Success Tips: Establishing Your Morning Routine

Chris Albert 00:00:01 (link to this point)

The Warrior Soul podcast is written, edited, and produced by me, Albert. Our mission is to provide tools, tactics, strategies, and ideas that help The US military veteran community to show up as the wisest, strongest, most capable versions of themselves in the civilian world. If you're not a veteran, stick around because anything we talk about will most certainly apply to you as well. This podcast is made possible with the help of F Bomb Nutrition. They make delicious packets of fats that you can carry around anywhere with you in little portable packets.

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They don't have any sugar. They also make a lot of cheese snacks. They make meat sticks, and it's just a great company. These guys send packages of this stuff to the troops who are on the front lines overseas to supplement their MREs, and we didn't ask them to do that. They just did that on their own initiative.

Really great company. If you wanna get 20% off your first order of f bombs, head over to www.dropanfbomb.com and use the code Warrior Soul at checkout. This podcast is also brought to you with the help of Save the Brave. Savethebrave.org is a five zero one c three charity for veterans. They run camaraderie events that include fishing, golfing.

They also do a lot of work with gold star families. And unlike a lot of other organizations, their board doesn't take a salary. Really great organization that is doing amazing work. So go and check them out at savethebrave.org. With that, thank you guys so much.

Let's get into today's programming.

This is Chris Albert, and I'm here to remind you of one thing. Someday, you're going to die. Now that's not some morbid statement or scary idea. It's solid fact. Your time here on this earth is limited.

And we need to be reminded of this as much as possible for one simple reason, to live your best life while you can. This is the Warrior Soul podcast.

What's going on, ladies and gents? This is Chris Albert with the Warrior Soul podcast, and this is where we deliver tools, tactics, strategies, and ideas to help The US military veteran community to show up as wiser, stronger, more capable human beings in the civilian world. Man, so thus far, it's it's been a pretty eventful few weeks. You know, in in the world, we've had obviously this COVID nineteen crisis. A lot to deal with there.

Right? A lot to deal with. People being lonely, people without work, people without money to put food on the table, and it's a tragedy. On the other hand, there's also this looming prospect of reopening, going back to normal life. And one of the things about that is that when we do return to normal life, it it might be a bit of a shock to a lot of people.

It you know, a lot of the stresses of of the commute, of getting to work, of, you know, leaving the house, all those things that we used to hate, you know, right now, we're we're longing to do. Alright? I can't wait for things to reopen. And, you know, I miss my gym. I miss getting out of the house.

I miss going to public places. I miss seeing people. Never thought I'd say that, honestly. But, you know, what I want to talk about today is dealing with some of those stresses as they come back into your life. Because there's probably gonna be a few weeks where you're, like, grateful for for this whole thing being over and you're you're happy to be going to work.

But eventually, the stress is gonna come back. And eventually, you are going to get past the whole novelty of getting out of the house, and it all go back to routine. So what I wanna do today is I wanna talk to you about some practical tips for showing up every day as the best version of yourself in your place of work, in your daily routine. And the biggest tip I can give you guys is to make the most of your morning. Make the most of your morning.

I wake up early every day. And the reason why I wake up early isn't really because I am under a lot of pressure. It's not because I'm trying to jump on top of a bunch of work. It's because I need at least an hour of buffer time before I start putting myself out there into the world. You know, when you roll out of bed, you wake up, if you pick up your cell phone, you start answering emails, you start answering text messages, you you start working right away, what tends to happen is you feel like you're being attacked.

Right? It's it's like the world is invading your personal space, especially when you're waking up because that's kind of like a reset from the previous day. You know, you you you're opening your eyes, you're looking out there into the world, and all of a sudden people are coming after you. It makes you feel like you're trapped. So what I like to do is is I like to have that hour of buffer time where I don't look at my phone.

I don't look at my text messages. I don't look at my emails. And I'll use that hour just to get ready for the day. So I roll out of bed, I'll go, I'll take a shower, and my shower is generally hot for the first part of the shower. And then the last thirty seconds, I make it cold.

I make it freezing cold. And I love that because I get out of the shower really refreshed. I used to hate cold showers. I used to be like one of these people who couldn't tolerate the cold, but it really helps me to kind of clear my head, to be present. And then I'll go, I'll make my coffee, I'll make breakfast for for my girlfriend, Shauna.

And then I will feed the dog, we'll go on a little walk. I'll come back here to my office, and I'll sit down. And then I'll just sit there and think for about ten minutes. Just not doing anything, just closing my eyes and just thinking. Alright?

And what I'm thinking about is well, I'm trying to think about nothing. When a thought comes up in my head, I'll just try to put it out. And that's essentially what people would call meditation. Right? I'm just trying to recognize thoughts as they come up into my head.

And I'll say in my head, that's a thought. If I get a sensation, I'll be like, that's a sensation. If I get an itch, I'll be like, that's an itch. And it's just helping me to kind of recognize my brain. And the reason that's important is because thoughts can just kind of arise in your brain out of nowhere.

Right? You can't control your thoughts. You can't control what you're thinking. And if you don't take the time to recognize what your brain is doing and you don't train yourself to recognize what your brain is doing, you can allow yourself to be kind of controlled by emotion. So after that ten minutes is up, what I'll do is I'll pick up a book and I'll sit there and I'll read.

I'll generally read for about thirty minutes. I tend to read history, biographies of great men, great people. Right now, as I've been telling you guys, I've been reading The Rise of Teddy Roosevelt. I'm about to start one on Howard Hughes, and then one before Teddy Roosevelt was was Lincoln. And I'll read through that for about thirty minutes.

