What’s the one key success habit that ALL successful people apply daily? How can you end the year strong? How can you be more productive in less time? How would you like to see your life improve in ALL areas right now?
I’m going to teach the one habit ALL successful people do. Even better? It doesn’t usually cost you a dime!
If you want to know what to DO each day to be more successful, then listen in!
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The Secret ALL Successful People Know
We talked on the show about how to create more cashflow, have more freedom and more prosperity right now. You can also get a lot of those types of materials and education, and further things that way if you go to MoneyRipples.com. There are great blogs and posts that I put on there that are wonderful, and webinars that we do. Things like that, you’ll want to definitely check out.
The Hour Of Power
In this episode, I want to talk about the one successful habit that all successful people do. It’s one thing to try to be different. It’s another thing to try to have what successful people have. Oftentimes, to get that, you need to start doing the very things that they do as well. I’ve started to associate with a lot of people over the last several years from all walks of life. Those that are multi-decade millionaires, up and coming in business, and have been there, done that, and still doing it today.
You’ll see something in common with all of them, both from those that I’ve personally known as well as those I’ve heard about. I’ve heard some of their perspectives. Whether it be from a distance, their books or interviews they’ve done, you’ll see that they all tend to have one thing in common. It’s not just success or money. It doesn’t work like that, but they tend to do something very similar.
These are people that don’t necessarily know each other. These are people that don’t have a secret club or anything like that, where they’re all getting together and saying, “Let’s do the same thing,” but they all tend to do the same habits. There are several habits I could probably share with you that many of them have in common, but I’m going to share one routine or one type of habit that they do that can also be done whether you have money or not.
This can be done whether you’re just beginning or you’re later in the stages. No matter what, this is useful for everyone. It becomes not just a habit of success but it becomes a life habit, something you do day after day after day. What is the secret? It’s simply this. Some people would call it different names. Tony Robbins called this the hour of power. I’ve heard it called, the power hour. I’ve also heard people call it the morning ritual. Whatever you want to call it, every person that I know that’s successful will wake up and they’ll do something to help invigorate their bodies and minds. In many cases, it invigorates their spirits. They want to be fed physically, mentally and spiritually.
Tony Robbins called it the hour of power or I’ve heard power hour. You’ve probably heard me even reference that from time to time. Power hour could be a little bit misleading if you use that term because it does not have to take an hour. You might do some things that might take more time, but it may not take an extra hour or more out of your day. There are some things I’ll teach you here that I use personally to be able to integrate that into my day where it doesn’t take up a lot of extra time. Whether you call it the power hour or the morning ritual, whatever you call it, either way, it’s the same.
Every person that's successful wakes up and does something to help invigorate their bodies, minds, and spirit. Click To TweetWhy Do We Do It?
Let me describe what this is but let’s first describe why we do it. Here’s the reason why we do the power hour or this morning ritual. Have you ever heard the example of sharpening the saw? If you’re a logger, you’re not going to chop down or saw down trees with a dull saw. You waste tons of time, effort and energy not getting the results you want.
This is true with people in real life. Many people just keep going like chickens with their heads cut off. They keep running around and being frantic, or they become lost, dazed and confused. They wonder why they get mediocre results. The reason why you do this ritual or routine each day is because you don’t want to be mediocre. You don’t want to have average or even below-average results. You want to be successful. You want to excel and maximize your potential. You want to do more. You want to expand your stewardship as we talked about so often on the show. You want to do more with your life. The way to do that is through this. This is the beginning point. These are the starting stages. If you have this down path and you’re doing this on a daily basis, your odds of success are dramatically increased.
You’ll find out that you’re more productive during the day. You’ll save more time because you’ll get more done in less time. You won’t be like most people who wake up in the morning and they either roll out of bed and start getting ready for work, or they might wake up and check their emails, social media or Facebook. They’ll do all those things or these rituals or routines. What happens is you end up losing the day. You spend a lot of time trying to get going. You might try to get that cup of coffee to get you moving or whatever it might be, or that Big Gulp from 7-Eleven. You’re trying to do all those things to wake yourself up. You’re hoping that by 11:00 or so, you’re starting to wake up, but by that time it’s almost lunch.
