The Mindset Mentor - 8 Things to Stop Doing When You Wake Up

Episode Date: June 2, 2021

The morning is the most important part of your day. In this episode, I will walk you through the 8 things you should stop doing immediately if you want to create an amazing life. Follow me on IG here: https://instagram.com/robdialjr Want to learn more about Mindset Mentor+? For nearly nine years, the Mindset Mentor Podcast has guided you through life's ups and downs. Now, you can dive even deeper with Mindset Mentor Plus. Turn every podcast lesson into real-world results with detailed worksheets, journaling prompts, and a supportive community of like-minded people. Enjoy monthly live Q&A sessions with me, and all this for less than a dollar a day. If you’re committed to real, lasting change, this is for you.Join here 👉 www.mindsetmentor.com My first book that I’ve ever written is now available. It’s called LEVEL UP and It’s a step-by-step guide to go from where you are now, to where you want to be as fast as possible.📚If you want to order yours today, you can just head over to robdial.com/bookHere are some useful links for you… If you want access to a multitude of life advice, self development tips, and exclusive content daily that will help you improve your life, then you can follow me around the web at these links here:Instagram TikTokFacebookYoutube

Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor podcast. I am your host, Rob Dial. And if you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another podcast episode. Today, we're gonna be talking about the eight things that you need to stop doing when you wake up. Because as we know, the most important part of your day is usually the morning. And so if we can make sure that

our morning is as perfect as we possibly can, it will set up the rest of the day. So without further ado, let's dive into it. The first thing that you need to stop doing when you wake up in the morning is waking up at different times. One of the things that your body wants to do is your body wants to have a routine. Your body wants to have, it wants to be in line with circadian cycles. I'm not going to go into what circadian cycles are, but that's just basically the natural movement of yourself, your body, your sleep, the earth, all of those things. Your body wants a routine and this includes on the weekends. So there's a lot of people that will email into me

or they'll send me messages on Instagram and they'll say, Rob, I'm trying to have this great morning routine. It's going really well for me. The only problem is it's really hard for me to wake up in the mornings. And I'm like, all right, what time do you wake up in the morning? Oh, well, I wake up at 5 a.m., you know, Monday through Friday. Cool. What does your weekend look like? Well, you know, I tend to go out with my friends on the weekends and then I wake up at nine to nine 30, 10 o'clock sometimes. Like, well, the main issue for you is not that you're not able to wake up and to be able to have your morning routines. It's that when you go to bed at five, when you go to bed later, you wake up at 5

AM Monday through Friday, but on Saturday and Sunday, you go to bed later. Even if you don't go out and party and get drunk, but you're waking up at 9, 10 a.m., your body does not have a routine. Your body wants to have a routine that it gets into, that it follows, that makes it easier for it. So the very first thing that I would say is stop waking up at different times. Have a very consistent time because once your body starts to get used to it, after about two weeks, after about three weeks, your body will be in a routine. It makes it super easy to wake up. And when you get your body into a routine, even for the people who are like, oh, but I'm a night owl. No, you're not. It's actually studies that found that night owls don't exist. It's just that the routine of

staying up late has been around for so long you think that you're a night owl. Is that when you start forcing yourself to go to bed earlier to wake up later, you can wake up at the exact same time, your body will start to wake itself up a lot of times, even before the alarm. I know every person listening to this has had their body wake up right before the alarm goes off. It's because your body wants to be in a routine. So that's the first thing. The second thing that I want you to stop doing when you wake up in the morning is stop hitting the snooze, right? You have to think of it this way. If you hit the snooze, you're automatically starting your day off with a loss, right? Because when you were a fully conscious being before you went to bed, you said, you know what? I'm going to wake up at 6 a.m.

