Do These 5 Things Every Morning to Change Your Life

0:07Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so you never miss another podcast episode. And if you're out there and you live in the US or Canada and you want to get some inspirational mindset, motivational text messages from me sporadically throughout the week, text me right now, 512-580-9305. Once again, 512-580-9305. Today, I'm gonna talk about the first thing that I want you to do in the morning. And this is gonna be a little bit of morning routine, but it's actually something even outside of the morning routine.

0:40because we all know that the way you start your day is important. We all know how important your morning routine is. I always say, I am, just so you know, I'm not a morning person at all, not even close. I have to drag my ass out of bed every single day. I wish I was one of those people that just beat it the floor and I was like, hell yeah, let's go, let's do it. But I'm not that person. And so I know how important the morning is though and how it sets up the rest of my day. And so what I like to do is I like to set up my morning to set up the rest of my day. And the thing that I want you to think about when you think about morning routine, you're thinking about how you are in the morning.

1:16I want to, first off, I love mornings, even though I hate waking up in the morning. Like I'm not excited to wake up in the morning, but if I could do morning to noon and then at noon be able to do morning to noon again instead of an afternoon and evening, that's what my perfect life would be. It's pretty not going to really actually happen, but it would be cool to have it that way. But I want to talk to you about what I feel is the most important thing that I see that you should do every single morning. because I see my morning routine and everything that I do as a way to set up my body for how I want to feel.

1:48It's a way to tell my brain and my body, this is how we're going to be today. Because we all know first impressions are everything. Have you ever met somebody and you get a really bad first impression from them? And even though the second and third and fourth and fifth time and 10th time you hang out with them, they could be an amazing person. Maybe they made a really bad first impression. There's like this lingering effect that you have of, yeah, remember that one time that that thing happened? First impressions are everything. So when we think about first impressions, we think about our day, what is your first impression going into every single day?

2:21Like when you get out of bed, are you pissed that your alarm went off and damn it, I wish I could sleep longer. Oh man, I just want to, I don't want to go to work. And you just get mad and you hit the snooze button. Or do you wake up even if you're dragging going to ask like I am. And the first thing that you think to yourself, and I've had to train myself to think this is, holy shit, I got another day. It's awesome. Just that little bit of gratitude, that feeling. Think about the difference. First impressions are everything. What's the difference energetically in your mind and your body and your soul of, damn it, I just want to keep sleeping in versus, holy shit, I'm so grateful that I'm alive.

2:57I'm so grateful I got another day. Now, what you want to do at that point in time is then get out of your bed with the first alarm. No snoozing, because if you snooze, you start with a loss. And if you start with a loss, once again, our first impressions are not looking really good for this day. Oh my gosh, damn it, I don't want to be here. Hit the snooze button. All right, so now I'm setting myself on the wrong foot. I'm basically going, yeah, I don't want to be here. I'm not doing what I said I was going to do when I went to bed, which is waking up at this time. So the first thing I want you to do is get up, get out of bed, and then make the bed first thing.

3:31Finish the task. of sleeping. The sleeping task is go ahead and make the bed. And believe me, I'm one of the people I still to this day think that it's crazy that I make the bed in the morning. I'm still the person that's like, all I do is just sleep in the bed. I don't go back into my room pretty much almost the entire day. Sometimes I do to go get something, whatever it is. But I do enjoy the look and feel of a clean bed when I walk in versus a messy bed. There's just a different feeling around it. But the main thing is that I want to make the bed so that I have a small win. Because if I wake up and I start the day with getting up when I said I was going to get up and making the bed, I have two small wins before I even go to the bathroom.

4:16I have two small wins before I do anything else for the day. I woke up and my alarm went off and I made my bed. And what you're doing is you're starting your day leaning forward. You're on your front foot. So oh my gosh, I slept for an extra 15 minutes. Now I got to hurry up. Now I got to do this. Now I got to do this. It's like, I did what I said I was going to do. I got up when I said I was going to wake up and I made my bed. I'm leaning a little bit forward. I'm taking action already. And I'm starting my day on the offensive versus off of the defensive. So hit your alarm, make your bed, get your ass out of bed, make the bed.

4:50Because if you hit the snooze button and you don't make your bed, you're 15 minutes behind. Now you're starting on the back foot. You're starting on your defensive. And those are two little tiny small mental wins. And then what is really important for you is to start your day with gratitude. So you go to the bathroom, you brush your teeth, you drink water, you do whatever it is you need to do. And you start to think to yourself, man, I'm so grateful that I have today. Like 150 ,000 people will die today, which means that when you wake up tomorrow, there will be 150 ,000 people that were alive right now at the recording of this podcast, you listening to it, that will not be alive tomorrow when you wake up.

5:26That alone is something to find gratitude in. And then what you do is you go into a place and you have, even if it's just a couple minutes of just sacred gratitude time. So for me, I go to my meditation area and I actually make it something special. Like one thing that for some reason makes it feel a lot more special, light a candle and just focus on what you could be grateful for that day. Like just take a few minutes. You can take three minutes. You can take five minutes. You I personally take 20 and I take 20 minutes and just think about all of the things I have to be grateful for. There's a lot of people and you could call this like prayer, you could call whatever it is.

