In the recent half a year or so, I have been developing this little morning cycle that helps me boost my overall daily performance and focus. It is something that took me some time to figure out but after finding what works the best for me, I am now able to wake up and kick my day off pretty much habitually (without using up much of my conscious energy). I’ve learned to understand and utilize the power of a morning routine and my aim for this article is to give you 3 tips (or steps if you may) you can build your morning routine around.

#1 – Meditation, Gratefulness & Visualization

In my personal morning routine, I have developed a habit of waking up and going directly into positive thoughts about the upcoming day. When I open my eyes I instantly lead my mind to positivity. I aim to think something along the lines of – “I can achieve whatever I set my mind to, I am making it happen, I’ve got this, I will win over this day.” This supports my feeling of motivation and determination for the day. Directly after that, I go into meditation. This I do in two different ways, either I sit down calmly and meditate, or I have also started practicing some active meditation such as Tai-chi. The purpose of this is to approach your subconscious mind that you can utilize in the next part of this, which can be visualization. Daily visualization of your goals and dreams in the present tense is something incredibly beneficial for the long run (law of attraction and other reasons).

#2 – Reading

The second tip I would say is very useful to utilize in your morning routine is setting up 30-60 minutes purely for reading a book in the area of your interest. This does not only stimulate your brain, but it can be the number 1 way you can use to outperform pretty much anyone. An average American reads 1 book a year, that is 10 books in 10 years. Developing the habit of reading 30-60 minutes every morning will lead to you finishing 3-5 books a month. This will turn into about 40-50 books a year, which turns into 400-500 books in 10 years. Do you think you can outperform someone who read 10 books as opposed to your 500?

#3 – Exercise

Your mornings are the most important time of your day. Why? Because you have the mental energy to finish very heavy tasks, which you might not be able to execute as well later in the day. I always finish my morning routine by setting out to my workout. Simply put, I get the hardest thing done first. Another huge benefit of morning workouts is that your body will feel energized for the rest of the day (not even mentioning the wave of endorphins after you finish your workout). Furthermore, your body will thank you for keeping it healthy on a daily basis 🙂

You might also find it useful waking up a bit earlier so you have more time to put into these activities. You really don’t need to sleep 8-9 hours. 7 is more than enough! Go to sleep on time and give yourself a strong power-up in the morning!

We are all very busy people. Busy with our studies, with our jobs, busy browsing on social media, busy watching Netflix or busy building our dreams. Whatever it is, modern society puts you in a position where you have absolutely no time left for yourself. It is your job to understand this and to create that time. The time for solitude, the time for meditation, the time for peace and also the time to pay attention to your health. More than 50 million Americans are considered obese and many millions of them suffer from something called mortal obesity. What does that mean? That means that their life is threatened by the condition they’re in as it can lead to many diseases often connected with heart problems. Is this a problem? Absolutely. How do you expect someone to make their vision become a reality when they’re struggling with their own health? How do you expect someone to live the life they want to live when they can’t even handle their own health? In this article, I will give you 5 rules you can utilize in your daily diet to keep yourself going for the big 100 and above.

The picture above represents obesity rates in Australia in June 2018

#1 Rewire Your Thinking about Food

Many people are stuck with the ideology that food should bring you pleasure and happiness. They think about the taste and the pleasure it brings them. As human beings, we are programmed to shift from pain to pleasure, thus food can often serve as a motivator. This is a fundamentally flawed method of thinking because food should serve as a fuel for our body. Start thinking about your body as a car. Depending on the quality of the fuel you use, it will either work for a long time or it will break down in a couple of years. Feed your body healthy, light foods and start looking for pleasure in your long-term vision!

#2 Eat The Right Foods

This might sound too complex to execute, but it really isn’t. It isn’t that hard to look up where to go to eat out, is it? In the same way, it isn’t hard to look up how you should structure your diet based on the results you want to see. Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to gain weight? Do you want to strengthen your body? Do you want more energy? All the materials for you to learn what you need to do are out there. All you need to do is be smart about it and look for reliable sources.

#3 See The 3 Poisons? Run!

