How To Start Your Day The RIGHT Way – A Realistic Morning Routine?

Here is the complete transcript of the podcast

This podcast episode is a response to a comment. Kind of a question also, from a longtime listener of this podcast. Asking me about morning routines, and telling me about how he listens to this podcast consistently, but also other podcasts and “Srini, I see everywhere people talking about early morning routines. You talk about it recently, you talked about it. But I have been trying to follow this for a while and it doesn’t work. Can you simplify this?”

Incredible comment, incredible question. I’ve been thinking about it myself, too, you know, how do how can we simplify this because something that I have been struggling with myself, or initially I struggled with these days pretty streamlined. But initially, I struggled a lot with this. And a lot has gone into me coming and speaking here about morning routines. I have a very well-dialed-in morning routine. Now my evening routines are not that great. Hence, there is a risk in the morning routines. But then it’s a common thing. If you’re starting out, structuring your morning, that means in a way you’re structuring the whole day. And that is why it becomes hard. Because everything is dependent on everything else, if you get one thing incorrectly, everything else gets impacted. So I went through mentally this was a comment a few days ago, and I went through mentally and I said in the how do I simplify this. And if I have to say that in a way that makes sense to every listener of this podcast, how to present this. So first, let’s talk about what to do. And then we’ll come back and talk about when to do it. So I’m not going to talk about the start time. Now let’s talk about what to do once you wake up. Now, different people do different things, I do different things. And the things I do because they work for me, things that will work for you will not work for me. So that’s the baseline understanding here. I want to start off by saying that, then the things that you read in the media that people talk about, are the things that others do. So I can talk convincingly about what I do. But I know it’s not going to work for you.

So the question becomes says how do I simplify? Because I have a podcast I do this? How can I simplify something such that it makes sense to anybody and everybody? So if nine out of 10 people can relate to this, then I think I haven’t been. So I have, I still have. So today after I’m done with this podcast explaining my thinking, I will still lose some people. I think it’s okay, because if nine out of 10 people can relate to the concept then I think I’ve ever been. So let’s get into this, there are three P’s, that’s how I simplified this, there are three P’s that you have to do, I do. But I see others also doing it. So if I see everybody doing it, it’s also working for me, then I think it will work for you. So there are three pieces, there’s the first P the minute, you wake up, the minute you open your eyes, the first P is that you need something that is POISE, something that is spiritual. And if you believe in religion, your religion, then your religion has something already in place that it expects you to do. When I wake up in the morning, my religion expects me to do something morning, the minute I wake up, and I do that. Even if I had no religion, let’s for the sake of the argument, let’s say, I don’t have any religion. I don’t practice any religious practices in the morning, then I should be doing something spiritual.

Now, most of the time your religious practice has some spiritual element to it. It’s spiritual. So there are some. In fact, I shouldn’t say some, all of it should be spiritual. So the reason why it is that way, and whatever it says that you should do. So if you don’t believe in religion and you’re not religious, then that should be something that you should do. That is spiritual, like meditation, mindfulness exercise, something like that along those lines, something that you have learned or you have experienced. Now, there is a debate on this. Some people say anything that we do throughout the day can be turned into a spiritual thing. True. You can take anything and turn it into spiritual. But the key point here is you start something that’s the poise that’s peaceful, that spiritual, and most of the time it’s already there, you don’t need to search for it because it’s there in your religious practices anyway.

So I would start with that. The second P is, that immediately after that I will do something that I’m very passionate about. I’m passionate about this podcast, I will try to record this podcast, the minute I wake up these days, I would like to. So once I’m done with my spiritual stuff, I jump into recording the podcast. Now, I’m not saying that you have to do a podcast, sometimes I get this message of saying are you set this is see I’m not telling you to do exactly what I’m doing. I’m just giving you an idea of how I do and what I do. You can do whatever you’re passionate about. If you’re passionate about music, do it. If you’re passionate about dancing, do it. If you’re passionate about hiking, running, or climbing, do do it as a part of your morning routine. And the part p in this is physical, do something physical, go take a walk, or run or swim as I said, or climb the first thing as a part of your morning routine.

