Dominate Your Day
5 Daily Habits to Never Miss

The 5 AM Miracle Podcast, hosted by Jeff Sanders

Episode #540: Dominate Your Day: 5 Daily Habits to Never Miss

Jeff Sanders
I recently read some advice from James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits.

And he said that goals are for people who care about winning once.

Systems are for people who care about winning repeatedly.

Now, I love goals and systems, and I certainly care about winning in every scenario.

However, it's true that systems, habits, and compound interest are the most powerful forces on Earth.

So let's give your day a big boost with some new habits.

This is the 5am Miracle, episode #540.

Dominate Your Day - 5 Daily Habits to Never Miss.

Good morning and welcome to the 5am Miracle.

I am Jeff Sanders and this is the podcast dedicated to dominating your day before breakfast.

My goal is to help you bounce out of bed with enthusiasm, create powerful, lifelong habits, and tackle your grandest goals with extraordinary energy.

I am a keynote speaker and corporate trainer specializing in delivering high-energy, interactive, and action-oriented presentations and workshops focused on productivity, wellness, and personal and professional growth.

If you want to learn more about how we can work together, head over to jeffsanders.com/speaking.

Now in the episode this week, I'll break down what it means to dominate your day, where the 5am Miracle came from, why it still matters, and 5 daily habits you don't want to miss to ensure you get the most value from your time.

Let's dig in.

Now, let me tell you a story.

And this one comes right out of my book, The 5am Miracle - Dominate Your Day Before Breakfast, which you can find at 5ambook.com, both the paperback and audio editions.

And for today's conversation, I'm going to read to you the first two pages from chapter 1, where we really discuss the foundation of what it means to dominate your day, and then how that relates to what the 5am Miracle actually is.

And these components lay the foundation for this conversation around these 5 daily habits you don't want to miss.

And I want this entire conversation framed from that mindset of, we want to get value from our time, we want to get the most value from our days, and have those core habits in place that are going to lead to long-term success and health and prosperity.

So let's discuss this now from the lens of the first two pages here from chapter 1 of the 5am Miracle.

Chapter 1 - The Miracle of 5am.

What it means to dominate your day before breakfast.

Miracle - noun - a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is considered to be divine, a highly improbable or extraordinary event, development, or accomplishment.

Welcome to the 5am Miracle.

I am Jeff Sanders and this is THE book dedicated to dominating your day before breakfast.

Just like my podcast, also called The 5am Miracle, this book's goal is to help you bounce out of bed with enthusiasm, create powerful, lifelong habits, and tackle your grandest goals with extraordinary energy.

Throughout this book, I'll be discussing early mornings and diving much deeper into topics like healthy habits, personal development, and rockin' productivity.

I started my podcast due to one key anchor habit that has revolutionized the way I live - intentionally waking up early.

This one habit has become the backbone of everything I do.

Over the years, I have given many explanations as to what the 5am Miracle is and how it could be defined.

From my experiences, there are so many wonderful things about waking up early that it took quite a bit of soul-searching to pin this one down.

For the sake of this book and for clarity, the 5am Miracle can be defined as the extraordinary act of dominating your day before breakfast, intentionally bouncing out of bed bright and early in order to make significant progress on your grandest goals.

In my experience, 5am is a fantastic time of day, and throughout this book, I will strongly emphasize 5am as the ideal time to get up every morning.

However, the act of waking up at that time is not impressive on its own.

After all, 5am is arbitrary.

However, what 5am stands for is much more impressive and ultimately miraculous.

1. 5am is a block of time each morning when life is calm, serene, and peaceful.

In the early morning hours, there are few distractions, the birds are just beginning to sing, and life moves at a slower pace.

For some, this is the only time of day they have to themselves.

2. 5am is a symbol for taking control.

Realizing your life and your time are in your hands is incredibly empowering and presents abundant opportunity.

When you use your minutes wisely, you reach a pinnacle of achievement and fulfillment few ever do.

3. 5am can become your most precious asset.

When you guard your time and prioritize your tasks, when you optimize your body and develop your mind, when you live on purpose and pursue your grandest goals, you reap the limitless benefits of the miracle of 5am.