6:03A lot of people pray for what they want. For me, I see it as like a prayer for what I'm grateful for. Because if I find things to be grateful for and I set my reticular activating system to find things I'm grateful for, I'm going to find more things throughout the day to be grateful for it. And that alone is just going to change the trajectory of my day. Why? Well, because your reticular activating system is going to search for the things that you give it to search for. It's the same reason why when you buy a new car, you don't see that car ever until you start searching for it. And then you buy it and then you see that car everywhere because it's in your reticular activating system.

6:36It's in your conscious, your subconscious mind, you start to see it everywhere. So if you're setting your reticular activating system to find something to be grateful for, even if it's three minutes of just thinking of the people that you're grateful for. Think of the fact today's weather is supposed to be really good. Think of the fact that you got a good night's sleep. Think of the fact that you got a roof over your head. You got a food that's inside of your refrigerator. You've got all of these things to be grateful for. Find as many that you possibly can and then you start your day off with gratitude.

7:04Now, why do I recommend that you have like a sacred spot, a spot that you go back to routine? Even if you live in a studio apartment in a tiny studio apartment in the middle of the city, have like just your meditation pillow that you have that's in the corner and you sit there and you can light a candle if you want to. And you just take a few minutes just to kind of ground yourself, ground your spirit, ground your soul. And it just, you know, when you're in the dark, there's no lights, you got a candle going and you're sitting there for a few minutes. It just feels more serious. It feels more sacred than just like, oh, I'm going to make my oatmeal.

7:39And while I make my oatmeal, I'm going to think about what I'm grateful for. And what I do is this, is I imagine all of the chemicals running through my body. And so you have to think of who you are. Like, are you a human? Sure. Are you inside of this meat suit of yours? Sure. Can we control the chemicals running through our body? To a certain extent, we can. And there's these things that are called neuropeptides. Neuropeptides are chemical signals that go from the brain to the body and from the body to the brain. And so if I can make my brain focus on things to be grateful for, it's going to send chemical signals to my body, serotonin specifically, which make me actually start to feel more grateful, start to feel happier and start to feel like I'm setting my day off on the right foot.

8:25And what happens is my body and brain are communicating at all times. So that sends neuropeptides from my body to my brain, start to get serotonin. Serotonin makes me feel good. and then my body talks back to my brain and says, hey brain, this is how we're feeling right now. And your brain goes, oh, this feels amazing. Let me keep this going. And so I'm trying to think of the chemical signals, the neuropeptides, and I'm trying to fill my body up with all that good shit. That's what I'm trying to do. And I'm trying to set my reticular activating system to think about things I'm grateful for. I'm trying to set my body for how I want to feel throughout the day.

8:59And basically I'm training my brain and body for how to think and how to feel. I don't really hear people talk about this. I don't know why, but I'm training my body of how I want to think and how I want to feel. Just so you know, people are always like, oh man, you must be like the most grateful, you know, motivated person, all of these things. I used to be a really big pessimist. I could find the, I could literally poke holes in anything that existed. And that was just who I was for a really long time. And when I found things that were wrong in anything, I found other things that were wrong in everything else.

9:31And we will be right back. And now back to the show. That's just the way that it was. And I didn't realize that I was accidentally setting my reticular activating system to find all of the negative in my life, all of the problems in my life. And I'm not saying ignore the problems. What I'm saying is it's a lot easier to go through the negative stuff and the problems when you are going through with gratitude. You end up actually working through the negative things a lot better when you're starting with gratitude. And so what you're doing when you wake up in the morning, before you go into your morning routine and everything is you're actually starting your day off with two small wins.

10:06And then you're starting and training your brain of this is how we're going to think today. I'm in charge of this brain that I have. Mr. Brain, this is how we're going to think today. I'm in charge of this body that I have, this meat suit that I have that I was given at my birth. Hey, body, this is how we're going to feel today. Because what you focus on, you get more of. too many people focus on the negative stuff. They focus on what they don't want. Not enough people focus on the positive stuff and what they could be grateful for. It's so funny when I ask people like, hey, what do you want? And they'll be like, well, I want this and I want this.

10:44And then almost always they'll tell me three things that they don't want. And then they'll just start off a laundry list of things that they don't want. Oh, I want this. I want this. But I also don't want this thing. And I really don't want this thing anymore. And I don't want this thing anymore. And I'm like, I didn't ask you what you don't want. I asked you what you do want, but it's just a negative pattern that our brain will start to go into. And so for me, I can now find, because I was so good at finding the negatives in anything, I can also take anything that happens and start to find some positive in it.

11:13Because what you appreciate, appreciate. So if I start off the morning, think about all the things I'm grateful for, think about all the things that are amazing, think about all the things that I'm so blessed to be able to have, even like the challenges. Like what I like to do is not just focus on like, hey, I'm grateful for this person. I'm grateful for this. I'm grateful for the weather. I actually like to think about the shit I've been through in my life and the challenges that maybe happened in the past or maybe happened to me in my business. And think about how grateful that I am that I went through those things.

