any you will find on this podcast or anything I say. You know, you listen to it and you figure out how it works in your life. You tailor these things to see how it might work for you. So over time, this whole morning routine has definitely morphed, especially through Covid, especially to moving to a new area, having a different type of job, you know, spending less time in the hospital, more time on some of these businesses, and my investing portfolio. But I think I've created something that really sets me up for success. I come out of that morning routine actually feeling really good about myself, really feeling good about the day and what I'm going to accomplish and what I've accomplished already. And it really, I believe, sets Me up for success. And so maybe there's some of these things that you can do and kind of build into your life. Let me know if any of these things work. But this is what I do right now. So, yes, the first thing I do every morning is I wake up about an hour before everyone else, you know, in the house. Again, it's my time. Nobody can get to me. Like, I have no obligations at that time except to do these things. And number one, I always start with exercise. I don't know, I like to get the heart pumping. It kind of puts me in the right mindset. I was never a person who got up and exercised in my life. I'm telling you, I am 44 years old right now, for 41 years or 42 years. Like, I was never into this stuff in terms of exercising in the morning, you know, I would just go out and just have fun with, you know, my exercise was never really that intentional. In fact, I hated running. I thought it was extremely boring and I just couldn't do it. But especially during the pandemic, there weren't that many things to do, at least for a while, while you were somewhat locked down. And so running was the only opportunity for me to get out. You know, I listened to some podcasts, I listened to books on tape, you know, that kind of thing. And so that was like the best exercise during that time to get outside and do something. And so guess what? Slowly, over time, after a few months, I don't know, I began to call myself a runner. I did it every morning. You know, I found myself actually enjoying it and looking forward to it. And whenever I didn't do it, I'd actually kind of miss it. Yeah. So the first thing I do in the morning is exercise. I run anywhere, just to be honest with you, from a mile to two miles somewhere in there, just to get the heart pumping. And while I'm exercising, I listen to either podcasts again, some books or even some self development stuff. Stuff to get my mind right and then kind of in the right mindset to have a great day. Then after the heart is pumping and I've been out there kind of running, I just take a seat. I spend a little bit of time in gratitude. What does that mean? I think about three moments in my life that I can feel like appreciative of. These are moments where I spend time with my family, I might have spent time with my friends. Maybe something went well in business. These kind of things I think about these times and I don't just think about it just to be like, haha, great, that was wonderful. I actually try to imagine what I felt in that moment. It's really powerful because it's amazing how you can almost revisit a situation and you can think about what it was like in that moment and then you can actually maybe almost feel like what you felt at that time. And those feelings of gratitude and all the good feelings, like they tend to kind of rush back. And it's amazing how these experiences can continue to pay off over time. I think that's why, that's one of the reasons why people say spend money on experiences and not things is cause you can go back through those experiences, revisit them in your mind. How many times have you laughed over something that happened in the past or, or something great that happened? You still feel that sense of pride, a sense of happiness, contentment, satisfaction, joy, whatever it is, and it continues to pay dividends. Well, I spent every morning thinking about three of those moments. I try to change it up a little bit, but there are a couple ones that just keep coming back again. I spend that time in gratitude. It's amazing. You start feeling really good about yourself, your life, no matter what else is going on in your life. It makes you feel good that hey, there have been times where life was good and so it makes you feel like life is good at this moment. Next, I spend some time visualizing. Now this whole concept of visualizing again was new to me. And it's so crazy. If you talk to me a couple years back, you think I was just. If I told you I'd be doing these things like a couple years from now, you think I'm absolutely crazy. I will tell you, this is not who I was. And so as many of you listening to this, you might be like, I have no idea what you're talking about. And that's fine because I was there too. So when I talk about visualization, I think about my goals. I think about things that I want to achieve in life. Things. They might be small goals, they might be large goals, they might be tied to numbers, they might be tied to money. There might be some accomplishments. You know, for example, there were times when I thought about certain passive income goals where if I hit that number, how would I feel? And these kind of things. And what you do is actually, you don't think about the mechanics of it. You don't think how to get there. You actually imagine yourself having achieved those things. Like what would it feel like in that moment if you actually hit that goal? How Would you feel? How would you breathe? How would you. How would you think? You know, who would be around you? What would that moment look like? Like, maybe everybody has something like that right now that they're striving for. They can think of a goal in life. Like, how would you feel during that moment? How would things go? What would you feel about yourself? What would you feel about other people? It's just imagining that success and imagining yourself already having achieved it. And I know what you're thinking, why? Why even do this? Well, I think it goes back to some of the other podcasts that we've done about, like, mindset success being 80% about your mindset, 20% about strategies. I think so many of us think about strategies and then we think about, how do I get there? And it honestly, it keeps us from moving forward, that whole analysis paralysis. But if we focus more on the success, think about the finish line, think about getting there, how it would feel, then ultimately we're kind of drawn to it, right? We're pulled to it instead of feeling like we're pushing ourselves towards it. So I spent some time doing that, and it's kind of crazy, and it's so funny. You can actually put yourself in that state where you feel like you've already accomplished those things. And so in reality, when you kind of get out