You’re then like, “It’s time to go to lunch.” You come back from lunch and start getting to go in the afternoon. Finally, by about 1:00 or 2:00, you’re moving and becoming productive. It’s just a few hours of the day left to go. You’ve lost a huge chunk of your day where you could perform absolute miracles. This is why we do this. It’s because we want to have your mind sharp, your body awake and alert, and yourself aligned and ready to go, and be able to deliver the greatest value possible. That’s the reason why I do mine on a daily basis. I’m not perfect. There are days that I miss, but the reason why I put so much pressure on it is because I have to come up with a good, solid and sincere why. Why do I truly want it?
For me, the reason I do this every day is because I know if I don’t do it, I’m taking value away from each of you and my clients. I’m taking value from those that I speak to, those that I teach and those that I show up for, whether it be in person. Maybe a stranger. That extra smile that I give that stranger might make their day. I don’t know. It gets me to show up and be more aware and be more powerful at the moment. When I don’t do it, I tend to drag through the day. I tend to feel lethargic. I don’t move as much. I feel more depressed a lot of times. Believe it or not, I do get a little bit depressed from time to time.
How To Do It? (Physical, Mental, Spiritual)
It’s not a permanent thing, but there are days when I have lower days than others. They don’t feel great. I’m not a huge morning person. I’m more of a night owl. A lot of times, I record these shows at night. I got to do this first thing of the day or I won’t be delivering the best possible value that I can give you. Let’s try it. What it is that you do? How do you do this each morning? Somebody will ask me, “Chris, I work at night. My morning is pretty much like my dinner time.” That’s fine. Whenever you do this, the first thing you got to remember is whatever time you choose to do this, it should be the time that that’s your morning.
If you do work a night shift, the question I would ask then is, “When do you wake up? After you’re done with your night shift, you come home and go to sleep, when do you wake up?” “I would probably wake up in the afternoon.” That is your morning. That is the time to do your morning ritual. That’s the case. Some people will say, “I’m a mom. I feel like right when I wake up, the kids are trying to go after me.” My wife can attest to that. She knows that to be true. Find ways to sprinkle it throughout the day or integrate it throughout your day. The earlier, the better. If you can get up earlier than your kids, that’s great. If they wake up super early, then send them with their dad and say, “Here, lay down with him,” even if he’s zoned out, drooling on his pillow. My wife has done that to me a few times.
Whatever it takes to be able to allow you to have that personal time, you need this time. This is absolutely essential. If you want to show up better and more productive for your kids and show up as a better parent for your kids, you need to do this routine. If you want to show up as a better spouse for your spouse, you want to do this. If you want to be better in all areas of your life, physically, mentally, spiritually, socially, financially, especially, you’ve got to do this.
I’ve had clients who will get on a call and you could tell that they’re not feeling abundant. They’re in a very scarce mood. The first thing I’ll ask is, “Have you guys done your power hour?” They’ll say, “No, I haven’t been very good lately.” My response is, “I can tell. It’s affecting you. Do that power hour. You won’t be able to make better money. You won’t be able to solve problems until you do it. I sent them back and make sure they go and do it.” Some I can’t do for you but it’s absolutely essential.
Let me get into the routine of what you do. When you wake up, whenever that morning hour is for you, you want to start out. You can mix this up however you want. Play with it and see what works best for you. This is where it works best for me. When I first wake up, I’m not awake. I’m not a natural morning person. I’m a habitual morning person. I’ve had to make myself a morning person even if I don’t want to be.
Every single day, it’s like hitting the reset button that I have to be able to be convinced. This is why I have to know why I’m doing it. If I didn’t feel the pressure of showing up as my best self every day for you guys, I don’t know if I would do it very consistently. There has got to be a reason why. When I wake up, I need to do the physical part first. I’ve got to wake my body up in order to get my mind awake.