A grand life lived with intention, pursued with ambition, and rewarded with transformation.

So those are the first two chapters from my book, and I think that paints a really good picture for this conversation, and I want to go back a little bit further and discuss a bit of my origin story in case you have not heard that, which I do discuss in the book as well.

So the 5am miracle itself came from a time in my life in my mid-20s when I had a full-time job, a side business I was trying to build, which then became the full-time business I now run, as well as me training for a marathon.

And so my daily schedule was packed.

It was filled with activity.

I had a lot going on, but I really didn't have a sense of control or intentionality behind it.

And so I decided one morning I was going to wake up extra early, because at this point I was waking up at the last possible minute to get to work right on time, but I was stressed out.

It was hectic.

It was not purposeful or deliberate.

So I thought, what if I just flip the script and woke up at 5am instead and went for a morning run as part of my marathon training?

Then I could go to my day job, and then when that was over, I could build my side business in the evenings.

That was the basic structure and the idea.

I tried it one time and it worked and it was awesome and I loved it.

And I have been addicted to that kind of feeling ever since.

I've wanted to recreate that sense of possibility ever since that first day where I did a personal experiment.

Now, I really view my twenties as a decade of personal experimentation and personal growth.

And it all came from my willingness to say, I want to try new things and see what's possible for me, and I can only figure that out by living through it and trying different things and then recording the results and then pivoting as needed.

And so that's where the 5a miracle came from.

It was this simple concept that I could just wake up early on purpose with a plan and do something I don't normally do.

And that habit stuck around.

And I realized very quickly that could become something that others would want to learn more about, which then the long story in the business became, I launched a blog and then this podcast and then the book came around and then coaching and speaking and all these other wonderful things.

But they all came from this simple one day of my life where I chose to do things differently.

I chose to wake up early on purpose.

Now, from my perspective, the 5a miracle concept still matters today just as much as it ever has mostly because waking up on purpose at the time you predetermined is always your first decision of the day, no matter what, like when we wake up is our first choice.

And so why not make the very first choice of your day one that's designed with intention, with purpose, with a goal behind it, with some sort of desire to wake up.

You know, I talk about bouncing out of bed with enthusiasm.

Why would you want to do that?

The first thing in your day is something you don't want to do.

Why would you be excited to begin your day if your day is filled with activity that does not bring you joy and fulfillment and possibility?

That to me was the most obvious question of why would I want to live my life in a way that doesn't excite me?

I want to bounce out of bed with enthusiasm.

I want to wake up early because I want to get to these activities that I love so much.

So the 5a miracle to me has always mattered because it always will matter because all of this is always true.

Our first choice of the day is waking up on purpose unless you just don't make that choice and it becomes kind of just this wishy-washy, I'll wake up when I wake up thing and all of a sudden you're lacking intentionality, lacking purpose, lacking that drive and then your life kind of unfolds in a way that you didn't predetermine, which means you get results you didn't really expect or want, which means you've lost control of your life.

I know it's kind of a darker way to view it, but that's essentially what we're talking about.

It really is go down road A or B, right?

Purposeful or not.

Wake up because you chose to or don't.

For me, it's a very binary decision in that case.

Now beyond that, the 5a miracle still matters because life is more distracting than ever and you need a solution to combat the noise.

Like I said in the book just now when I read this passage that 5am for most people is their only quiet hour of the day.

It's their only time to do something that they love, their only time to have a few minutes before the kids are awake, before the job begins, before the texts and the emails and all the distractions show up.

You have a few moments and in those few moments you can do something that really matters to you and it can do so in a way that's focused and purposeful and beautiful and productive and progressive and all these wonderful words that add up to your personal goals being achieved.

So yes, life is distracting and yes, the 5a miracle matters.

Now in addition to that, I honestly believe the 5a miracle still matters because habits are the backbone of your day.

That habits create your future self and when you're able to bake in the most powerful habits you possibly can, you are then predetermining your future.

Because let's look at it from this perspective.

