The Basics: Habits and Routines

November 28, 2022

On episode #173 of my Monday Morning Pep Talk, I’m discussing the necessity to commit to productive HABITS and RITUALS. You must realize what the majority of super achievers have figured out - that massive action is not what makes them successful. What makes a super achiever successful is the tiny, daily, weekly habits and rituals, executed consistently over a long period of time. As James Clear states in his best-selling book ‘Atomic Habits,’ "Habits are the compound interest of self -improvement." He goes on to say that "getting just 1% better every day for a year will result in a 37.78 times improvement.” This is why habits and rituals are a "basic" ingredient for success. Mix all of these ingredients together and you've got yourself a masterpiece. Habits and rituals have a key role in the recipe of success. They are the flour in your cake recipe. If you do not implement productive and consistent habits and rituals, you will plateau and over time you'll actually take a step back.

We talk a lot about business planning during the 4th quarter. Obviously, it’s the time of year when we're trying to finish the year strong, take stock in our progress and plan our next initiatives. Effective planning includes 5 major areas:

  • Life Planning: a 30,000-foot view of your life's goals over the next 12-15 years. This is your life list, your bucket list.
  • 3 Year Vision: this a large part of the 12WY planning process. Your north star which will act as your theme over and during a 3-year cycle. This is your 12,000-foot view.
  • Quarterly Initiative:  Your 3-year cycle will be broken down into 12 actionable quarters addressing the "low hanging fruit" in your life and business. Quarterly, your view is just under the clouds.
  • Weekly:  Each quarter has 12 weeks to execute and ends with a 13th week. You give yourself a weekly goal that will be vital to helping your hit your quarterly goal.  You can see the runway.
  • Daily: If you win each day, you'll win the week. If you win the week, you'll win the quarter. If you win the quarter, your 3-year vision will become a reality. If you stack enough winning 3-year cycles, you'll win life. To win the day, you must win the morning. All success begins and ends with how you develop and stay consistent with your daily habits and routines.

On a scale of 1-10, how productive are your daily and weekly habits and rituals? (10 being "highly successful,” 1 being "my habits and rituals are poor and are actually hurting my life and business.”)

Is it possible that if you are not ranking yourself at least an 8, you should focus your next quarterly initiative on your daily and weekly HABITS and ROUTINES?

I'm going to rank my Top 3 HABITS AND RITUALS in order of importance:

Morning Ritual:  If you win the morning by 9:00 a.m., you will definitely win the day. You should include in your morning ritual, time to think (meditation), exercise, planning and self-development.  Change your sleep schedule so you can get up and be prepared for your day prior to game time. You will need at least 2 hours to get up, freshen up, wake up, straighten up, meditate, work out, journal, plan, get caught up on email, shower and get ready prior to 9:00 a.m.!  By 9:00 a.m., you need to be ready to execute on your day and handle the immediate items that get thrown your way throughout the course of your day.  With a morning ritual, you will be ahead of the rampage of emails, calls, and immediate needs for help. If you wake up and try to start your day once “game time” starts, your clients will notice your average level of execution.

Those who have implemented a serious lifestyle habit around their mornings are winning and are happier. I have seen the success with it too many times to believe otherwise.

With a morning ritual, you will be happier and feel more in control.

Start by moving your day just a 1/2 hour. Go to bed at 10:30 p.m. instead of 11:00 p.m. and then move to it 10:00 p.m. Get up at 5:00 a.m. instead of 6:00 a.m. and tell me how your day goes in comparison to your old lifestyle. You’ll probably sleep better because your day will have been less hectic.

The goal: get to 2 hours of "me time" in the morning before you enter the arena.

Evening Ritual: Take 15-20 minutes at the end of the day to review what you've accomplished and what is outstanding and take time to document what needs to get pushed to tomorrow.

Sunday Ritual: Take an hour and review all of your texts, calls, emails and calendar appointments from the previous week, and document any priorities for the coming week. After you wrap up your open houses and appointments on Sunday, take 1/2 hour to an hour and review all of your text messages, your calendar, your notes, and your voicemails and transcribe them over to your “Task Management System.” Use this list to supplement your “To Do” list (more on this later). By doing this you are putting a wrap on the previous week so you can move into the coming week with a clear mind that you’ve not let anything slip through the cracks.

Team, these 3 habits and rituals allow you to play on offense, not defense during the day and the week. You’ll provide better service to your clients, create referrals because you build a reputation for being calm and in control and will simply enjoy your life more because you will feel like you are in control.

YOU BECOME YOUR HABITS.

Here are some book recommendations and other MMPTs you might find helpful:

And last but not least, I'm going back into the archives of Take Flight and will give you my "Daily Time Management" form in this week's email and linked on my website here. It's a daily form you can fill out to help you create your daily flow. It will give you an opportunity to plan and document the following things:

  • Your 1-Year Goal
  • Your 3-Year Goal
  • Your Breakthrough Goal
  • The 3 Things You Must Accomplish by 7:00 a.m.
  • The 5 Clients/Prospects You Must Contact that Day
  • The 7 Top Things I Must Accomplish Today

There is a lot in this episode and that is by design.  I wrote it so you can use it as a guide for a quarterly initiative. Many of you will see dramatic results almost immediately if you win in this area of your life and business.  It's low-cost, high-impact and just takes commitment on your part to become a different version of you.