Now, these are some, these are the three P’s that I do. And I started looking and I started looking at my activities. This is how I started categorizing those activities into the three P’s. You can add anything else you want to add to this. Now of the three P’s are out of our way, it will be four or five for you. But whatever it is now that we’re done with that, let’s go to the start time there’s a question was more about the start time. I didn’t start at 430. And I was horrible at 7:30. Myself. So sometimes, before my kids were born, I wasn’t even waking up. Before 7:30. I was lazy, I was awkward. And I was not. I didn’t even know what I was doing back then. So I would say that don’t go for 4:30 or 5 am. Whatever we say whatever we have to say because we have a mic, we have a podcast like this, or the radio show like me on whatever, a blog or a YouTube whatever, don’t follow precisely to the instructions that I or anybody else is giving you start experimenting life is about an experiment, it’s not about taking commands. So wake up, try to wake up at six, six is late. But still good. Six 6:30, you wake up at night, try to wake up at six, you wake up at six try to wake up it’s, you know, five, or four, whatever, right? So you start whatever time you want to start doesn’t matter. But here’s what I’ve seen, you got to consistently wake up at the time, that consistency has to be for about a week or two. Try two weeks, consistently because whatever time you decide 630 Make up for two weeks consistently at 6:30 am. And once you get some consistency, then you start pushing the time and try to wake up at five and 5:30 or 4:30 whatever, four o’clock, some people recently I met somebody said I wake up at three in the morning. Wow, amazing.

Whatever it is whatever works for you. But then you start pushing the time backward. Then once you know that you have a reasonable clutch or hold on to a second timezone, you lock it. That said that becomes your identity. And you keep on waking up every day. Regardless, you have a lot of you don’t have an alarm, whatever. So you try to get to that level some these days I mostly I don’t need but I do need became a habit. Now. It kind of depends on the alarm to wake me up. So you get the idea. And that’s it. So start with whatever time you’d like to start. And then keep on modifying till you dial in. So don’t wake up tomorrow morning at 4:30 and do it for three days. And then come back and say it’s not working. This takes some time. Spend about 30 days on this. Now understand and I started the podcast with this. Your 4:30 or five or 5:30 will only work if your evening routine works. So be careful about how you structure your evenings. You are going late you have no firmness or you have you’re not hard on yourself, you’re to cut everything down, slow down closed down by 10 or 11. At the most or whatever time. It’s difficult to wake up at six in the morning. So you want to wake up morning at 4:30 Then try to wrap up everything by 8:30 if you can. And most of the time people just don’t know what they’re doing with their evenings. They’re watching movies and they’re on the bed watching Netflix or whatever it is and I’m not saying anything didn’t have any of that is bad because every time I say that, I get a counter back from people saying that’s the only time I relax. Yes. depends what your definition relaxation is a squandering away time wiling away time. I don’t know. But understand you have a responsibility for tomorrow. So don’t take today for granted. That’s the point.

Okay, that’s all for now I hope I simplified this. If I did not, then it’s my mistake. It’s not anything to you. You asked a great question I attempted. Hopefully, this is going to help you and also every listener who’s listening to this. And if it is, then or if it is not, either way, let me know that should be a place for you to write a comment if you’re watching this on YouTube, or it should be placed on the app itself. Wherever you’re listening to this. Or if you’re listening to this on my website, there should be a place for you to make the comments. That’s all for now. You will take care of yourself and I’ll be live and active here. As early as tomorrow morning. Thank you. Bye now.

Why You Need A Personal Mission Statement (And How To Create One)

Here is the complete transcript of the podcast

Since the beginning of this year, when this podcast became a daily podcast, I had been consistently coming here and saying that this is a coaching podcast. So if you’re looking for some ways and means to improve your life or improve your situation, you want to create a new reality, and you have some dreams that you want to accomplish. You have some goals, you have some passions that you want to pursue, and all you need is some daily coaching. And this podcast is supposed to do that. That is my intent every time I record. And if you go back and play all the previous podcast episodes, all the daily podcast episodes, you see me talk about productivity, taking accountability, daily actions, defining purpose, and so many different concepts. But then, this morning, I was thinking, maybe I’m missing something. Maybe there is something else I need to mention here, I need to talk here that I think that I have not done it. And then I think that I’m doing a disservice. So if you keep on talking about goals, you keep on talking about productivity, accountability, and all the different aspects of self-improvement.