11:38I'm grateful for the challenges that are in front of me. I'm grateful that what I'm going through right now is going to make me better because if it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you. And so I look back and I think, man, I'm so grateful that I went through all of the shit that I went through with my father. So grateful that I was blessed with having an alcoholic father who can seem like that was a really bad negative, or I can look at it and say, man, if I wouldn't have had him as my father, if I would have learned all the things that I've learned, there's no way that I would be doing what I'm doing today.

12:10I'm so grateful for all the lessons that he taught me, that he specifically taught me on purpose, but more than anything else, the lessons that he accidentally taught me by being who he was. And so I actually start to look at the challenges and I literally try to focus on a lot of the challenge I've had in my past and go, man, that shit was hard, but I'm so grateful I went through it. Back in October, 2010, I'm so grateful for living off of pasta for two months and for going five months behind on my car payment and almost losing my, I'm so grateful because I learned so much. And I learned where I don't ever want to be again.

12:46And I learned hard work and dedication so that I will never go back to where I was again. And I just think about this. And if you think about your morning routine and think about starting your day by training your brain and your body, how you want to feel for the day, doesn't it just sound nice? Like, doesn't it sound better than waking up late in a hurry, pissed off? Fuck, I wish I was still sleeping. It sounds a whole lot better when it's like, man, I'm so grateful that I have the life that I have. I'm so grateful that I have a bed that I can sleep in. I'm so grateful. You know, it's so cold outside.

13:23I'm so grateful I have air conditioning. I'm so grateful I've been through so much shit in my life. Look at all the amazing things that I have because those things made me grow. Doesn't it just sound better? It sounds nice to start your morning routine by training your brain and your body for how you want to think and how you want to feel and just to be fully present. Not to be in the past and not to be in the future, but to be in the present moment and be like, man, I'm so grateful for life right now. I appreciate just being alive. 150 ,000 people who were alive yesterday when I was alive did not wake up today.

13:54That's so freaking and amazing. Is your life where you want it to be? Probably not because our lives will never be where we want them to be because it's like our goals are like the horizon. The closer we get to them, the further they get away. We just keep chasing them and chasing them. But we can still chase our goals and be fully, presently happy and grateful for what we have right now. And it gets rid of, and this is the secret to it, it gets rid of so many anxious feelings and worries that I've had in my past because you realize how great it is where you are truly right at this moment. Like life is amazing in this moment and it's always getting better.

14:30And you can look at everything and you can start to have gratitude for everything. And the feelings of anxiousness come from like, oh my God, I don't know what's going to happen in the future. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I don't know about this. I don't know if I'm going to pay my bills. Like those are, those create anxiety. I know I've been there many times before, but when you can start with what you're grateful for, it's crazy because like 95 % of your anxious feelings. 95 % of your worries just kind of quiet themselves. They don't disappear. They just kind of get quiet. They stop being so damn loud.

15:01They stop taking control of your mind. And it's like in this moment, in this present moment, in this very second of me breathing right here, right now, I'm grateful. And that's why breathing is such an important part of this. Like one of the things that I teach people is, I didn't make this up. I'm not some guru that taught that made this up. I When I went and did a 10-day silent meditation retreat, they taught us about just focusing on the breath, going in your nose and out of your nose, the breath of your chest expanding and lowering and your abdomen expanding and lowering. And the reason why is because our brain, our brain likes to be in the future and it likes to be in the past.

15:37It's rarely ever in the present moment. Either we're thinking about all of the things that happened to us and all of the crap that happened to us in our past, or we're getting anxious and worried and fearful about all the things that are happening to us in the future. And when you can focus on your breathing and you can focus on your body and you can focus on that, your body is the only thing that's actually in the present moment. And so what you're doing is you're taking your monkey mind and you're pacifying it by bringing it to this present moment, allowing yourself to chill. And what you do is you train your brain and you train your body.

16:04Same way that you train a dog. You're not going to get it right away. It's not going to be immediate. Your brain's going to go all over the place. It's going to fight you. It's going to not want you to do this. But if you do this over and over and over and over again, it's crazy. Your day will start to change. Your mindset will start to change. Your anxious feelings will start to change. Your worries will start to go away. And you'll actually start to realize that you're just enjoying existing and having this human existence way more than you ever have. And so the first thing I want you to do when you wake up in the morning, get two small wins.

16:33I want you to get up when your alarm clock goes off. I want you to make your bed. Then I want you to go to your place where you're going to meditate or have your gratitude practice. And I want you to just focus on your breathing and everything that you'd be grateful for in this moment right now and train your brain and train your body of how you want to think and how you want to feel. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it on Instagram stories, tag me in at RobDowellJr, R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. And if you're out there and you love this podcast, you want to learn a little bit more about coaching with me outside of the podcast, you can go ahead and go to coachwithrob.com.

17:06Once again, coachwithrob.com for more information. And with that, I'm going to leave the same way I leave every single episode, making sure mission makes somebody else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.