For me, if I try some spiritual things first thing in the morning, I’ll fall asleep and pass out. If I do meditation when I first wake up, I’m gone. I’m out. If I try to pray, I fall asleep. Those things don’t work for me, but if I can get out and get my blood pumping, however that looks. For me, I do a few days where I do running. I do some other days where I do strength activities, things that work my body more from a strength angle, whether it’s lifting, push-ups, sit-ups, crunches or squats. It might be calisthenics. Whatever it is to get your body going in the morning, that’s what you want to do. I start out with physical activity to get my body going, and this does not have to take forever.
Your morning routine should start physical. If you start spiritual, you'll fall asleep. Get that blood pumping first. Click To TweetI got a few clients that are construction workers. They get up early to do construction work. That’s great. At least do a gorilla workout. Do something where you do a four-minute warm-up. Get yourself stretching and going. Four minutes where you kick your keister in the rear, and then four minutes where you cool down. It’s twelve-minutes total. That’s it. If you make use of those twelve minutes, you can get some good benefits from that.
Not that I think to do it long-term. I don’t think it’s the answer to everything but it can help. Some people will say, “Chris, I don’t like running.” Don’t run. Don’t do what you hate. Find something you enjoy. For example, I hate spinning classes. The class where you’re sitting on a stationary bike and pedaling for an hour. I can’t stand that. That’s horrible to me. I have to get out. I don’t care if it’s freezing. I don’t care if it’s almost below zero. I would rather get out and see the world than being stuck in a little room with a stationary bicycle, not even a real one.
That’s me personally, but some people love it. Some people want to go out for a walk. You say, “Chris, I have bad knees.” Do you have an upper body? Can you do something with that? Walk in your hands. I don’t care. Do something that at least gets your blood pumping, whatever that might look like. That’s the first thing.
The second thing is doing things from the mental realm. These are things where you might try to educate yourself more. This is where your phone could be handy or CDs, audiobooks or regular books that you’re reading like hard copies or paperbacks. Anything you’re trying to study to become better at, whatever that may be and whatever role you’re playing in your life. Those of you in business. It’s funny that l have people say, “Chris, I need to learn more about marketing” Have you got a book on it that you’re studying during your power hour? “No, I haven’t been doing that.” Why don’t you try that and start doing it?
For those of you that are trying to study some of the things that maybe I teach, listen to my shows as part of that routine. I love it. All kinds of things that you can do here to be able to get better. All these things to improve the things of how you think, the knowledge you gain, all of those things are part of that. That’s the mental portion. The spiritual portion can vary for different people. There are a lot of different varying beliefs, but whatever is suitable for you is great.
These are things to help you align with your true self and the core of who you are. For those of you that are more Christian, this might be reading the Bible, reading the scriptures of some sort or praying. I do a prayer of gratitude while I’m doing my workouts. Maybe not while I’m getting my keister kicked. Maybe not during the intense times, but maybe during the cool-down or those other times too. If I’m out for a jog, it is a great time for me to pray because I’ve got a lot of time to pray. There are things like that. I mentioned prayer or scriptures. There’s journal writing. Meditation is great. Some people like to paint as part of that or do something that makes them feel like it’s part of that, walking in nature, whatever it might be. Something that feels like you can connect with who you are and get centered. That’s the key.
I’ve seen so many people do this and they become more productive and not just busy. My own experience has been that when I’m centered in, some people call it source, I call it the God, whatever you call it. I go from a reactionary standpoint to a place of creation. For example, in other things I do, people say, “That was so timely.” I say, ”I can’t take credit. That was God speaking to me.” A lot of times it’s during the power hour. Sometimes this happens after I’m done with my power hour.
Sometimes when I’m taking a shower, I get some of my best insights or when I’m brushing my teeth. That bathroom time where you’re getting ready in the morning can be great. I call it my shower power. I start getting a flash of inspiration in the shower. The best place ever to get inspiration, especially when you’re like, “I can’t write on a piece of paper right now. I better remember this.” There are things you could do that way.