I tend to find that very inspiring. And then I'll take another thirty minutes and I'll work on some skills. Right now, I am trying to learn accounting. Never knew anything about accounting, which is a surprise because if you're going into business, then that is one of the most vital skills you can know. But I'm I'm taking an accounting course, and I'm also I've like I've got a workbook of exercises for accounting that I'm working through.

And the reason why I'm I'm studying accounting again is because it's one of the most vital skills you could have in business. It helps you to understand whether or not it helps you to make better business decisions. It it can also help you with business acquisitions. If you're thinking about real estate, you should know some accounting. If you're thinking about anything, you should know some accounting.

So that's a skill I am working on right now. And then I will pull out my schedule for the day. I'll kind of run through my plan. I'll read my plan to myself, and then I will get started. I'll start my communications for the day.

And again, I'm a morning person, but I had to train myself to be a morning person. I had to really put effort into it. I wasn't naturally that way. I was one of these people who used to just roll out of bed, you know, jump through the shower, rush through my morning, and, you know, rush off to wherever I had to go or or or on to the first meeting I had for the day. And what I discovered was that if I did that, I really, really felt like I was being attacked throughout the day.

I felt like I was one step behind everybody in the world. In this way, I'm a step ahead. I'm a few steps ahead. Right now, when I'm recording this podcast, I'm doing it in the morning because that is when I have the most energy. That's when I have the best ability to think.

And as I'm structuring my day, one of the things I will also do is if I have a really hard task during that day, I'll make sure that that's one of the first things I tackle. If you put things off to the afternoon, your energy is going to be a lot lower. You're going to have a lot lower willpower. You're going to want to get out of there. So my suggestion is to take the hardest task of the day and do that first.

If you're not a morning person, you know, I still suggest that you wake up a little bit earlier and just have some buffer time. You don't have to do everything I was talking about, but you know, just doing something to get yourself ready. Just even even thirty minutes to yourself where you're using that time to read, you're using that time to learn, you're using that time to enrich yourself, that could be such a big benefit. One question I get often is when am I training? When am I working out?

I don't work out first thing in the morning. I used to. And the reason why I don't work out first thing in the morning is because honestly, that is something that's always been really easy for me. It doesn't take me much willpower to knock out some burpees or to go for a run. I enjoy that a whole lot.

And I want to save my mental energy in the morning for the big projects I'm working on. So I will front load all my work for the day. I will try to get most of my tasks done by 11AM. And then at about 11AM, I will go out, I will do some burpees, I will do some pull ups, some push ups, and that's since COVID nineteen has been going on. It used to be I'd go to the gym.

I'll go for a run and get that done in the middle of the day. And what I find is that that provides a really good break, gives my brain a rest. It allows me to come back to my work in the afternoon so I can handle phone calls and other tasks with a clear head and new energy. So that's everything, guys. I I hope that makes sense to you.

And if you have any questions on that, feel free to reach out to me. Hit me up over social media. I'm at Warrior Soul Agoge on Instagram. Always happy to answer questions. And I want to know what's your morning routine?

What are what are you doing these days to try to enrich yourself? And I hope you are and if you don't, you know, try to put one together because it could be a really good tool for getting you back into your normal life after this crisis is over. And with that guys, I want to thank you guys so much for listening. Listen, I know this has been a a really difficult couple of months. I I I heard some disconcerting news the other day, and I I actually put it put up a post in relation to this.

But we've lost a few people in the veteran community to suicide over the past couple of weeks. And, you know, I I can't get into those those veterans' heads. I don't know if it was this crisis that that pushed them over the edge. I don't know, you know, what was going on. And what I want to say to you guys is this, if you need help, reach out.

Talk to somebody. I reached out to the vet center in my area a few weeks ago. It was actually at the behest of my girlfriend, but, you know, I was struggling. And and, you know, to be honest with you, I'm I'm still dealing with a lot of that stuff. But, you know, sitting down with somebody, they they they got in touch back with me right away, and I sat down with a gentleman.

I've had two sessions so far, and you can't do a lot in two sessions, but sitting down with somebody and and talking it out really really helped me. You know, I'm I'm dealing with a lot of the same stuff you guys are. I've had some good stuff happen in my life recently. And, you know, there's this overwhelming feeling that I think sticks with a lot of us where I feel like I don't deserve it, and I feel like I'm I'm gonna lose it at some point. And, you know, talking it out really helped me to put things in perspective, and it it really helped me to to gain some footing and to at least recognize what my brain was doing.

And and that's what it's really about. So if you guys need help, please reach out. Please talk to somebody. If you can't get in touch with your local Vet Center, you know, reach out to a family member, reach out to a friend, even send me a message over over on Instagram, and and I'm always happy to talk. So, you know, I want you guys to know that I'm here for you.

This podcast is here for you. This community is here for you. There are so many resources out there dedicated to the veteran community. And, you know, I want you guys to live amazing lives. So with that, I wanna thank you guys so much for listening.

And again, I don't care if you ever spend a dime with Warrior Soul as long as you're telling people that this podcast exists. If you can head over to iTunes and write us a written rating and review, if you could share these episodes out, I am a happy man. Over the next few weeks, things are gonna be a little bit crazy. I'm moving to one location in California, and then we're gonna be moving out to Florida. And I'll be recording through that process, but, you know, might might get a little bit crazy.

So I'm gonna try I'm trying to commit to three episodes a week no matter what because I feel like this is the most important work that I do every day. So thank you guys so much. I'll be talking to you soon. Live your best lives while you can. And this is Chris Albert, and I am out.