Use these 5 rules to bump up your health and performance. In the long run, you will see a huge, huge difference. You will not understand how can the people around you be so tired all the time. And you will hit that 100 years mark. It is not a matter of coincidence, it is a matter of design and consistency.

As you can probably tell by now, we’re all about self-development and empowerment of others here at The Real Life Education. Self-development and personal growth has been viewed by many as a school of thought that has been growing in popularity in the last couple of years. It has been getting more and more attention as people have started understanding its true power. What I want to give you in this article are simple 3 steps you should focus on as you start engaging in this journey of growth and continuous learning. Write them down somewhere in your notebook and think about how you can apply these 3 steps in the area of your interest.

Step 1: Arise in The Morning and Read 30-60 Minutes in The Area of Your Interest

This step is incredibly important. Why? Because it will help you in more than just one single way. Firstly, it will help you start your day productively. You will feel amazing after your reading session in the morning. You will also feel super ahead as most people are sleeping and you’re already putting in the work to grow yourself. Additionally, if you read 30-60 minutes each day, this will add up to about one book per week. The average American reads less than one book per year. If you read one book per week, this will add up to about 50 books each year. As it happens, to earn a Ph.D. from a major university requires the reading and synthesis into a dissertation of about 40 to 50 books (Million Dollar Habits). If you develop this habit and stick to it for long enough, there is no way you won’t be able to outperform anyone around you. All you need to do is look at the greater picture. This is something called The Compound Effect (also a very good book by the way). In 5 years, you will have read about 250 books – exactly 245 more than an average American. In 10 years, it will be 500 books – 490 books more than an average American. What a boost!!

Step 2: Develop The Habit of Attending Every Possible Seminar You Can

The second step you should take is to start your research. Start looking up events close to the place where you stay. Seminars are amazing as they allow you to put yourself in a room full of people who are heading in the same direction. They are an amazing place to learn from the best as well as to network, create connections and grow with others. They are also very practical because you usually get to speak to the speaker after the seminar. This makes them more engaging both in terms of creating relationships and gaining knowledge and expertise in your area of interest. There are many, many more benefits that can be specific to the seminars you attend. Get proactive!

Step 3: Listen to Audios Whenever You Can

The last, but not the least important step is listening to podcasts as often as possible. Podcasts allow you to learn on the move. In the commute, when cooking, walking your dog, exercising, etc. It is one of the most effective ways of learning. Podcasts connect you with an expert in the area of your interest and allow you to listen to that person’s experiences, tips, and tricks. These audios also help you get back on the positive note of your day. Listening to successful people on a daily basis will not only build your mindset but also expand your vision as you understand that what they did is possible. Look them up and start listening!!

One very important tip to remember is carrying a little notebook or using your phone to make notes. Always, always, always make notes. Review them and pick the steps you can utilize to grow.

One of the most natural acts for a human being like me and you is to socialise. We have conversations all day, every day. What surprises me is the fact that most people have no idea how to handle a conversation, or how to lead one properly. Today, I want to talk about 3 major ways how you can direct a conversation towards a positive outcome that you might be looking for. Do you want to maintain your rent? Using these 3 methods to discuss this with the landlord will increase your chances tremendously. All of these 3 ideas come from the book called How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

Begin in A Friendly Way

Every conversation you ever have, be it to scold someone or to beg for something, should be started in a friendly way. This is the most basic skill of a successful conversationalist. Imagine that you are coming to one of your bosses to talk about your salary. What do you think will happen if you come up with an angry tone complaining that your coworkers are getting paid more for the same amount of job you do? What you hear is: “Boss, I have a family to feed, can you help me?” However, what your boss hears is: “Hey! You are the most unjust guy under the sun! How come you pay the others more than me?! You better increase my paycheck!” Always remember that starting a conversation is about making a good connection with the other person, which you can build on throughout the conversation. Don’t just get straight to the business, small talk matters. Utilise it to your advantage and get on a good side of the other person. Give a compliment, ask about the person’s mood and show that you care. This way, your conversations will become more positive and straight forward.