Eventually, I think a good listener will kind of glue everything together to the outcome. But then there should be a way to glue all these things from my side, I need to glue it for the listener. And I don’t think I’ve done a good job gluing all these individual standalone topics that I talk about every day here. So I was going through this, and I said, Okay, how, as a listener, I should be able to glue all this, if I’m a listener of Srini podcast, and I hear Srini. So what, how do I do all these things? For example, if you are a career professional, you have no interest in the business. You’re trying to recover a relationship, you have no interest in how to make money. Now, from a bigger conceptual standpoint, all these things may be interrelated. But at the moment, right now, you are only focused on that one thing that you’re trying to solve. So you happen to listen. And every day, you see me come here and talk about disparate topics, and they don’t glue together. How do I do this? Now it is hard. It’s difficult for me personally. So I put myself in the listener shoes. And I started listening to my podcast, I heard about 17 days of my own episodes hard, it isn’t easy to listen to me speaking. But I went through and I started to realize that, yes, this has to be there is something that I’m missing. So this morning, I finally discovered what I’m missing, I will share it with you. And the reason why I did not share it earlier is that I was missing it in myself. So if I’m not doing something, how can I come here and talk about it? Very simple. So I’m not doing it myself. And I realized that I need to do it myself.

So this comes to having a mission statement in place, a mission statement that clearly states, what I want to do with my time, what I want to do with my actions, what I want to do with everything that I’ve got going, what I want to experience, how and what I want to feel, which places I want to see who I want to talk to all these things, they are there, but they’re not there on the people. And this is something that I learned many, many years ago, and I had been creating mission statements for myself for a long time. And this is something that companies do, when multiple people come together and they start a company, a club, or an organization, they put together a mission.

So, when you define the mission, you will now get clarity into the goals and the agendas and the things that as an entity you will be pursuing. And this concept has been around for a long time sit there is nothing new about this. But several many, many years ago, sometime in mid-2006 2007. I came across an incredible book by an incredible man. The Principle-Centered Leadership was authored by the legendary Dr. Stephen Covey, God bless his soul. Dr. Covey talks about this concept called the power of mission statement and he gives an example he says Every entity has a mission statement. But within that entity, different people have different responsibilities, they play different roles. Now, each individual, whoever is whatever role that individual is playing at a role level, needs to have a mission statement, they need to have a personal mission statement. So he gives an example where he says, you walk into a hotel, and you go to the counter, you see that individual, the person who is helping at the counter, has a manager, that manager has a director, the director has probably a vice president and vice president has a CEO. And there are so many such people, all of them reporting him to the CEO. And he gives this example where each individual on the floor of the hotel, each individual has to have their own mission statement apart from the company’s mission statement. So the company has a mission statement as a company where they are going, and as an individual, also, as an employee, taking on whatever responsibility he or she is taking on and the role that this employee is playing.

They need to have a personal mission statement. I took that principle, I took that concept. And, and I started writing mission statements for myself. And I’ll tell you from the time 2006 to 2010. And during the time I did not have a mission statement, I think I really started doing this in 2011. And my business and whatever things that I was doing. As a result of that mission statement, I started to do well, I’ll tell you why. Because that mission statement started giving me clarity into the goals that I was setting for myself, even though I was not a good goal setter myself at that point in time. This mission statement started giving me clarity. And it started to teach me the difference between what is essential and what is unimportant. And as years went by, I kept on modifying the mission statement, because there are so many different life events that were happening. And each life event started defining me differently. So this mission statement kept on changing to a point where I started, making it a ritual. But I’ll do I’ll create a mission statement every year. Something happened this year, at the beginning of this year, I did not create that mission statement. And I did not as a result of that even though this podcast became a daily podcast, I didn’t talk about it at all. Maybe sometime last year, I talked about the mission statement, but at least not this year, on this podcast. So if you are setting goals, making yourself accountable, taking action, studying yourself exploring yourself. And then some best part of you doing all these things, things are not falling in place. The biggest takeaway from today’s podcast episode and my biggest ask for you is to create a mission statement. And it doesn’t need to be complex, very simple. You can write like four lines today and say, my purpose in life is this.