there, you're like, you know, it makes you feel like these things can be done. Then next I spend some time in meditation. I don't know how many of you meditate. There's so many positive benefits that research has shown how, you know, meditation is just amazing for not only your mental health, but your physical health as well. And I know for many people that meditation involves just kind of being there and being quiet again. I have a hard time doing that, to be honest with you. I've tried it. It lasts about 30 seconds. Different thoughts come in my mind, and it's really hard for me to break through that. I think the purpose of all of this meditation is to kind of get your thoughts off of everything that's going on right now and kind of do some self reflection, almost give your brain and your mind a little bit of a pause throughout the day, which I think is really important for our sanity and for us to kind of feel like, recharged. So I actually found a tool that helps me actually meditate, put my mind off of everything else out there. Not an app, it's not a book, it's not a podcast. It's actually something called a cold plunge. And this is where I might lose a lot of you. You might think he's gone off the deep end, but I've got this bathtub. It's called the Plunge, and it is filled with water. It looks like a. Just like a regular old bathtub. It's got a chiller attached to it, this chiller where the water circulates through there, keeps it clean, keeps it in motion, but also keeps it to a certain temperature. And mine is set around 56 degrees. Like, if you've ever taken an absolute cold shower, it's probably somewhere around there, but actually probably a little colder. It's probably like jumping in the Pacific Ocean or jumping in the ocean on one of those cold days. And so I've trained myself to essentially take a dip in this thing, be in there for about six or seven minutes in what I consider pretty dang cold water. And I know people are thinking, why do you do that? Number one, I don't know if, you know, a lot of athletes out there, you might see it. They kind of. After working out, they get in these big stuff, silver tins or tubs with ice. And this kind of thing, you know, reduces inflammation. I think for me, my body is getting older after even doing these running or working out. I've got these aches and pains. I've got back pain, knee pain, and all these type of things. And you'd be surprised when you do this thing and I do the cold plunge coming out of there, I feel like a million bucks. Nothing hurts on my body, at least for a little while. And it kind of helps actually, you know, refresh my body for, you know, the rest of the day. Again, this is not medical advice. This is not for anybody to do this. You. Everyone knows their own conditions. I'm not vouching for the science behind this, but again, it wakes me up. It makes me absolutely feel on fire for the rest of the day. And the other thing is, while I'm in there, Honestly, the first 30 seconds a minute feel like pins and needles on you. You can think about nothing else in life, about what's going on in your life, except just trying to calm yourself and be calm. And honestly, your mind goes completely blank. And. And really, that is my form of meditation. But that six or seven minutes, I'm completely blank. My mind doesn't even go to other places. It's just thinking about how can I relax in this situation? And it's amazing for me. And it gives me that break in the day, that mental clarity that I think that for, you know, meditation does for, A lot of people, and this is my way of doing it. And so coming out of there, honestly, I feel amazing. It's a battle every time I do it because nobody wants to purposefully dip themselves in cold water. I don't know, for many of you, you might do it through doing a cold shower at the end of your shower. Again, that's how I started. At the end of every shower, I would turn it absolutely cold and spend about a minute in there. I just recommend try it, see how you feel for about a week. Just do it one week straight. But it's the same kind of thing, the same kind of feeling. It's a challenge. You do it, you feel good about yourself, your body feels amazing and on fire, and you're ready for the rest of the day. And then the last thing I do is after all of that, then I go to my calendar and my schedule and I look at everything and I map out my day. What needs to get done? Where are the windows of time? What have I not, you know, prepared for? You know, what do I need to still do to make sure that day I accomplish all those goals? And again, on a daily basis, I don't try to accomplish every goal in life. I try to set aside a few things that if I accomplish those things, then I'll feel good about what I did that day. And that can be in my businesses, my investments, my relationships, whatever that is. I just come up with a few key things that I know I can accomplish in that day. And I'll feel great about myself. And then after that, my kids wake up and who knows how the rest of the day will go. But I know that I've at least accomplished that. And I feel good knowing that I've done my routine and the rest of the day, you know, whatever I can get done, I can get done. But at least I feel like there's been some victory to start out. And it's a kind of a funny feeling. I remember reading something about this like in the book Limitless. I don't know if you read this book by Jim Quick. He says a simple thing that he does every single day is he brushes his teeth with his opposite hand. So he's a right handed. He brushes with his left hand because it's an action that you have to be intentional about. He feels good about. It makes him be intentional about his life, his time, his routine. And he feels like he accomplished something by doing a different skill. Again, I don't do that exactly, but I think it's the same kind of concept, as if you can start your day with a victory. You if you can start your day feeling like you've done something, that you've accomplished something good for your body, your mind, the rest of the day just feels like it's gravy, you know, whether it's at work, at the hospital and kind of gives you that really consistency and you know, in spite of all the chaos that happens once your day actually gets going. So this is my call out to you. I'd love to hear what is your morning routine? Do you have one? And what does it consist of? What am I missing? Like, what else should I be doing? Or am I crazy for doing what I'm doing? I'd love to hear from you. You know, if you're in our Facebook group Passive Income Docs or on your on our blog where we do some of the show notes for this, let us know. I'd love to hear. I'm always open to learning more, but since people have been asking me about this, I figured I'd share it in full detail here. Hope you enjoyed it. Have an amazing weekend. Let's talk again soon. Enjoy the show. 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