Why Your Morning Routine Matters | Robin Sharma EP 786

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:11I think one of the most important things a human being can do is press the pause button each morning while the rest of the world is asleep. And ask yourself, how can I fortify my mindset? How can I insulate my heart set? How can I optimize my health set? How can I escalate my soul set? The four interior empires that I've introduced in the 5AM Club. So that when I walk out in the world, I'm creative, I'm productive, I'm compassionate, I radiate positivity, and I have resilience in case I get knocked down. And so I think one of the best ways you can do that is this 20-20-20 formula that I've been teaching to the billionaires, the NBA stars, the film icons, and many of the most successful people on the planet for 24 years.

1:01The 2020-20 formula is simply this. You get up at 5 a.m. and anyone can get up at 5 a.m. One of the gifts of a human being is neuroplasticity. We are built to change. So please, I would encourage, you know, if we recite our excuses long enough, we actually believe they're true. We are built to change. We are built to grow. We are built to own our heroic nature. And so according to University College London, if we do any practice or habit for 66 days, we reach a point of automaticity where it becomes easier to do that new habit than not do the new habit. Once you wire in the new habit for the first 20 minutes, 5 to 5.20, you move because you can release BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which promotes neurogenesis.

1:48It optimizes your brain. If you move first thing in the morning, you release serotonin, which makes you feel good. You release dopamine, which sets you up for inspiration. Second pocket from 520 to 540 is reflect. While the rest of the world is asleep, there's such quietude in the air. This is where you can pray, you can meditate, write in a journal, sit in quietude so that you're focused, living your life and your priorities through the day. And then the final pocket of the 2020 formula that I talk about in the 5am club is grow. You'll never get old if you grow. You'll never become obsolete in your business, even in a time of great volatility.

2:28If you're growing, you'll always stay happy if you grow. So 20 minutes at the end of this victory hour, that's what I call it. You spend some time listening to a podcast like Lewis Howes on School of Greatness. You listen to an audio book. You read a book. The process has been proven in the trenches of elite performance for a long time with my clients. And having said that, you know, I would say the 2020-20 formula is minimum viable morning routine. And you're a biohacker. I'm a biohacker. I'm a productivity hacker. I'm a life hacker. And so I would say, do what's right for you. You know, it's like this whole field of personal mastery and leadership that we inhabit.

3:14I'm not one to say you must do this because we all have different learning types. We're all on different journeys. I think we have to find the routine, the morning routine that works best for us. I've had a lot of night owls who have said, you know, I could never be a morning person. I've had a lot of people who've said, you know, grandma couldn't get up early. Grandpa couldn't get up early. My parents couldn't get up early. I don't have early rising jeans, you know. And what I would say is if you don't read that book you've been resisting because you don't think it's for you, you might just miss your new favorite book.

3:52If you fall in love with your most closely cherished beliefs and you're not open to trying new things, you might miss trying your new favorite food. If you say, well, here's the kind of friends that I hang out with and I'm not open to anyone else, you might miss that new friend or that new mentor who will transform the way you run your craft and live your life. And it's the same for the morning routine, the 5 a.m. club. I mean, it's just I've had so many people read the book, run the models in the book, live the message and achieve what they never thought they'd achieve. And so what I would say to a night owl or a lot of people say shift workers or whatever, I would say, give it a try.

4:40I don't just give it a try for for a week. You know, give it a try for three weeks, four weeks, the 66 day minimum. Then judge by your results. I think, you know, if you want to commit to the 5 a.m. club, you want to commit to a world-class morning routine because the way you begin the day profoundly sets up the way your day unfolds. And this, again, this is not anecdotal. You get up in the morning and you run the 20-20-20 formula. You will create the flow state. You will release serotonin. You will release dopamine. You will release BDMF. You will increase your metabolic rate. You will boost creativity.

5:16You will increase your willpower. You know, all those things. I mean, we all have the ability as human beings to arrive at our own original form of greatness. We have not been schooled. We have not been taught. A lot of us have not been mentored on the mindsets, heart sets, routines, rituals that will create and allow us to live our personal genies. But, you know, if you look at the greatest women and men who have ever graced the planet, these were so-called ordinary people who just set up their lives in such a way that their native gifts saw the light of day. When I was a kid, I wasn't believed in by a lot of people.

6:04I marched to my own drumbeat. I had a different way of seeing the world. I was very sensitive. I was very creative, very much a dreamer in many ways. I didn't fit in with the cool crowd. And in grade five, I had a history teacher, and her name was Cora Greenaway. And she was one of the first people in my life who believed in me. And we all meet a Cora Greenaway. And may you and I and everyone listening from around the world or watching from around the world, may we be a Cora Greenway to someone else. What I'm suggesting is all it takes is that one person who coincidentally shows up in our life.

6:48And maybe it's a book, maybe it's a podcast episode to introduce us to a new frame of reference and a new way of living. That's why I love reading so much. You know, it could be one idea in a 300 page book and that idea opens you up to a new galaxy of possibility and the hand that puts down the book is a fundamentally different hand. I mean, all it takes is one new insight to change the way you see the world.

7:24I am so excited for you to finish the rest of your day strong. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description and it'll take you to the full episode of my other show, The School of Greatness. Make sure to come back tomorrow for another episode of The Daily Motivation Show.