Bookending - 10 Minutes To Move From Chaos to Control

One of the common themes I hear from Men of any age: their lives are complicated, busy and challenging.

Some even use the word chaotic to describe their days.

One of the side effects: they don’t prioritize their health and fitness.

Waist lines expand, strength decreases, prescriptions increase and energy levels drop.

And when health and fitness decline, it impacts how they perform at home and at work.

It’s a vicious, negative cycle that builds on itself.

Today I’m going to share a concept that many of you have heard about but are probably not fully leveraging to your benefit.

The concept is commonly referred to as the morning and/or evening routine.

Google it and you’ll find no shortage of examples, suggestions, and guides.

I’m going to share with you how to use these routines to start moving the needle on your health and fitness. And it’s only going to take you 10 minutes a day.

But first, let’s cover three problems with most morning/evening routine recommendations:

1. They are too complicated

2. They are out of order

3. They have boring names

Below I will explain the problems and offer alternatives.

If you have a morning and/or evening routine, the suggestions will help you take your routine to the next level.

If you don’t have a routine, give this a try. There is no downside and it only takes 10 minutes per day.

Here we go…

They Are Too Complicated

Most morning routines consist of one or more of the following

• Journaling

• Gratitude

• Reading/Devotions

• Planning

• Brain dumps

• To-Do lists

• Reflecting

• Affirmations

There is nothing wrong with doing all of the items above (personally I do many of them) but for anyone starting out this is way too complicated.

My recommendation for the “Minimum Viable Routine” is this:

1. Spend 5 minutes thinking about your top priorities for the day.

2. Write them down.

3. Prioritize the top three.

4. Schedule them.

5. No matter what happens today, make them happen.

That’s it.

If you try and do more than this out of the gate, you probably won’t sustain the habit. Keeping it simple but focused is the key.

Every Man’s top 3 priorities will vary. Use this opportunity to focus on attainable actions. For most Men, the priorities should revolve around improving their nutrition, increasing movement and drinking more water.

Start with an easy to implement approach by asking yourself “what’s the least I can do?” for each priority.

Keep your journal in a location next to something you do everyday. By your phone, toothbrush, coffee, where you feed the dog, etc.

They Are Out of Order

People who use routines start their day with a morning routine and might end their day with an evening routine. Doing both is powerful but there is one problem.

This is backwards.

Your day actually starts the night before.

Here’s what a simple evening routine should consist of:

1. Write down all your wins for the day, big and small.

2. List your top priorities for tomorrow and jot down some details about how you want your day to go.

3. Make requests to your subconscious

Writing down all your wins for the day is a way to savor your successes and train your brain to appreciate your efforts, your results, and your focus. It reinforces and reminds you why your actions are so important.

And no win is too small. Had a burger but skipped the fries and went with a salad? That’s a win.

After some practice, you’ll find yourself creating wins so you can record them later in the day. Skipping the donuts at the office, getting in an extra set of pushups, stopping your coffee by noon so you sleep better, parking in the spot farthest away so you can increase your step count. These are all wins that help you achieve your health and fitness priorities.

Next, do a simple bullet listing of what needs to happen tomorrow by writing down your top priorities. Write down how you want your day to play out. Anticipate temptations, obstacles and challenges so you can “pre-decide” how you will handle them.

Don’t spend too much time on this, just let it flow. You’ll return to this tomorrow in your morning routine.

Lastly, follow Thomas Edison’s advice: “Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.”

I like to keep this simple by focusing on one thing that I want to accomplish. Sometimes this is one sentence, often it is a paragraph or two.

Ask yourself what needs to be true to accomplish your goals. Write down what is holding you back. Ask for guidance. Write all of this down. Ask for it on paper and say it out loud.

Then go to sleep.

While you are sleeping, your subconscious mind will go to work and deliver ideas, solutions, and alternatives…you’ll be amazed at how this works.

Sounds woo woo, right? Give it a try and see what happens.

Don’t be surprised if you wake up with an “aha” moment and need to write it down. It’s normal and one of the benefits of the process.

This process doesn’t need to take more than 5 minutes. If you invest more time, only do it because it feels right.

When you wake up in the morning and start your morning routine, the first thing you’ll read is what you wrote the night before. It primes the pump so you can hit the ground running. You’ll look at all the priorities you wrote down the night before and select the top 3. You’ll live a version of the day you wrote about. The evening routine creates a head start on your day.

You’ll live your day twice - first in your journal and then in real life.

The Have Boring Names

The morning and evening routines are pretty generic names.

They don’t inspire you or sound very motivating.

At Argent Alpha we use these names:

Morning Routine → Pre-Game Planning

Evening Routine → Victory Lap

We chose these names because we identify as athletes. As athletes we are training for all aspects of life (not just fitness or sport).

The words “morning routine” don’t exactly inspire you to jump out of bed and slay the day.

Pre-Game Planning however implies that a competitive game is about to start. That game is your day. And you are either going to win the day or lose the day based on your plan.

At the end of they day, chances are your tank is nearly empty. Who wants an “evening routine” after 15 hours of getting after it? Not me.

But I’ll take a Victory Lap every night. I want that feedback about how I performed, the wins I created, the progress I made.

Everyone Has A Plan Until They Get Punched In The Mouth

Bookending your day with a Victory Lap and Pre-Game Planning won’t prevent you from getting punched in the mouth by your day (thanks Mike Tyson for the quote).

But bookending will make you more resilient. Most (if not all) of your plan can survive an uppercut and a jab.

Why?

Because you are expecting to get hit. You prioritized your top 3. You understand you are still in control of the choices you make. You realize you get to decide where you spend your time. You want to savor those wins later today.

Over time, bookending helps increase our focus on what we do control and lessens our focus on things we don’t control.

Chaos starts to fade, grit increases, and results improve.

Even if the day is a total sh*t storm, we begin and end each day with a process where we control our thoughts and actions.

Summary

The TL;DR of Bookending:

End your day with a Victory Lap. Celebrate your wins, outline the tomorrow you want to live, and make a request of your subconscious.

Start your day with Pre-Game Planning. Review your notes from the previous nights Victory Lap. Select your top 3 priorities. Decide how you are going to live the day.

Live the day you planned on paper. No matter what the day throws at you, hit those top 3 priorities. Adjust and do your best to create the wins you are going to write about later in the victory lap.

End your day with a Victory Lap. Rinse and repeat.

Making this daily 10 minute commitment will cause a dramatic shift in your mindset, health and fitness.

Argent Alpha provides the structure, community, testing and accountability drivers that help Men over 50 become Harder To Kill.

Harder To Kill means shedding excess body fat, preserving and adding muscle, reversing biological age and most importantly transforming your mindset and identity to make the changes lasting and sustainable.

The best time to join Argent Alpha was 6 months ago.

The next best time is today.

Make the 2nd half of life the best half. Apply now at Argent Alpha.