And then you hear the alarm clock go off. And I always say the best salesperson in the entire world is you telling yourself why you need to sleep in. That's the best salesperson in the entire world. We're all really good at sales. We're just really good salespeople for ourselves with excuses. Stop hitting the snooze button. Don't set multiple alarms. I had someone come to my event last week in person and they were like, look, these are my three alarms that I set for myself and the motivational thing that I put. It's great to have a motivational thing with each alarm, but why do you have three alarms in the first place? Why don't you just wake up with the first one? Wake up with your

first alarm. It sets you off on the wrong foot when you have multiple alarms that you go with, or when you're hitting the snooze button because your body gets all confused. Oh, am I asleep? Am I awake? Am I asleep? Am I awake? Stop hitting the snooze button. That is number two. Number three, stop looking at your phone immediately. Stop looking at your phone immediately. In fact, get an alarm. Get a real old school alarm and put it on the other side of the room. Don't put it next to your bed. It's a lot easier to not look at your phone when your phone is not your alarm. It's also a lot easier to not hit the snooze button when you don't have a snooze button that's on your phone and you immediately just walk over to the other side of the room and get that alarm and turn it off and

put it on the other side of the room because it's easier to get up when you've already gotten out of bed. You have to get out of bed. You have to go get it. So stop looking at your phone. Stop checking social media. Holy crap. Stop checking social media. How stressful is that to do that first thing in the morning? That just sets you off down the wrong path. Stop checking your text messages. Stop checking your emails. Don't look at your phone for as long as you possibly can. If you have an hour-long morning routine and your alarm goes off at six and at seven o'clock is when your morning routine ends, turn your phone off when you go to bed

and do not look at your phone until after you're done with your morning routine. Stop looking at your phone. I promise you, it'll set your day off on such a better foot because all too often, people get their emails, they get their text messages, they get their social media notifications, and all of this anxiety floods in because you're like, holy crap, I've got so much to do and I haven't even gone to the bathroom yet. I haven't even

brushed my teeth. I've got so much that I've got to do. Anxiety will just build up inside of you. Stop looking at your phone first thing in the morning. Okay. Step number four. The fourth thing I want you to stop doing is stop not making your bed. Start with a win. Make your bed. It takes what? 30 seconds to make your bed. And it may not seem like a big deal. And I completely understand because for the longest time, I thought making my bed was the stupidest thing because I don't do anything else in my room except for sleep. I'm not one of those people who goes in my room and hangs out and works and does phone calls or watches TV or any of that stuff. The only thing that I do in my room is get dressed and sleep. That's the only two things that I do. I sleep first and then I get dressed. I don't get dressed and then sleep. But it may not seem like a big deal. But think about

this for a second. If you wake up on your first alarm, if you don't check your phone, if you make your bed, you're starting with three wins before you even brush your teeth. Do you know how much better that makes you feel? What happens is that your brain then releases dopamine. And if you've been listening to my recent episodes, I've been talking about how dopamine is the motivational chemical inside of your brain. So your brain releases dopamine with every single win, which then makes you feel more motivated to go actually get other wins throughout the day.

When you wake up and you hit your first alarm and you're good, you're up. That's right there as a win. When you don't check your phone, boom, that's another win. When you make your bed, boom, that's another one. You have three wins before you ever even brush your teeth. That's dopamine, dopamine, dopamine. You feel more motivated to go do something. You're starting your day off on the right foot, going and taking the action that you need to, to go towards the life that you want to. So if you want to start your life off on the right foot, make your bed, get up on the first alarm, do whatever it is that you need to do to not check your phone. So number four is stop not making your bed. Hey, if there's ever been a year to make the dads in your life feel loved and appreciated on

Father's Day, it's definitely this one. And StoryWorth is an online service that helps your dad, grandfather, father-in-law, and every father figure in your life share stories through thought-provoking questions about their memories and personal thoughts. And it's a fun new way to engage with them, especially if you can't be together in person right now. And every week, StoryWorth emails your dad a different story prompt with questions that you've never thought before, like, what, StoryWorth emails your dad a different story prompt with

questions that you've never thought before, like, what was your favorite story about your dad? And what are your proudest moments of your life? And StoryWorth has helped numerous families learn about each other in profound and special ways, and their testimonials will practically move you to tears. And there's no shortage of surprises when reading through these stories and making your family feel closer than ever, even if you're not together. And after one year, StoryWorth will compile all of your dad's stories, including photos, into a beautiful keepsake book that's shipped to you for free. So give your dad the most meaningful gift this Father's Day with StoryWorth. Get started right away with no shipping required by going to storyworth.com slash dial, and you'll get 10% off your first purchase. That is storyworth.com slash dial for 10% off.