Who you are today is a reflection of the habits you have had for the last few months and years and for you to have a better future a few months or years from now, the habits you have today are determining that future.

As if you want a better future, if you want a bigger, bolder life with more progress, more success, more achievement, more peace, more harmony, more ease, well then the habits you put in place today are the ones that are going to make sure that's possible. (upbeat music) So let's break this down now for you to dominate your day with these five daily habits that I want you to ensure you never miss or miss rarely let's say.

The word never is a bit extreme.

But these are five core habits that can really change the game for you and take you to a new place if you have not been there already.

Now before I break down these five habits, there's one key, we'll call it a philosophy, a guiding philosophy that I have around everything I do here at the 5am Miracle and something you can see in the subtitle of the podcast.

So the show's name is the 5am Miracle, but the subtitle I added a few years ago is healthy productivity for high achievers.

And that first word is the most important, healthy.

I have what I call a health first approach to productivity, which means my vision for my awesome life that I want to build, my vision for you to build your awesome life, your productive, successful, high achieving life.

Yes, of course, that's filled with productivity and getting things done and achieving big goals.

But the health component is the more important one.

And it's one that comes with it.

It's part of the package.

And so to me, there is no sense of success.

If you had to sacrifice your health to get there, if you had to destroy your body to get money or fame or achievement, you messed up, right?

Somewhere along the line, you sacrifice too much and you lost the thing that is the most important, which is your physical ability to live your life.

We want to feel vibrant and healthy.

And you might think, well, maybe that's going to have a detrimental impact on my future goals and success and revenue building or whatever else you're trying to achieve.

But the opposite is true.

The healthier and more vibrant you are, the more possibilities exist for you to get more stuff done in the future.

A simple example here is if you were to take away time to work and replace that with time to take care of your body, you might think, well, I'm missing out on work time.

I'm missing out on progress time.

But in fact, you are giving yourself more energy, more vitality to then use in the future on more high impact focus time.

So yes, health matters.

I could give an entire speech about that right now.

I'll hold off on it.

But the guiding philosophy around these habits is and always will be a health first approach.

Having said that, the very first habit I don't want you to miss is high quality, deep sleep.

Now one thing you'll have noticed on this podcast is that as much as I care about sleep, I actually haven't discussed it as much as I should have.

And I say that because sleep being the number one habit to discuss this week is the foundational habit.

It is the thing that determines almost everything else.

That's a lot of power I'm giving sleep, but I'll use a simple example.

Recently I was going through a season of better sleep than I've had in a long time.

And I've made some changes, which I'll discuss in a second, that made my sleep not only better, not only deeper, but the kind of sleep that said as my day progresses, as I'm working on important projects and goals, I'm feeling great the whole time.

I don't feel exhausted after lunch.

I don't feel worn down and need more caffeine to continue.

I have this sense of mental clarity, this sense of deep, natural energy.

And then of course, when the day winds down, I'm ready for sleep again the next night.

Great.

I'm ready to get some more high quality sleep and feel even better the next day.

I say all this to juxtapose previous examples in my life when I haven't felt this good, when my sleep was poor, and then it really showed.

Not only would my productivity start to struggle, but I would just physically feel like my life was beating me down.

If you want to feel stressed out and feel overwhelmed, if you're striving to feel bad, just lose a good night's sleep and do it a few nights in a row.

It will add up so quickly.

It's one of the most immediate rejections of poor behavior that you just see right away.

But if I get great sleep, if I focus on it, if it is a priority, it pays itself back in spades in terms of phenomenal energy, mental clarity, more work getting done.

It's just a phenomenal core foundational habit.

And so some of the changes that I've made here recently, the very first one is actually a sleep supplement that in the past I've never used or recommended these kinds of things.

I've toyed with things like, we'll say, Tylenol PM or NyQuil Z on the medicated side.

I've definitely used things like alcohol late at night to think that that's going to help.

But of course, something like alcohol will allow you in most cases to fall asleep faster, but then you get lower quality sleep throughout the night in addition to other possible health issues from alcohol itself.

So long story short here is that I have relied primarily to get my best sleep habits in through things like a great diet, great exercise routine, lower stress, and then having a really great environment to sleep in.

