by Natasha Lin
Throughout the past few weeks, I’ve been seeing many of my favorite YouTubers try out a morning routine known as the “One Billion-Dollar Morning Routine.” It is a set of morning rituals that claim to be the most common habits of the most successful people in the whole world. And don’t worry—it doesn’t actually cost a billion dollars.
Implementing an encouraging morning routine allows you to begin your day with a sense of accomplishment. I wanted to feel productive and practical throughout my days as a billionaire, so I followed the billion-dollar morning routine for almost a week to see if it really was as life-changing as sources say it is.
On the night before starting the routine, I wrote out my schedule in a journal.
Wake up at 6:30 AM
Recall my dreams
Make my bed
Practice breathing techniques
Meditate for twenty minutes
Do some intense cardio for two minutes
Take a cold shower
Journal
Read
Waking up at 6:30 AM
This was actually quite hard for me. I had been so used to waking up at 7:30, just fifteen minutes before my first virtual class. I felt obligated to do so though since I had so many activities to accomplish in the morning. Despite my deep attachment to staying in bed until the last minute, waking up early positively stimulates our brains to a sense of clarity, ultimately reducing stress. I found that waking a whole hour earlier allowed me to take my time and mind off my duties for the day.
Recalling my dreams from the last night
Recalling dreams allows your brain to exercise your memory by concentrating on your subconscious thoughts from the previous night. I have never really taken time to remember my dreams from the night before because I was always so rushed to get out of bed in the mornings. On the first morning, right when I woke up, I took out my journal and quickly jotted down the parts of my dreams before I could forget. Looking back at my journal from that day, I wrote down that I was chased by a security guard with my old friend from middle school underneath a rollercoaster in the woods. Weird.
I quote from one of my favorite movies Inception, “You, you never really remember the beginning of a dream do you? You always wind upright in the middle of what's going on.”
Making my bed
I never really understood the point of making your bed every single morning because when the day is over, you end up messing it up once again. Before starting this routine, something as simple as making my bed felt like a waste of time. Recently, I started reading this book called Make Your Bed written by William H. McRaven, a former Navy Seal. In the military, making your bed is a very meticulous and almost prestigious task that demonstrates your self-discipline.
McRaven said, “If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another.” This intrigued me. I started making my bed every morning, and to my surprise, it made me feel productive and a little more organized. By doing this easy task, it allowed me to focus on the little things in life.
Breathing
I had no idea what breathing exercises were at the beginning, but apparently, that was one of the habits of the world’s most successful people. Breathing exercises are all about concentration and being able to fully control your body. I tried to educate myself on this new topic and came across the Wim Hof Method. Wim Hof is known for setting several Guinness World Records, and for being able to withstand freezing temperatures by practicing controlled breathing, or Wim Hof breathing techniques. I attempted to do five minutes of sitting on the ground while following Wim Hof’s guided breathing videos every day. I honestly did not have high hopes for this, and I am still not completely sure if it led to any tangible benefits yet, since I did not set aside enough time every day to focus on my breathing.
Meditation
Even before trying out this new morning routine, I always practiced meditating whenever I felt stressed. Meditation allows me to focus on my present and personal thoughts, almost like I’m hypnotizing my mind to relieve anxiety. This was probably my favorite part of the whole routine. Meditation is a great catharsis for purging any tension in our bodies, simply by sitting down and closing our eyes. Because I am used to going at an incredibly fast pace with my work and activities, I tried to use this time to control and enhance my self-awareness.
Intense cardio for two minutes
Directly after practicing my breathing and meditation, I got up onto my feet to do two minutes of cardio to get a burst of morning energy, which I definitely needed to wake myself up after lying in deep slumber for the past eight hours. Because I don’t drink caffeine in the morning, my body relies on itself to get the energy it needs for the day. Even in those two short minutes, I was able to get a sweat in by doing exercises like burpees and jumping jacks to get my heart rate up.
Cold shower
Now, this was the part of the routine that I was dreading the most when planning my schedule. Especially since the outside temperatures were below freezing, there was nothing better than taking a warm shower to soothe and relax my mind and body. The purpose of cold showers, however, is to improve blood circulation and strengthen your immune system. The most tangible benefit that I had felt from taking these showers was that it made me mentally stronger. In a sense, it helped me develop as some would say a “Just do it” mindset by getting into the cold water and feeling like I had just conquered a fear. Needless to say, success only happens when you step out of your comfort zone.
Journaling
I never understood the exhilaration of journaling. A lot of my friends had collections of stationery supplies, like washi tapes and pens, simply to make the bullet journal they found at the nearest department store their own. I used one of my old notebooks and started writing down my feelings and what I wanted to accomplish for the day. Journaling allows you to spill out all of your strung-up emotions by writing them down. Despite my old hate for writing, I found that writing down my struggles, mood, and fears helped me organize my thoughts and allowed me to self-reflect as I read through the pages I had written.
Read
Typically when I read, I get really sleepy, so I usually try to only read at night. Regardless of this, I found that reading in the morning is supposedly grounding and fruitful. Reading arouses your brain functions and engages your overall phonemic awareness, which consists of our rudimentary ability to identity sounds from words. Recently, I made it a goal for me to read every day because I found that it increased my vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, which I am in dire need of. Currently, I am reading the science-fiction classic, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!
Final Thoughts
On the first day of the routine, it felt tedious and repetitive since I was impatient and didn’t know if I was wasting my time by waking up so early to complete these tasks. I wanted to feel like an overall more positive and healthier person as fast as possible. What I didn’t realize was that it takes time to build my self-discipline and rewrite my old habits into new ones. Change is not linear.
Now, to answer the final question, was it life-changing?
Honestly, following a specific schedule is not for me since I am a naturally spontaneous person. This is definitely something I would recommend to try to see if it would fit your own personality.
However, I am not at all saying that these past few mornings have been terrible. I found that trying new things like cold showers and breathing exercises allowed my mind to expand to new horizons and that activities like journaling weren’t as patently boring as I originally thought. I found that I love meditating. After each session, I felt like I was on top of the world for a good few moments.
Small moments like these really change your perspective on the little things in life, and I think that’s what this routine was all about. Maybe that is how it feels to be a billionaire.
Image Source
@iceman_hof. “The light is here within you.” Instagram, November 4, 2020, www.instagram.com/p/CHLZ19lnD6L/.