Step number five. Fifth thing I want you to stop doing. This is going to piss a lot of people off. I've got a couple of them coming up. They're going to piss you off as well. Stop taking warm showers. There are so many benefits. I've been saying this for years. When I first heard this about five years ago and I started doing cold showers, There were very few benefits. It was like, there's benefits to it, but there's a whole lot of pseudoscience behind it. There is so much science as to the benefits of cold showers. Just go to Google and type in benefits of cold showers. And there's so many studies that have been done recently. When you take a cold shower, number one, they suck. Number two, they never stop sucking. Number three,

they never get any easier. But number four, that has to do with that. It is another win because it is so hard to not listen to that little voice inside of your head that says, hey man, just skip the cold shower today. No one's going to know. But you hear that little voice inside of your head that says, don't do it. That little voice is the same little voice that says, hey, sleep in a little bit longer. Hey, don't worry about going to the gym today. Hey, eat that pizza. Don't eat the salad. It's that little voice inside of your head.

I like to call it the little inner bitch. That's what I call it. It's that little inner bitch coming in and telling you not to do something. And when you can conquer that little voice inside of your head, first thing in the morning, that is your fourth win by the time you get done showering. Think about that. You have started your day off in full-on, intentional, proactive mode, not putting out fires, not reactive.

I'm in control of my life. I'm in control of my day. I'm going to kick today's ass. That's how you're starting your day every single day if you do this, right? I hate cold showers. I love the way it makes me feel after though. I don't like them when I'm in them. I'm never like, yay, I'm in a cold shower. Yay, I'm about to a cold shower. Don't enjoy them. Don't like them. But I do love the benefits of them. The physical benefits are great. You can Google those. I'm most interested in the mental benefits of doing what I don't want to do. Because if I can make myself do what I don't want to do in the morning,

it makes it so much easier. It's like knocking over dominoes in the morning. It's just going to continue that momentum throughout the day. So that's number five. The sixth thing I want you to stop doing is stop doing anything that is not for yourself right away. Your morning is your time. Your morning is the time for you to work

on yourself, for you to improve, for you to get better. Stop working. Stop getting the kids ready. Now, you can work later. You can get the kids ready later, but I'm talking about getting up before all of that so that you have some me time, so that you can work on yourself. Because what I find with a lot of people, as we tend to get older, as people tend to have kids, is that we are a lot of times, the reason why people get so stressed out and have so much anxiety a lot of times is because they're trying to give from an empty cup. They're just giving, giving, giving, giving, giving. And they're not receiving. And what I mean by receiving is waking up and filling your own cup. That's your you time.

Your time to meditate, your time to read, your time to work out, do yoga, journal. Whatever it is that fills your cup that makes you feel good, that is your you time. So stop doing things that's not for you. You have to see the morning routine, those morning times as absolutely sacred. Those are your you times. So if the kids normally wake up at seven, wake up at six, whatever it is that you got to do and plan yourself to go to bed earlier. One of the things that I love is a couple of years ago, Mark Wahlberg, the actor put out his morning routine and everybody was so blown away because

his morning routine starts at like, I think it's like 4 a.m. Actually, I think it's like 3 a.m. if I'm not mistaken. I think it's 3 a.m. 3 a.m. is when his morning routine starts. So he gets up at 3 a.m. and he follows this whole morning routine. And everyone's like, why would you wake up at 3 a.m.? I went to an event. I'm part of a mastermind. And he came and spoke at the mastermind. And he was talking about his morning routine and how he gets up so early. and everyone's like, oh my God, I can never get up that early. The secret to his morning routine is that his kids go to bed at 7.30.

And so when his kids go to bed and they're asleep, he just goes to sleep right after them. And so it's like, oh my God, he wakes up so early. He also goes to bed so early. So he goes to bed at 8 a.m. Or I'm sorry, 8 p.m. So he goes to bed at 8 p.m. He wakes up at three 8 p.m. So he goes to bed at 8 p.m. He wakes up at three. That's seven hours of sleep. That's what he feels like he needs.

