Running to Catch Up or Leading the Pack? The Morning Routines of Successful People

“You don’t expect a thor­ough­bred race­horse to per­form at its peak with­out prop­er care, so why expect this of your­self?” — Your Oxy­gen Mask First

How we start any­thing is very, very impor­tant – a meet­ing, a con­ver­sa­tion, or a rela­tion­ship – and one thing I’ve noticed is that high-per­form­ing peo­ple are con­sis­tent with how they start their day. Morn­ing rou­tines of suc­cess­ful peo­ple often begin with self care, includ­ing prac­tic­ing Resilience Rit­u­als (Chap­ter 3, Your Oxy­gen Mask First) that help them to get ahead of the day, instead of chas­ing it.

I recent­ly got back to mine, after slip­ping for a while, and what a dif­fer­ence they make!

My Rit­u­als fall into two realms: per­son­al and busi­ness. I first exer­cise or get out in nature to take care of my Self, and then I lick one of my toads to take care of the tough­est thing I have to do, first. Get­ting them done by 7:30 or 8:00 am cre­ates amaz­ing momen­tum. It sounds pret­ty basic but, with­out them, I’m not at my best.

It’s the dif­fer­ence between run­ning to catch up or lead­ing the pack.

With dai­ly Resilience Rit­u­als, it’s feels like you’ve already won the race before you hit 9:00 am.

The Chal­lenge

• What are your Resilience Rit­u­als for your Self and Work?
• If you don’t have them, what are two sim­ple things you can do every morn­ing to lead the day?