So my wife and I take sleep very seriously.

So we've got a very dark room.

It's very cold.

We've got a really great high quality bed and mattress with big thick blankets and pillows that we love.

I think you take your environment seriously.

Well on top of that, I do a few extra things that most people don't do, I don't think they do, that allows me to get even better sleep than that.

So this first area is a sleep supplement that I've recently been trying and loving.

And so I'm not an affiliate, it's not a sponsor, this is a product that I just love and it's called RYZE, R-Y-Z-E, RYZE Mushroom Hot Cocoa.

That's right, Mushroom Hot Cocoa.

It is vegan, I've been a vegan for 14 years now, so it's definitely a vegan product that its primary ingredients are mushrooms in this hot chocolate kind of style.

Now the first thing to note here is that it does not taste like mushrooms.

I have definitely had other beverages that are mushroom based that I do not like.

And this is the only one I've ever had where I think, "Hmm, I'm not actually tasting mushroom at all."

Now it doesn't have a strong chocolate flavor either, but it is just enough to be able to say this is a nice evening beverage to have.

And then I do fall asleep very quickly.

It does have melatonin in it, not a lot, but it does have that as one of the ingredients.

So if that's something you're trying to avoid, I wouldn't go this direction.

But I definitely have seen a dramatic impact in how I sleep throughout the night and I get a lot more sleep as well.

Another strategy my wife and I have done that kind of ties with the same kind of vibe here of more rest is that we're in the middle of June in the summer and our daughter's daycare schedules are a little more relaxed.

We're not taking as much of a hardcore approach to productivity this summer and so we're both going to bed earlier and sleeping in later.

So it's just this real epic focus on more and better sleep.

And my gosh, holy cow, like I, I feel that impact.

I am more alert, more awake, more relaxed.

It's like a mini vacation in my regular life by simply saying there's a slower pace and there's more sleep and it's better sleep and it's working well for me.

One other strategy that I've used recently with my sleep that I think I might keep long term, we'll see how it plays out, are these little sleep tape patches you put on your nose that opens up your nostrils so you can get more airflow through your nose.

They've been around forever and I just never tried them.

I've never actually used them at night and holy cow, these things are amazing.

They're very effective.

Just a little piece of tape, it opens up your nose and this pairs with, here's the important part, this little tape strip pairs with other tape I'm already using on my mouth.

So there's a long story here I discussed in the podcast before of using mouth tape to force nasal breathing while you sleep.

Some people go so far as to use it while they exercise.

I do not do that, but you can use a small piece of tape.

Mine is, I think it's a surgical tape made by 3M.

That's a very small piece.

It's right in the middle of my mouth.

So if I need to still breathe on the outsides of my mouth, I can.

So you're not choking or dying here.

It's not a health hazard.

But it does force me while I'm sleeping to breathe through my nose.

And then if you pair that with the tape that opens up your nostrils, well then all of a sudden you're getting a lot more quality airflow into your nose all night long and there is a dramatic impact on your brain function and on the oxygen that gets into your body and the anti-sleep apnea strategy that this becomes.

It just, it's amazing.

It's just amazing.

I have not gone so far as to tinker with your sleep, to add an experimentation and say, what if I were to wear a sleep mask, which I do, or have some mouth tape or a little bit of tape on my nostrils.

I also have a dental guard for my teeth so I don't grind my teeth at night.

So I look really, really goofy when I'm going to bed.

There are so many contraptions I'm testing all the time.

You can't talk to me because everything's taped up, but it's a good way for me to sleep.

It works so well.

I can't say enough about these strategies.

And so for you, customize it, test it, see what works for you.

These things are wonderful if you take them seriously and I cannot stress enough how important high quality sleep is for your entire life.

Lower your stress, get more done, feel better.

Sleep is great.

Okay, number two in these five daily habits to never miss, let's just call it the 5 a.m. miracle.

I don't want you to miss the opportunity to have a phenomenal first bang for your buck moment, which means that you wake up on purpose.

You set the tone for your day by having one specific activity that you want to see go through that just changes your life.