So you can wake up earlier if you just go to bed earlier. So whatever it is that you want to create for your morning routine, whatever it is that you want it to look like, just plan ahead. Just be intentional. That's all you got to do. So that is the sixth thing to stop doing. Stop doing anything that is not for yourself right away. That's what you need to make sure. Don't do anything for anybody else. Fill your cup right away. Speaking of filling cups, number seven is stop drinking coffee right away. Oh, I told you there's going to be some that we're going to piss you guys off, right? Stop drinking coffee right away. Why? There's a lot of studies that have found that you should wait at least an hour before you have any coffee. And the reason why, one of the main reasons why

is because your cortisol levels, which are your stress hormones, are at their absolute highest throughout the day when you wake up. Cortisol is usually what wakes people up. And so I don't know if you've ever, I feel it all the time. The moment that I wake up immediately,isol is usually what wakes people up. And so I don't know if you've ever, I feel it all the time. The moment that I wake up immediately, it's like flooded with stress. Five out of seven days, I get that. It's like, I feel the stress immediately. And it's like anxious thoughts, it's stressful thoughts. The worst thing that you could do at that time is give yourself some coffee because that's just going to flood you with more stress and anxiety and get your cortisol levels to go higher. So usually what you should do is you should wait about an hour at least before you have coffee.

The reason why it allows your stress hormones to go down. It allows your body to calm down. The first thing that you should do is actually more than anything else is drink water and not drink coffee because you usually lose at least a liter of water every single day when you go to bed. Throughout your sleeping, you lose a liter of water. So what do you do? Start your day off with warm water, lemon, and sea salt. You need to hydrate more than anything else. Because if you wake up, think about this.

If you don't hydrate, you wake up, your stress levels are at the highest that they're ever going to be throughout the day, and you add caffeine to that. And at the same time, you're drinking coffee, which is dehydrating you. You're basically starting off in a really bad position. But when you wake up, you drink a whole lot of water with lemon and sea salt in it. It allows your body to take all of that to rehydrate itself. And then about an hour later,

after your cortisol levels drop, it allows your body to then be able to have the caffeine. There's a lot of studies that show, you can Google it if you want to, that if you wait an hour, the caffeine actually is much more, helps you be much more productive if you have caffeine an hour after you wake up versus immediately after you wake up. So the seventh thing to stop doing when you wake up in the morning, sorry, everybody, stop drinking coffee right away. You can drink it later. And number eight,

stop eating. Stop eating as soon as you wake up in the morning. Try something called intermittent fasting. Why is that? You guys probably know there's a million studies that be coming out with that. But if you go back and listen to my podcast, I had Dr. David Sinclair on my podcast. He is the head of Harvard's anti-aging and he says, eat one less meal per day. And so there's so many benefits of skipping a meal. And since you've already fasted for eight hours, seven, eight hours, because you were asleep for seven to eight hours. And if you don't eat for an hour or two hours before you go to bed, you're fasting, you're about on a 10 hour fast. Just skip your breakfast and then you can go and

you can have your lunch. There's so many studies on how intermittent fasting helps you live longer, helps you be healthier, helps you obviously reduce your caloric intake. And he said, one of the secrets, if you just want to live longer, just skip a meal every single day. And the easiest one to skip is breakfast. And what happens is if you start to read some articles and start to watch some YouTube videos on fasting is it takes about three days for your body to get used to this. So if you've been eating breakfast immediately when you wake up or your body's used to it, you will feel the first three days really, really hungry. But that's the reason. The reason why is because your body releases something called, I think it's called gremlin. It sounds

like gremlin, whatever it is. And it releases this. And that is the hunger hormone that's released and the chemical that's released that tells your body when to eat. After about three days of not eating at the same time, so you decided to skip breakfast, day four, you're not really gonna want your breakfast anymore. You're not really gonna be that hungry.

So I recommend, try it out, skip it. If you wanna learn more about intermittent fasting and how it helps you live longer, how it helps you be healthier, you can go back to my podcast episode with Dr. David Sinclair and you can learn about it. So those are the eight things that I want you to stop doing when you wake up in the morning. Number one, stop waking up at different times. Number two, stop hitting the snooze button. Number three, stop looking at your phone. Please stop looking at your phone. Number four, stop not making your bed,

aka make your freaking bed. Step number five, stop taking warm showers, take some cold showers. Number six, stop looking at anything and doing anything that is not for yourself right away in the morning. Number seven, stop drinking coffee right away. And number eight, stop eating right away. So those are the eight things that I want you to do. Stop doing when you wake up in the morning. If you love this episode, please share it with someone that you know and love. And please, please, please go to

however you're listening to us right now and give us a rating and review. It helps us be found organically so that this podcast continues to grow. I would greatly appreciate it. Take it 15 to 30 seconds at most and we would benefit massively from you doing it. And I'm going to

leave it the same way I leave you every single episode, making sure mission makes someone else's day better. I appreciate you. And I hope that you have an amazing day.