Two Small Habits Which Improved My Entire Day
Written by Ramon Ray, Publisher, Event Host and Emcee
Ramon Ray is unapologetically positive. He's the publisher of Zone of Genius and founder of Celebrity CEO. Ramon's an in-demand motivational keynote speaker, event host. He loves making the world a better place.
For the most part, I have been very disciplined in my personal life and business. However, things have changed. I’ve found myself “slipping.”
I found myself not doing the morning routines I really wanted to do!
My desired wake time is 5 am; I’ve been an early riser for some years.
However, I’ve recently been waking up late. Around 7 am or 6 am.
When I would wake up this late, I would skip doing things I wanted to do.
I’d skip my morning devotions, skip my morning walk, skip my gym time and skip other things.
I knew I had to be more disciplined if I was going to do what was important to me and have the morning routine I really wanted.
Two small changes
So I made two small changes to my routine, and in the past few weeks, I’ve seen a huge difference.
Change one, going to bed earlier.
Instead of staying up late with my wife and going to be around 2 am or so, I’ve had to go to bed earlier.
I explained to her that to do the things in my morning routine, which is so important to me, I had to go to bed earlier.
I had been sitting on the couch and then dozing off. Then getting up and going to bed together. Which is good. But now I go to bed around 11 pm. Ironically, my wife is now going to bed earlier too!
Change two was setting my alarm 15 minutes earlier.
Now that I was going to be earlier, around 11 pm, I was more rested.
Getting about 6 hours sleep, maybe 5 is perfect for my body. In fact my eyes open at about 4:30 am automatically.
What’s important to you
What are the simple changes you need to make in your life to live your best life.
To know what changes you need to make, know what goals you want to reach.
My morning routine is important to me.
This includes:
Bible reading and prayer
Eating fruit, drinking water, having Cafe Bustelo
30-minute walk, 15 minutes in the gym
My morning 7 am live show
If I do these things, the rest of the day goes well. When I miss out on these things, I feel I’m in catch-up mode.
The power of habits
You’ve probably heard this so many times, but forming good habits is important. You can also develop new habits, pretty quickly.
I’m now starting to enjoy going to bed “early,” and I’m in the habit of waking up early.
James Clear’s book “Atomic habits” says this about forming habits
Make it obvious: Set clear cues for your desired habits.
Make it attractive: Pair habits you need to do with habits you want to do.
Make it easy: Reduce friction for good habits and increase it for bad ones.
Make it satisfying: Create immediate rewards for completing your habits.
Use the two-minute rule: Scale down your habits to tasks that take two minutes or less to start.
Use habit stacking: Link a new habit to an existing one.
Focus on systems over goals: Concentrate on the processes that lead to results.
Use habit tracking: Measure your progress to maintain motivation.
Never miss twice: If you slip up, get back on track immediately.
Shape your environment: Surround yourself with cues that promote good habits.
Communication
It’s so important to communicate with your spouse and close family members and friends about your priority and habits.
When they know what’s important to you, a good friend or caring family will respect what you’re trying to do. Now that they know what habits are important to you and why, they won’t force you to do things that go against your lifestyle.
When you fail
You will fail on the journey to create better habits for your life.
You’re only human.
As you start out you might fail often.
But as the habit gets stronger and stronger you’ll find yourself being more consistent with it.
In fact you’ll find that you begin to like the habit you’re doing and it becomes “second-nature to you”.
So, let’s summarize
I wanted to do better at doing several things that were important to me for my daily morning routine!.
“Reverse engineering” why those things weren’t getting done helped me realize what the problem was.
Being able to prioritize and community with my wife was the key in now living a much more balanced life.
Let’s apply this to you
Do you find yourself always pleasing other people?
Are you putting yourself last and feeling busy and unfulfilled?
Do you find your day goes by so fast and you're tired and a bit annoyed?
Does everyone else seem to get the most out of you, and is there nothing left for you?
You don’t have to be in that rut. Do what I do.
Prioritize what’s important to you. Know what you really, really want.
It’s ok to put yourself first so you can show up as the best version of yourself for others.
Read more from Ramon Ray
Ramon Ray, Publisher, Event Host and Emcee
Ramon Ray is unapologetically positive. He's the publisher of Zone of Genius and founder of Celebrity CEO. Ramon's an in-demand motivational keynote speaker, event host. Fired from the United Nations, graduate of the FBI Citizens Academy and interviewd President Obama. He loves making the world a better place.
