“Creating a morning ritual that includes priming is the perfect way to start your day.”

– Tony Robbins

Did you know that scientific research shows that you can prime your body and mind to be in an enhanced state of readiness?  In other words, you don’t have to rely on luck or just hope you have a successful, good, happy day; you can actually make that happen with a proper “warmup” morning ritual.

Professional athletes know this well.  A professional athlete doesn’t just leave it up to luck or hope that they have a great game. They prepare and prime their bodies and minds to be in the best possible state through an established pregame warmup routine. And what matters most is not the length of that warmup, but rather making sure that the routine has the few proper ingredients necessary to properly prime the body and the mind to perform at their peak states.

You can take advantage of this same priming effect to make every day the best possible day, full of happiness and success, by choosing each day to prime your mind and body with a short “win the morning” routine!

Don’t Underestimate the Power of a 5-Minute Routine

You’ve probably heard before about the benefits of a morning routine, but if you aren’t implementing one right now it’s probably because you’re not making it convenient and easy enough for your unique, busy schedule. Just like a warm-up to prime the body for a sporting event doesn’t have to be very long – it just has to open your body’s range of motion, fire muscles through that full range of motion, and get the body ready for the movements it’s about to make in the event ahead – your “win the morning” routine does not have to be very long.

It just has to include these 3 steps:

Step 1: Prime Your Body

Your body is what allows you to move in this physical world, and its state of readiness affects everything else you’ll do today. Start your morning routine by firing your core and large stabilizing muscles, then perform a short stretch of any muscles that tend to get tight throughout the day (i.e. ankles, hip flexors, shoulders).

Step 2: Prime Your Mind

Your mind is the entity that consciously directs the body, and also subconsciously scans your internal and external environments constantly – taking in millions of bits of data per second.  You can immediately set yourself up for a better interpretation of that data and more positive, productive day by “priming your mind.” Priming your mind includes taking time to spark your creativity, aligning your thoughts and emotions with your goals, and prepping to live each day of your life in a peak state.

Step 3: Prime Your Whole Nervous System

In sports we use the term “neuromuscular activation” to describe the high-intensity sprints or all out sports movements that a player performs as they end their warm-up and prep to go into the game at their maximum.  The point of this activation is to prime the whole nervous system to be ready to take on the challenges of the game ahead. Though it can be accomplished through things like sprints or all out efforts that involve the whole body, it can also be accomplished through more feasible at home activities like the ones listed below.