5 ways to complicate your morning routine

Many articles about the "habits of rich people" tell us that morning routines are incredibly important.

Tom Corley, in his book Change Your Habits, Change Your Life, finds that 50 percent of successful millionaires get out of bed 2-3 hours before they get directly to work. Why is this so? Because these people invest their mornings in activities that will help them grow even better. Reading, planning their own day, thinking, exercising.

People who have had some success - more often than not - are very busy. We want to change the world, and in the process take the best fruit for ourselves. How do billionaires manage to spend a lot of hours developing themselves when we often don't even get to eat breakfast?

Here are five ways to make your morning routine more comprehensive, and a few habits that help make it easier.

Chances are, you've already read the myriad of articles that talk about the habits of billionaires and have decided to take on the whole list at once and bring all 10 habits into your life. You may live like this for a few days, or even weeks-you'll have a hard time changing your routine, and you'll decide to end up with the pressure that comes when you change your own habits and eventually it will all come down to nothing. Your subconscious mind always dislikes giving up on already established norms and so giving up will be much easier for it than failing. Failure is absolutely normal when we decide to take on an overwhelming number of tasks.

Our brains love to repeat one thing. We get stuck on repeating what we've already done once before. Especially if we already have a lot of some serious and difficult things to do, it's much easier for the brain to go back to some habit we're used to doing. If you can focus on one habit and it's doable for you - then eventually - you can build it up to automatism. When habits are safe for the brain - it will begin to relax. Instead of thinking about the possible failure or discomfort that many new habits bring you - you begin to adjust your new routine step by step and it will be much more lasting.

You try to follow the morning routine that your business or personal growth consultant has suggested to you. After all, who better to figure it out than the person you're paying money to? Even though you don't doubt that person's qualifications and are sincerely trying to follow their objectives, you may feel that fully executing the entire strategy may be completely impossible. You may just be drifting, or you may have begun to sink. Trying to use someone else's solution in your own life can undermine your effectiveness and your sense that you've done your duty--that's what leads to total burnout.

It's very difficult when the focus of your actions is on doing exactly what you "should" be doing. Try to focus on what gets your dopamine produced. Use it to your own advantage. This happy substance is released in us every time we do something that brings us results and pleasure-it is the most positive feeling for us. If you can choose those habits that feel good to you - then you will perfectly strengthen your daily routine so that willpower won't even compete with the pleasure your new habits bring you.

Yes, it will not gonna be easy. It's just that it's much easier to follow your habits when you're not afraid of them and when you're not avoiding them. Discuss this with your personal counselor, perhaps he or she can help you make a new plan that best reflects your desires. If they can't help you find the perfect solution, you may want to find someone who can help.

If you find it hard to feel your own effectiveness in the morning and you lack the energy you need to achieve your goals-then think about why you force yourself to get up early in the morning. Do you think this is the only way to achieve your goals?

In fact, this option would not be universal. After all, even the percentages prove that many of the successful people do not get up early in the morning. 

Try to find out when your rhythms and concentration are at their natural peak. Maybe you're just a night owl, who feels much better at night, and if you get up early it's much harder for you to tune in at work. Many people catch themselves that they can't do self-development if they don't get all their problems taken care of during the day.

On the other hand, sometimes it happens that it's not just the natural rhythms of your body, but the rhythm of your loved ones' lives. Your partner's schedule, children, or even pets can all affect your own rhythm.

Struggling with it will only waste your energy and time. Try an effective and quick ritual - 15 minutes of yoga or walking outdoors. The more serious and heavy habits of the successful person put off a little later, when they come naturally to you.

You may have already tried making your habit easy, but you still haven't succeeded in making it permanent. Usually people who are trying to succeed - expect a lot. People who have a perfectionist mindset - take their endeavors to an extreme and often feel like failures because they fail to live up to all of their ambitions or heavy standards. In such people, one failure in a day can seriously shake their morale.

Remember that life is hard, and failure happens even to the most successful. The most successful people are those who can extract success from situations where things don't work out the way we thought they would. Many successful businessmen have had setbacks with the development of their first business, not all actors get their first role right away after their first casting call. Your mental and emotional flexibility will help you develop your own success and will serve as a great tool for you to build consistency among your habits and routines.

Make sure this plan won't be hard to follow even on your busiest days, when something unimaginable happens and there's only clutter and confusion around. Flexibility and your ability to switch to something else will build your resilience and strength.

Our brains are always trying to find stereotypes and some patterns to standardize our thinking. The brain tries to follow the path where there will be the least resistance. So why is it so hard for us to develop habits in ourselves that we are certain of? To put it bluntly, we don't believe these habits will last. We live by this principle of "if we don't have a challenge, it won't change us," and yet our brains believe that this principle applies absolutely everywhere.

When we're trying to create a habit, that principle isn't quite right. Brushing our teeth wasn't such a problem after preschool, and we kept doing it because we knew it would save us money on trips to the dentist and help us look better in the future. Over time, we manage to create a habit that seems uncomplicated because it no longer takes mental effort to do it. Our brains will not get caught up in something that distracts us and that will eat up our energy.

The hygiene habit becomes much easier when the toothbrush is exactly where we always pick it up from. If we do it at the same time every day, we don't waste time trying to find that brush. The same goes for the regular morning routine. Make a list of what you would like to do in the morning. Decide what rituals will be in your routine and what you need to do them successfully. Choose a place to keep things for your routine from where you can get them without problems or wasting time.

Of course you can't give up clutter completely, especially when it comes to dealing with your inner self. Creating habits in ourselves takes a lot of effort, and when we look at these habits in other people we should always ask ourselves - will these habits work for us?