One, whether it's a health goal, a business goal, it doesn't matter what it is.

It could matter, I'll say this, if you choose something that you tend to procrastinate on, if you choose something that tends to add energy to your day, you choose something that tends to add value, that's going to be huge.

It is a miraculous thing to do something on purpose.

I use the word miracle here for a reason because if you don't live that lifestyle, if you don't put the energy in and the intentionality in to start your day the way that you could, the way that you could, when you do, it is a miracle.

It changes the tone for your day, sets the foundation, adds in more energy.

Like I've given this speech to this podcast a million times, but I'm going to do it again because it's just what this is about.

It's why I am here talking to you because the 5 a.m. miracle habit is life-changing.

If you've not experienced that firsthand, yes, of course you could read my book, you could subscribe to this podcast, but more importantly, you can change your morning routine tomorrow morning.

You can set a simple new habit, have a few key criteria you want to hit, set time to wake up, a certain activity to go pursue, experience it, do it, see what happens, and then do it again the next morning, but do it smarter, do it better, do it differently, and continue that process ongoing.

No, 5 a.m. is not required as I just read in the book earlier, it's arbitrary, but it is pretty powerful, and early morning is a pretty awesome time to change your life.

You don't need that speech from me a million times, but I will reiterate that, that it does matter.

All right, the third of our daily habits to never miss is to follow a written game plan.

When I read David Allen's book, Getting Things Done, almost 20 years ago now, one of the key takeaways that I realized from that book was not just to have a lot of lists or to have next actions for your next project, it wasn't the two minute rule, all these are great things, but the one thing I took away that I think has been more of a game changer than anything is to get ideas out of my head and onto paper, to follow a written game plan for the things that I care about.

I can't tell you how many people I've met that if I ask them, "Do you have goals?

Do you have a plan?"

They'll say, "Sure," and then I ask them, "Well, let's see it."

They're like, "Oh, well, I need to go find a biome notebook and write it down," and then they'll get back to you.

All of a sudden you realize, no, no, no, no, there is no plan.

There is no goal.

If it's not written down, it's not real.

It's a fantasy in your head.

I have realized that so many times where I've thought to myself, "Well, I would love to pursue this random task or project, but if I don't write it down, if I don't put it on my calendar, if I don't put it into my task manager, if I don't create a project around it, if I don't intentionally pursue it, it's not getting done.

I might impulsively decide to act on it in the future.

Maybe, maybe not, but if it's written down, it's almost a guarantee something will happen.

I will pursue it.

I will schedule it.

I will act on it.

I am guaranteeing success simply by writing it down.

My wife sends me to the grocery store to buy food.

We have a list that we have right next to our door, head to the garage.

It's a little notepad and we will throughout the week jot down things to buy at the store.

And when I go to the store to buy the food for the week, I'll take the list and I'll buy every single thing on the list and then I come home.

I very rarely will go off the list.

I almost always follow it to a T.

And so if it's on the list, I will guarantee you that I will get it.

And if it's not on the list, I can almost guarantee you I will not because I follow my plan.

The list is the plan.

The list is purposeful.

It's there for a reason.

And it's amazing how simple that is and yet how effective it is in every area of your life, whether it is buying groceries or pursuing your next business idea, going to grad school, writing your next novel.

It doesn't matter what the thing is.

If it's not on paper, it's not happening.

Now of course there's a thousand ways to organize things once they're on paper and systems galore to organize your life.

One thing for me that has been most helpful in recent months has been a color coding system, which I've discussed on the podcast, I think in the last six months or so, but in my task manager, Nozbe, as well as on my calendar and my Mac, both of them have color coded systems that are designed to get my attention for the things that are most critical and everything else can be color coded in a way that says this is less important.

We'll get to it later, but the things that are critical, the things that are usually the color red, well, they grab my attention.

I know they're due today.

I know that I have to get them done.

Now the episode of this podcast I'm recording right now is a red item on the list today because I just so happened to record this at the very last second, which is fine.

That does happen.

Not my norm, but it can happen.

