Here's the Secret to Creating Longer Days

Last week I shared a Grumpier Old Men clip about a man who drank, smoked and ate copious amounts of bacon… and lived to be 95. Just a reminder to don’t follow that advice. Instead, let’s talk about what you could accomplish… if you could just get “caught up”! These days, so many amazing dreams and big goals die because people spend their lives in minutiae…I freakin’ hate minutiae. Look, everybody has 24 hours in their day between midnight to midnight. POTUS, entrepreneurs who run multiple million dollar companies, stay at home mama’s… Ask any of these folks if there’s ever enough time in the day to get everything done and they’ll all tell you “NO”! So then how do certain people get so much more done in the same 24 hours than the rest of the population? The answer is this… It’s HOW you START your day. Would you like to enjoy a 26 hour day? Consider this story: Almost sixty years after his death, Earnest Hemingway is still well-known in high school and college literature courses. He was also infamous for being a very heavy drinker. I only mention that fact, because despite his wild, carousing evenings …he was disciplined to wake up between 5:30 and 6:00 in the morning. Hemingway had this to say: “I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool and you come to your work and warm as you write… you may go on until noon or be through before that. When you stop you are empty, and at the same time never empty but filling, as when you have made love to someone you love. Nothing can hurt you, nothing can happen, nothing means anything until the next day when you do it again. It is the wait until the next day that is hard to get through.” Wow. {{ first_name|default:'Friend' }}, your day, regardless of when you hit the gym, is WON in the morning. By getting up early and doing specific things (outlined below) your life will change, very quickly. There’s a quote I absolutely love and believe it down to my core from Sir Richard Whately… “Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it.” Just last week, I had almost had a completely productive week except for Thursday. I woke up and didn’t do my workout because I didn’t feel like doing it. My entire morning routine was thrown off and I ended up literally getting NOTHING done that day. Whatever you’re doing, you can do more--with this simple shift in your routine. (Simple, not easy) Richard Branson gets up at 5am no matter where he is in the world because it gives him a head start on the rest of the world.​ Apple CEO Tim Cook gets up at 3:45. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is in the gym by 4am every day. I personally have been getting up before 5AM every day, for the past 2 years. I do this because by the time the average American wakes up, I’ve already gotten half my work done for the day! If I’m 100% honest with you, I could never run Crazy Muscle without my morning routine... There’s more time in the day to do things I want to do. Things I would’ve previously said “I’m too busy for that.” And even if you consider yourself a night owl, I guarantee you getting up at 5 or 6 for a couple days will cure your late nights. So, if you are a brave soul, and you do want the benefit of having an extra two hours per day (the “26 hour day”), what will you do specifically, before dawn? --->I recommend a strict routine you follow each and every morning. While your best routine will be one of your own creation, the most successful people on this planet typically include some combo of these elements: Gratitude Reading Exercise (cardio) Meditation​ Hydration One element that’s not on ANY early riser’s list? Electronic devices. Checking email or responding to texts or “just a minute in Facebook” is definitely not something to get out of bed for. How you start your day sets the tone for the entire