My Power Hour
When you start doing that and center it, when you start doing the spiritual, mental and physical, when you do those three areas, the other two areas in your life follow suit, which are your relationships and your money. Those are the effect and the cause of the spiritual, mental and physical. The effect of doing these things is your financial and social relationships. My routine is I get up in the morning and I workout.
One thing that I like to do, for those of you who have heard our earlier shows with Ann Webb in one of the interviews that we did, I like to listen to my Ideal LifeVision. That’s part of both the spiritual as well as the mental aspects of my power hour. I’m doing that while I’m working out. I also do a prayer of gratitude while I’m out working out. I love to get into a place of gratitude because when I do that, it’s amazing how much more powerful and how much more positive I feel when I’m done afterwards.
When I come home, I usually help my family get ready a little bit. When I get to sit down and eat, that’s when I usually study my scriptures. I’ll start to study some words and focus on my spiritual study then. I’ll do some mental study too. I’ll bring out books and read those. If I don’t get a whole lot then, if I’m going for a drive anywhere running errands or running to do some work-type stuff, I can listen to a CD in my car and start learning there.
The Results
There are all kinds of things or ways that you can do this and integrate it throughout your day. It doesn’t have to take a lot of extra time. Take that extra focus to stack it and make it work. That’s the key, physical, mental and spiritual. If you focus on those three key areas consistently over time, watch what will happen. You’ll see things start to happen like inspiration and those things that you get to say, “That was brilliant. I got to take action on that.”
The cause is the spiritual, mental, and physical. The effect of doing these things is your financial and social relationships. Click To TweetYou will take action faster than most people will. You’ll be awake by 8:00 or 9:00. You won’t be a dragon where it’s about 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon before you wake up for a few hours, and then you drink that five-hour energy drink to get going again. That’s not the case. You can see a lot of things happen. All successful people, not only do they have coaches, but one thing they do is a habit. They all habitually have some routine in the morning that they go and do.
This is my challenge to you. If you’re reading this first thing in the morning, awesome. I recommend you start doing this right away. If you’re doing this, wonderful. Find ways on how you can improve upon it and how you can increase the quality of what you’re doing. Not just the quantity but the quality. Can you get better in some of those areas? None of us is perfect. Can we make it better, whatever level you’re at? Some of you might be starting to do it. You might be spinning up a matter of minutes every day to get going. Whatever it is, start by doing it now. It’s so worth and it’s such key to my success.
I have my final story here that I’ll give you. You’ve heard this story before. The whole castle process that I created occurred during my power hour. It was one of those weird mornings. I was woken up at 4:00 AM. It was way earlier. Normally, I wouldn’t wake up that early, 5:30 or 6:00 is too early for me. I couldn’t go back to sleep. I remember going out for a jog and pondering on some questions I heard people ask. One of them is saying, “I wish I could have more money. I can’t rub two nickels together.”
I remember thinking, “I know you have money. I know we could find it.” All of a sudden, that’s when those ideas and all those things came to my mind. Some of which are the ones you see in that eBook on my website, Beyond Rice & Beans. Those ways that help people free up now are well over into tens of millions of dollars. I think it’s somewhere between $50 million and $60 million in total saved to date in the last few years.
This works. Not only did it bless hundreds and even thousands of people’s lives but it has blessed my own. I challenge you to do the same. I challenge you to make the best use of it and do that. I would love to hear about your experiences. I would love to hear what you think and what you get out of it as well. Make sure you reach out to me. You can reach me through my web. There’s also Facebook. We got the Money Ripples page there. Make sure you’re following us on iTunes as well. Make us part of your power hour. Make us part of what can make your day great. If you want to be more abundant and more prosperous, do what everybody else does that are abundant and prosperous as well. The first thing to start to do is to start doing that power hour. We’ll see you in the next episode. Goodbye.
Important Links
- MoneyRipples.com
- Ideal LifeVision
- Facebook – Money Ripples with Chris Miles
- iTunes – Money Ripples with Chris Miles