My goal for the next three months is this. I want to explore I want to experience I want to discover I want to do whatever you want to one more line describing what you want to just two or three lines, my goal, my purpose, my experience that I want to have people who I want to meet people who I want to have a conversation with just three, four lines. And then read that mission statement. keep on changing it if you want to. And read the mission statement, start your day with a mission statement. And I have said this multiple times here. Also, on the podcast. I said listen, you got to affirm, you need to have a bunch of affirmations. But the mission statement makes it very easy. You don’t need to really read your affirmations. And after keep on reading your affirmations, how long can you read, because it’s set? Right? You already know what you’re affirming what the mission statement gives you kind of brings everything together your affirmations, your actions, your goals, your ambitions, your actions, or everything together into this one beautifully created encapsulated thing that you can roll now you’re all wet.

Now, do that for a few days. And then eventually at one point, you should print your mission statement and you should have it in your wallet and this is why many companies to make at least back in the day used to force their employees or not really for sports but then they used to print and give it to the employees and employees need to have them as a part of their access card or something so they companies wanted to somehow figure this out, that people should read the mission statement. So print your mission statement and see what you know, just carry it along with you. And when you meet random people on the street, like, let’s say, I’m going to go to have a meet a friend of mine on over coffee next week. So I’m going to have my mission statement. And I will randomly at some point, take out and show my mission statement to him. He’s not asking for it, he’s not expecting it, but I will show it to him. Why? Because that way, I stay accountable for who I am, my purpose my goals, and my dreams, whatever they are. So this should bring everything together. And I’ve been thinking about it, I have not done it this year. So I’m doing it now. So I wanted to come here and share this with you. I’ll let you know how all this will pan out on my side. But I wanted to do this because I’ve seen this do incredible things for me in my life. And I’m sure that’s going to do something great for you. So if you have dreams, and you want your dreams to become reality, you do everything you study, every book, we follow every author, every concept, every idea, every thought leader, but then this is also an essential element, which is to create a personal mission statement and apply that statement. So that becomes your guiding force and stays as a force behind every action that you’re going to take the fall for now. Have a wonderful Tuesday. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow. Stay tuned. Thank you.

From Nothing To Something: How To Turn Your Life Around In 4-Steps

Here is the complete transcript of the podcast

On the podcast today, I’m sharing a simple four-step process on how to go from, nothing is happening with me too, okay, something is happening with me. Now, the reason why I’m doing that is that, again, a conversation with a listener of my radio show with the listener of this podcast, telling me how she went from training to training, investing hundreds and 1000s of dollars, and at the end has nothing to show and tells me that the reason why I’m not succeeding is that I do not have a mentor, I do not have a coach. And that is why my results are not there. It’s true that if you get a mentor, you get a coach, and your results can be accelerated very, very quickly. And I’ve seen that happen with me, and I’ve happened with many of my clients. But I don’t think that is the problem. And I don’t think I do not advocate that you go get a coach. And even though I sell coaching, mentoring, and all those things, and I’m in that space, I got to be very judicious with what I tell you on this podcast, I do not suggest that you go hire a coach, or a mentor, just because you want to hire one doesn’t work that way. And I don’t think any coach or any mentor will invest in you if they are in the business of investing in people unless they see something in you. So you can’t buy this if somebody sells you coaching because they are good, or they’re in the business of coaching.

Listen, you need somebody to invest in you. And it’s not about you and just investing money in them. But then a coach, a good coach, or a good mentor is so vested in your success, that they will go above and beyond to really take you to that summit that you want to go to. It’s not about, Hey, you don’t have energy, you don’t have a skill, you don’t have talents, I’m going to leave in the middle of the mountain and walk down. I see that happening a lot. So I’m just calling you out. Here is how this four-step process works. And this is exactly what I shared with this lady. First and foremost is, that the more people you talk to the more ideas you will get. The beauty of these ideas is that all these ideas have worked. And all these people are successful. So they have worked. But how do you know what is going to work for you? And hence what I suggest, or what I suggested to this lady is pick one thing. And once you decide, whatever that one thing is, start small. And starting small means it’s difficult to really start small because everybody tells you to do everything overnight. And everybody will sell you into everything overnight, nothing works overnight. Everything that’s worth doing takes time, effort, and many more. So starting small is to identify something that you know you can do. And you want to focus on that area.

