The 7-Step Executive Morning Routine to Achieve Your Goals

I know what you’re thinking – “Oh boy, another person telling me to wake up early and seize the day.”

THIS IS NOT WHAT THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT.

What this article is about is having a consistent morning routine that happens every single day regardless of what time you wake up! I know you’ve read articles about CEO’s or entrepreneurs that wake up every day at 2 AM, meditate for 5 hours, workout out for 4 hours, yoga for 2 hours, then eat a organically harvest grain bagel from their backyard with their farm fresh eggs sourced from the farms of Oregon while sipping their cruelty-free coffee with a dash of homemade almond milk, etc., etc., etc. This is not about that. (Yes, I do wake up early but I know it’s not for everyone.) 

I want to share you with you the key components of a successful morning routine that I’ve done consistently over the last decade that has allowed me absolutely crush my day and achieve my goals. Is this the perfect formula? No – but the components are put together so you can CRAFT YOUR PERFECT morning routine from this article! First, let’s talk quickly about a few reasons why a morning routine is so critical and why you see the most successful people in the world have a routine:

1. It trains your mind to prepare for the day! Have you ever noticed that when you drive the same route every single day, there are times you’ll drive it and suddenly be at work? Although this is a dangerous example (from a safe driving perspective), it means your brain has mapped the neural pathways for decision-making. When you have a consistent routine, it trains your mind for the activities you are going to do!
2. It allows you start the day with intention! This is a critical one – life is full of distractions and this allows you to be intentional with what YOU want to do vs. what others what you do to!
3. It helps you frame your mindset! You choose to have a good day or bad day regardless of what happens. Remember that circumstances don’t determine how they make you feel – YOU determine it!
4. It helps you focus! Similar to intention or mindset, this allows you to have control on your key initiatives and tasks for the day so you can make decisions or adjust priorities.
5. It helps reduce your stress! This is self-explanatory and ties directly to self-fulfillment!

With all that being said, here are the 7 key steps I believe are critical for a morning routine:

1. Wake up at the same time every day! When you wake up the same time every day, it trains your mind to know “IT’S GO TIME!” Does that mean every day is easy – NO. However, human beings are a creature of habit and that trains your mind to do it! Whether you wake up at 4 AM or 8 AM, make it consistent. I wake up every day at 5 AM (for the most part – some days are earlier due to travel) and then go right into the following steps!
2. Inspiration – Waking up early can be hard! That’s why I believe it’s important to start with a little bit of inspiration or motivation in the morning. Everyone has different ways of doing it from writing their goals down, watching YouTube motivational videos, etc. I like to take 15 minutes and review motivational quotes on Instagram! I love quotes and short motivational clips so I browse some of my favorite pages and hashtags as some days different quotes hit home for me! I also like to inspire others so I post daily at 5 AM as well and you can check that out and follow me here on Instagram!
3. Physical Workout – After laying down for 6-8 hours, it is critical you get the blood flowing through your whole body! You should spend some time doing stretching, yoga, or some sort of physical exercises based on your fitness goals! Blood flow and increased oxygen into your blood stream and brain are critical for high performance brain function! For me, I stretch for 5 minutes and then do a 30-minute intense workout that involves 8 minutes of abs and 22 minutes of approximately 360-480 repetitions of a specific muscle group dependent on the day. It’s not for everyone but you NEED SOMETHING!
4. Emotional/Spiritual Refill – Next you should have some sort of emotional/spiritual refilling of that bucket. Some may pray, meditate, read religious text, etc. For me, I like to spend a little time with my wife and kiddo. It may not be perfect as sometimes they are still asleep. :)

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1. Goals Review – After this, you need to help focus your energy on big picture goals. This may include looking at your vision board, goals on the mirror, writing your goals out, etc. I like to read my 1 year and 5 year goals to myself in my car before I take off. This helps me ensure that my first tasks of the day are driving towards my big goals!
2. Affirmations – Next up, I believe in the power of language and having powerful affirmations that help motivate and inspire you! These should be affirmations you say that motivate you and get you going. Yes, it may seem silly but saying them with ENERGY and CONFIDENCE will simply make you feel good! If you ever watch any performance artist or athlete before they begin, you’ll see many are PUMPING themselves up with different affirmations! I go through a series of affirmations in my car that gets me FIRED UP to get after my day, which sets the INTENTION as well!
3. Learn – You should spend some time learning now as ultimately the more you feed your mind, the more you learn! Some may time to read, listen to podcasts, or audio books. My go-to are audio books as that gives me 30 minutes of learning from different authors and experts turning my car into a mobile university!

So there you have it – the 7 steps to an executive morning routine to crush your day! I believe these steps will help you start your day with intention, reduce your stress, and will ultimately help you achieve your goals. Each step’s amount of time is dependent on you to fill your emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental energy buckets. Some of these may take longer than others dependent on which bucket is larger for you! So now it’s time to take action – what’s your morning going to look like? How will you craft a powerful routine?

If you liked this article, feel free to comment and share below!

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Marcus Chan is an award-winning results and people-driven executive sales leader. Over the last decade, Marcus has been promoted 10X in 10 years and has been ranked in the top percentile of every company and every role he has been in. He is passionate about helping others reach their maximum potential. You can follow him on Instagram here for daily motivation! Please re-share this article if you found value in it.