What Successful People Do In The First 8 Minutes of Their Morning (Especially For Their Health)

Face it.

It’s okay.

Be honest.

Maybe you messed up – it happens to all of us.

Things were going great for a while, you were sticking with healthy habits, you focused on real food, and you picked one tiny habit and kept going.

And then it all went to crap.

Life intervened. Stress showed up. Travel and vacation arrived.

It happens.

But what’s actually more important than anything here, is what happens after the emotional guilt hangover. How do you really get back on track?

Well, a recent success story here can show you the way. And it all starts with an 8 minute morning habit.

How Henri Got Back on Track… With an 8 Minute Morning Habit

Henri’s Big Secrets to Success

Henri found himself at almost 60 years old in the worst shape of his life. He was 225 pounds, which was about 40-50 pounds over what he wanted for his height, he was feeling like crap, and the stress of it all was beginning to take a huge psychological toll.

The problem? He had just about everything working against him.

He worked in a kitchen, so he was surrounded by food ALL the time – and as a chef for 30 years, he was accustomed to making food all day, picking at it, taste testing it, and constantly being surrounded by food begging for his attention.

Tack that on to the fact that he was also surrounded by pastries, sugar and sweets at his first store, and was constantly coming up with new recipes (aka: “testing” a lot), and you can see the massive amount of temptation he was fighting on a daily basis.

He was getting up at 5 am, and was on his feet 12, 13, or 15 hours a day leaving him burnt out and exhausted by the end – so he literally had every (valid) excuse in the book.

Don’t have enough time? Check.

Stressed, working too much? Check.

Being surrounded by sugar? Check.

Not getting enough sleep? Check.

Eventually though, he got a scary diagnosis from his doctor, which went a bit like this: “Hey, I hate to break it to you, but you’re going to be on high blood pressure medication for the rest of your life.”

And after getting that scary diagnosis, it was enough that he realized that some serious changes had to occur – and they had to happen fast.

So what did he do? He did what most of us do – around the new year, he went all out and started working out every single day, five days a week.

He started eating less.

He spent hours in his home gym working out downstairs.

… And not more than a few weeks later, found himself exactly back at square one, like most people around the new year who are struggling to change their lives and quit after a few weeks.

And That’s When He Came up With His Life Changing 8 Minute Habit

After realizing that what he was doing obviously wasn’t working, he found something that worked extremely well for him.

He put one of those sit up bars underneath his closet door, and first thing in the morning after waking up, he started an 8 minute routine – and that was it.

He just did a basic circuit of push ups, sit-ups, and plank, and did as many as he could in those first 8 minutes of the day.

The results were borderline miraculous – but what was so powerful here was that “8 minutes” was so small that he couldn’t rationalize it away and say, “I’m too busy for this.”

Once he started doing this routine, which didn’t seem like it had that much of a positive effect by itself, an interesting thing happened.

He started eating a healthy breakfast.

And then he started juicing with his breakfast.

And then he started bringing his lunches and came up with his own specific lunch strategy.

And a few weeks after that, he started lifting weights again.

Then he started walking as much as 45 minutes a day.

And for the first time in several decades, he actually stuck with these behaviors. And they were all the result of those eight minutes first thing in the morning. The important thing that really changed wasn’t his body: it was his mind.

What’s so cool here was that he didn’t consciously control any of these things – they “just happened” and he naturally found himself doing them.

This is something I call the “Homer Simpson Effect.” Throughout the day we’re presented with hundreds of moments where we have to make decisions – do I do what I said I would do, or do I do what I feel like doing now?

It’s that epic battle in your mind that’s split between two things: “I know I need to do this, but… ehhh I can do it later.” THAT moment is the most important moment of your life, and you’re presented with dozens or hundreds of them each day.

It was the very fact that Henri started off his day with a tiny habit that focused on his health – and that spilled over to everything else in his life.

Your Tiny Habit For Today

If you’re struggling with consistency or you find yourself getting sidetracked easily, I want you to come up with your own 3, 5, or 8 minute routine.

It could be as simple as a physical routine:

50 pushups, 50 squats, 100 sit ups.

It could be a mental routine like:

Read 10 pages of a health book.

It could be a personal development routine like:

Meditate for 3 minutes, review your health goals, and then journal.

ANYTHING will work.

The very fact that you’re doing this first thing in the morning will prime you mentally for the day with a health focus.

If you can’t get yourself to do anything, just start with a 3, 5 or 10 minute routine in the morning.

Make it easy.

Make it fun.

And you’ll be surprised at just how easy the rest of the day is, and how you naturally start making more health-conscious choices without ever realizing it.

– Alex

What about you? Do you have a morning routine? What does it look like? Share below.