 So a couple of years back, I was reading this article by a guy named James Altucher, and the article is called, How Would It Be The Luckiest Guy on the Planet? Now James talked about this period and these cycles of his life where he had made millions of dollars, lost millions of dollars. He had gotten married and gotten divorced and he just described these cyclical failures, these wins and these losses that ultimately pushed him to almost suicide. And he talked about at those lowest moments, he would begin doing this daily practice that kind of saved his life and eventually after a couple years he would get back to the spot where life was freaking amazing again. So I decided, why don't I come up with my own version of this ritual? In this video, I want to share what I think is this incredible one hour morning routine for tough times. Hey guys, Alex Hine, author of the book Master of the Day. Now the first link below is for a free journaling worksheet. The journaling worksheet is going to help you figure out how to reinvent your life and plot a direction going forward to design it the way you want. So check it out the first link there below and you'll also get an email every couple days on how to reinvent your life. So I'm pretty lazy when it comes to morning routines. I do something very brief every day and frequently an evening routine that's very brief. But there are some phases of life for me that typically are transitions, whether it's related to death, university ending, moving cities, the end of a relationship. All of these things can be pretty tough for me and it's in those time periods and at those moments where I notice myself get internally a little bit wonky where I'm not as excited about the future. I don't really want to do much. I'm definitely not motivated and I tend not to sleep well or I tend not to want to go to bed. And it's in these times that I really extend my morning routine to do an hour long in the morning and if it's really bad an hour long in the evening. So I want to walk you through my one hour morning routine and why it's so powerful. So the big idea behind this morning routine and evening routine is that you book and your days for deliberately plotting out your life. So bookend meaning at the beginning and the evening and the point is you start your day off with a clear focus, clear intent and clearly feeling elevated emotions. And before going to bed, which is often a difficult time for a lot of people, you do the same exact thing. So your book ending your days to start right and end right so you sleep well as well. Now the big overlook or the overview of this routine is simple. It's 20, 10, 10, 20. The first 20 minutes I do something that elevates my heart rate like Qigong or moderate yoga or even just going outside and going for a walk. The first 10 minute block is for goal review. So I actually plot out the things I want to have happen in my life right now. The best case scenario focusing on what I want versus what I don't want. The third, the 10 minute section is 10 minutes of journaling. And during this journaling, I'm just writing out frustrations, things that make me unhappy and then I revisit again what I want to have happen in this case rather than what I'm afraid of. And the final 20 minutes is 20 minutes of self growth or spiritual material. So these days I like to refer to the book The Game of Life and how to play it. So the first thing is for me Qigong. The reason why I start this off is because in the morning for most people I think you're a little bit groggy and you may not be in a great mood or excited to start your day especially if it's one of those life phases that I'm talking about right here. You know if you're experiencing the death of your dad or your mom or you just went through the worst breakup of your life you probably don't want to do that much but you still have to get up and face each day. And for me there's a big palpable difference in the morning before I do Qigong or go for a walk outside and after. And that by itself forcing myself to do that gives me enough wakefulness and changes my mood enough that I'm ready for phase two. The second phase reviewing my goals is incredibly important because during these phases of life it's so difficult not to focus on what you don't want. It's so difficult to not focus on the great person you just think you lost in your life or your mom or your dad that you're never going to see again or this anxiety or depression that you can't shake for six months, nine months, your whole life. And so it's easy to start your day with the record loop just that loop of negativity playing. But when you start it with goal setting you review your goals. All you're doing to your mind is you're saying I want you to focus on this. This is what I want to happen, not these fears and these thoughts. So you are becoming the director of your life, you are scripting your life story. The third thing, journaling, is incredibly useful for me because especially before bed if I'm finding that like after going through a bad breakup I have a hard time sleeping and I also have a hard time just going into bed. I just don't want to go to sleep. And I find that journaling and just brain dumping everything out, everything even if you're a broken record and it's the same crap every single day for a year then that's what your subconscious and your emotion, just your whole psycho emotional state needs to get out. So journaling that in the evening is a great way to dump and hit the clear button for tomorrow and so that you can sleep and in the morning it's a great way to also push the purge button and begin the day fresh, completely fresh and then begin scripting what you want. Now the last thing, the self-growth or spiritual material for me is absolutely essential and the primary reason is that given no information unless you're an enlightened being our mind tends to default to fears and frustrations and negativity. So I find that when I review spiritual material or self-growth material in the morning and the evening it puts me in a state of mind that can only be described as everything is going to be okay. Whatever material you need to read to feel that emotion is what I would put here. Now for me I like to go through A Course in Miracles, Marianne Williamson, The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Chin or any other number of materials that makes me feel like things are going to be fine. There is a reason that happened, I may never know it, chances are I will know it years from now. But right now I just need to focus on the feeling of everything's fine, it may take a long time to feel like that truly and believe it but it's okay. Because that produces such a feeling of peace that you can get through your day and you can do it before bed and go to bed at peace and sleep well so that the next day you're not repeating this negative cycle. So that is the four step morning routine and no joke if things are really bad I do that two hours a day once in the morning once in the evening but you could just as easily condense this into a 20 minute in the morning, 20 minute in the evening or anything in between. But I hope that helps you, it's like really is a go to practice for me when things have just not been going well or when I know I'm about to go into a transition, move cities, graduate from school, break up, whatever it is I begin doing that proactively when I see it coming. So I know I'm anchoring myself down. I hope that helps, try that out and let me know how it goes for you and again if you want some help click the first link below which is for a free journaling worksheet and a free journaling email series you'll get every couple days on how to reinvent your life and script out the dream life that you want going forward. So you can check it out down there below and then before you go check out my related video on this exact same topic right over here.