So let’s say you want to make $10,000 a month, don’t get too crazy about it first. And the foremost validation you need, or you should seek is that you should be able to make $1, not $10,000 $1, And to give yourself 30 days, 60 days, 90 days to create that $1. And this $1 is the validation. Now once you click that $1 The second validation is that can I repeat, let’s say you do make $1 in a month or two, then the next goal is can I make this $1 Again, and if I do make this $1 Again, my measure is going to be how much less time it took for me to make the second dollar. That’s what I mean by starting small. It doesn’t sound sexy. It sounds odd too if you compare the statement to everything else others are saying what I mean is see you’re not made a single dime and you want to start a business and make $10,000 a month start with $1 This is absolutely practical to the point statement. Start with $1. Now keep on increasing that to 510 2050 100 200 500 whatever with 1000 Right. And every time you do that, you get closer to the end goal. Now the only way you can make the second dollar The third dollar and the fourth dollar is if you practice daily.

This there was another conversation I had with the founder of a startup telling me that, you know, we post, you know, we create social media, but we are struggling to convert social media into sales. And they wanted to pick my brain. And I said, Yeah, you know, what kind of posts are you making on social media? While motivational quotes and said, Yeah, that’s exactly what another million people are doing. I don’t post any motivational posts on social media, I post this podcast on social media. This is what I create every day. And I really put behind I put my brain my effort behind all my podcasts. And this is what I stand for. You know, not the best podcasts. I don’t think that my podcasts are the best podcast, but I afford it there. It’s daily, it’s, it’s a practice. It’s consistent. Okay. Yeah, sometimes I lack the motivation to do this podcast. Yeah. And so his life in life’s, there’s so many things you, you know, you got to do, you got to do, but not everything has to have needs to be preceded with motivation. But if you stay consistent, then motivation will find you. But you will only become consistent once motivation finds you. That’s not a condition. So you got to practice daily, whatever the small thing is, whatever the small area that you are focused on that one thing that you want to accomplish every day, daily practice. Now, why you are practicing daily, that means you are consistent. That means that you are repeating whatever has to be repeated, consistently. You got to also become tactful.

That’s step number three, you got to become tactful tactics. So what else can I learn? What else can I do to get this small little thing to work? And as you start with that mindset, like can I bring in one more tactic? Can I bring in a little bit more? No? How can I read more can I implement, you know, a new idea, a new concept, the small thing that you’re trying to accomplish, it becomes easy, it becomes your mind starts to see the I can accomplish this. But you got to stay tactful because you don’t want to be in a situation where you can accomplish the goal of making the $1 or $5 or $10. But you miss out on the lesson. And the lesson could be that, you know, if you bring these new tactics in, then when you learn you implement, then you grow the growth pot. You don’t miss the lesson, as far as growth is concerned. And then step number four to this process is you got to seek advice. I’m not saying go spend money with a coach or a mentor. And accelerate your success. Yes, yeah. If you bring in people with more experience and more know-how Yes, you can accelerate success. And this lady has a point too. But my point is, you don’t need to reading a book is seeking advice. having a conversation with a friend seeking advice. You know, participating in a class is seeking advice. Advice is available at multiple places in different shapes and forms. You got to have the mind to seek that. Yes. And I’ve gone on to say this multiple times, the best advice is free.

And for everything else you have to pay. The best advice is everywhere. See, I remember once standing in front of Stanford, this was many, many years ago, many years ago, and going to a meet up not a meetup but a representation at Stanford and seeing the founder of mint on the stage, the mint.com and waiting for him for what 45 minutes after he was done presenting and then walking behind him all the way to the parking lot asking questions. He built an $800 million company and he has something that I do not have. This was nearly 20 years ago, 15 years ago, 16 years ago, something like that. So it’s available advice is available. You got to ask and that’s why I keep on repeating myself on this podcast. Hey, you have a question to ask. Don’t schedule any consultations with me. Do not go to my website and pay money, none of that. Just ask if you have a question. And I’ll do everything I can with whatever I know through my research if need be, and bring an answer and present it in front of you and not a thing I have, I have no loss personally, and you have nothing to lose.

And again, as I said, the best information is free. And for everything else you have to pay. This is how I would do this. That’s exactly what I told her. And here’s what I’m sharing with you because there might be something that you’re trying to accomplish. May not be money. Money is just an example may not be a business something. Maybe you’re trying to lose weight. Maybe you’re trying to save some money. Maybe you’re trying to change your job, whatever situation you are in. Maybe you’re trying to alter a relationship. Start small. Start small, and practice daily. Become tactful. seek advice, seek counsel. That’s all, for now, you have a wonderful Monday. And I wish you a wonderful start of the week. And I will catch up with you as early as tomorrow. Stay tuned.