Get The Other Person Saying “Yes, yes” Immediately

This ability builds up on the first skill I spoke about. Creating a positive environment around the conversation is very important. After starting the conversation in a friendly way, your next goal is to reinforce the fact that you mean good in the other person’s mind. You want to reinforce the idea that you both have the same purpose in the conversation, although the method might differ. You can do this through putting through some questions you know the other person will agree to – will actively say “yes.” For instance, if you are meeting your landlord to discuss your rent, you might want to start talking about how nice the place is. You can choose sentences like: “I really like this place, it must have taken a lot of effort decorating it, right?” Or if you know anything more in detail about the landlord, you could say: “I know that there are some other tenants that are quite hard to deal with, it must have been hard on you.” Choose the sentences that you know he will probably agree with. This way, he will start thinking – this guy is really good, he’s kind and I agree with most of what he says. This conclusion will make a huge difference in the landlord’s attitude towards your request later on.

Let The Other Person Do A Great Deal of The Talking

Something that people love is to talk about their issues, about their views and about their experiences. Have you ever met someone who just threw up all his issues at you in the period of 10 minutes? People need to do that from time to time and the fact that you understand it and support it will make them love you. When you’re managing a conversation, ask a lot of questions and be patient with your answers. Let the other person finish completely and then ask questions to clarify or to expand on what they’ve already said. What this will do for you is that it will make them feel respected and appreciated, which gives you constant rapport and leniency from their side. In short, people should leave you happier than they were before they came to you and this is the way to achieve that.

There is a question I have been always struggling to answer… What is the most common reason why people give up on their goals & dreams? However, in the last few months, I have been slowly uncovering the answer to this question. Now, I think I have finally found it. People give up because life happens. We all have our own goals & dreams, but we also have our own hardships & struggles. We always account for the hardships that are on the way leading to the target we’ve set up for ourselves. What we fail to account for are the hardships that happen outside of that path, in life. The fact that is the hardest to accept is that we can’t accurately predict and account for these issues. You can’t possibly account for a disease occurring in your family or for a financial bankruptcy of your close friend. Things like this will happen in life, so how can you prepare yourself for them so that you will be able to maintain your consistency on the way towards your dreams?

Find Your Anchor

To successfully prevent our failure to cope with such issues, we need to create something in our lives that will hold us to our path and keep us accountable to ourselves. A something that makes you stick to your path no matter what, a something that helps you overcome any unexpected but inevitable issues that will occur in your life. We need to identify an anchor in our lives that will help to hold us close to our ambition, exactly like the anchor on the picture above holds the boat stuck to the bottom of the sea. In the next part of the article, I will talk about a few ways you can make this a reality for yourself.

Find a reason why you should make it to the finish line

In many, many of our articles we mention the concept of the why. Why? Because it is the number one, central, most important concept that will make you stick to your path. Put very simply, if you know why you’re doing it, you are very likely to stick to it. This obviously involves many aspects of reminding yourself of your why and developing it further. Visualisation, spoken word and mentorship are a few aspects of this that will help you understand your why and stick to it.

Find someone you will be accountable to

In addition, mentorship not only provides you with the opportunity to cooperate with and learn from an already well-experienced individual but also to stay accountable to him. This is very well visible in many gyms, where you can get a personal coach. They will not only come up with a gameplan for you, talk to you about your goals and motivate you, they will also serve as an anchor for you. When you feel down, when you feel like you don’t want to work out today, you will think of your coach/mentor and you will make it happen. Assuming that you are a responsible and mature human being, the sense of accountability will keep you grounded and moving.

Develop a daily routine of self-development

Having a strong habit in place that helps you grow as a person and that keeps you moving forward is something incredibly powerful. It keeps you grounded and motivated to move forward. What is the greatest issue with that? Many people have an issue developing this habit in the first place. So when their life starts going downhill, they don’t have anything to stick to. Dig your well before you’re thirsty. Develop a habit of reading, listening and associating with positive individuals every day. This will keep you on your path no matter the scale of the hardship you might be going through is.

Always remember that the strongest anchors come from within. Your internal motivation beats your external motivation every second of the day. That’s a fact. Find your anchor and grow it. Screw safety plans, burn the ships and develop anchors instead. Move forward and never look back. And know that if you do, your anchors will turn your face forward again.