I get it; this isn’t easy, but when have you ever heard anyone say “life was easy?” We shouldn’t be surprised when something challenges us and then when we fail at it. This is how the process of learning and overcoming happens. You may be thinking to yourself, I work 50+ hours per week, have 2 kids, and I even have 3 gerbils at home. How in the world am I supposed to fit more into my life? Well, let’s shift your perspective a little bit first. As busy as you may be, there’s always someone busier. They may work full time, have 3 kids, and 6 gerbils, yet somehow they get so much more accomplished! They stay in shape, always seem to be happy, have energy to play with their kids, and they even go on a few vacations every year! What the crap right!?

Here’s where you need to stop playing victim and empower your inner hero voice. “If they can do it, so can I!” Isn’t that how it’s supposed to go? Of course it is! Isn’t it possible that those people that seem to get so much more done than you may have some habits that you could adopt in order to help you get done more? Of course they do! 

Think about it, the very first decision of your day is to procrastinate when you hit the snooze button. If you don’t think this seemingly minor habit doesn’t manifest itself in other larger ways in your life, you may be slightly delusional. How you do the little things is how you do all things. So when that annoying alarm clock goes off in the morning, make the decision to get up right away. Get vertical, go brush your teeth, take a leak, and go get your first task done, which for me is to get the pre-workout down and get the my brain and nervous system stimulated to throw down with some kettlebells in 30 minutes.

Working out early is an acquired taste. I’ll bet the first beer you drank in life wasn’t awesome either; I’ll just leave it at that. Working out first thing in the morning is one of the most rewarding habits you can create in your life. You know as well as I do, that the longer your day goes on, the more the excuses and obstacles will present themselves to encourage you to NOT workout. What a massive WIN it is for you to get that out of the way first thing in the morning, get a rush of endorphins, and really feel like you’re awake when you head to work. When you honor your body first thing in the morning, you tend to honor it in other healthy ways, like not indulging in the donuts at the local feed trough at work.

Burn an extra calorie or two by going where most other humans aren’t willing to go, and because most humans are incredibly lazy, this won’t overburden you. I’m talking about parking in the back of the parking lot rather than circling the parking lot looking for the closest parking spot. Take the stairs at work instead of the elevator, unless you’re in a high rise and it just isn’t practical, but for most people it certainly is. Little things like this add up over the course of a year. Even if you accrue an extra 100 calories burned because you do these small things, if everything else is consistent, which it never is, but just to show you how small things can lead to big things, that 100 calories multiplied by 365 could actually leads to 10lbs of weight loss over the year. Sound a lot better than the 10lb fat gain most get annually.

Take time to continue to learn. Leaders are readers and you’ll be amazed at how energizing it is to learn a new skill, or take on a new side business, or simply get better at one of your hobbies. Most importantly, you’ll be amazed at how much better you think! Thinking is a perishable skill, and judging by how crazy our culture has become, I’d say people have lost their abilities to think well and are allowing society and whatever culture it’s selling to their thinking for them. That’s lazy thinking folks.

This is the cousin to the first habit of never hitting the snooze button in the morning. You know how you feel when you don’t get enough sleep. If it’s anything like I feel, I’m ornery, I’m hungry, and I do far less than my best work. Poor sleep is usually habit based, not some disorder or what have you. If you’re obese and have sleep apnea, well, when’s the last time you tried sleeping while not being obese? That may be a harsh point to make, but it’s a valid point, and maybe one of the most common sleep disorders people have. The problem isn’t the sleep, the problem is the obesity. In any event, going to sleep and getting 7+ hours will really set you up for enough product energy to get you through your day.