I need the color coded reminder system to keep me on track for the things that need to get done when they need to get done.

And that written game plan guarantees that I'm going to follow a schedule that was done on purpose and the things that are highlighted that are red, that are due today, they're right in front of me and everything else I'll get to later, but I know that my life is going to flow the way I want it to.

And I'm gonna get the results that I want and have that habit baked in of taking everything that matters and putting it into a system.

Write it down of all the daily habits that have been most impactful for me.

This ability and this willingness and this habit I've now formed to just write down the ideas and then organize them, systematize them, prioritize them, filter them, act on them and get results from them.

Well, that's a game changer right there.

That's a life changing habit.

Now for a life changing habit, number four, number four is to eat.

Okay, we'll take that further.

Number four is to eat, to thrive.

I have spent a lot of time in my life.

I've really since going vegan 14 years ago of taking nutrition seriously, but I'm human, which also means I've eaten a lot of nonsense.

I've gained weight in the past and then lost it and then gained weight and then lost it and then pursued marathons and then got off the wagon there as well.

Recently, I have taken my nutrition seriously again, the 30th time in my life, but what I've realized yet again is the value that great nutrition provides, the value of taking your food seriously and how that has a direct and immediate impact on how you feel, how much energy you have, how much you get done.

Yes, of course, productivity angles are going to be great, but then just this awesomeness of saying, "Because I take my food seriously, because I am flooding my body with nutrients, I just feel awesome.

When I feel awesome, I'm going to do awesome work.

I'm going to pursue new amazing goals.

I'm going to have more hope for the future.

I'm going to pursue things with just this sense of energy and enthusiasm and vibrance that I otherwise would not have."

I juxtapose that from just recently when I had some bad food habits and I felt this just dull sense of, "Ugh, I'm not me.

I'm not my best self and I know it."

Then there definitely is this sense of an addiction.

I don't use the addiction in the clinical sense, although it technically could go that angle, but more in that sense of when I don't feel good, it also can lead to making worse decisions that double down on me not feeling good.

For example, if your diet is not great and you don't feel that great, and then to comfort yourself for not feeling great, you eat foods that don't help you at all and actually make the problem worse, you can see yourself in a downward spiral.

One of the core habits to keep top of mind every day is to eat to thrive, to consume the kinds of foods that make you better and make you more alive, more energetic, more of your best self.

I've done simple swaps recently, and by a swap I mean I'll identify a certain food I tend to eat every day and then simply ask the question, "Is there an alternative that is healthier, better, more fulfilling, is going to serve me long-term in a way this current food does not?"

That simple idea of eat this, not that can change your whole life, can change your entire nutritional plan.

I'm not here to tell you you have to go vegan to experience these things, although I think you probably should.

What I am really arguing is that if you are able to identify, "Here are things that I'm eating that aren't working, and what's a healthier alternative that I could eat and enjoy," do one swap and try it for a few days.

Once you get adjusted to it, try one more, and just repeat that process until you've basically swapped out those habitual foods.

There is a very long speech I could give about the power of habit, but one of the core things that make a habit so powerful is the compounding effect over time.

If you, for a simple example, decide, "Every night I'm going to drink a beer," and you do so every single day for months and years and more years and decades, there's a significant compounding effect that that beer has on your life.

If you swap that beer out for a smoothie, which is a dramatically different food, but still a liquid in some sense, and you have a smoothie every single day for weeks and months and years and decades, you could imagine the impact that that would have on your life over time as well.

If you are able to identify those things that you consume every single day, and those get swapped out for healthier choices, the compound effect of that over time is epic.

It's everything.

It will define your future self.

It will make you the better you you want to be.

Now, it can be difficult.

This kind of change is hard.

Food is addicting, and the kinds of modern foods we have are extra addicting.

To identify foods you consume consistently that are not serving you and swap them out, it is the core.

It's the foundation of your nutritional and energetic self.

Your new better self can come out of better nutritional choices.

It all starts with simple swaps.

Your habit to never miss is the intentionality on the food you eat.

It's saying, "I am choosing this food on purpose.

I am pursuing this with gusto because this makes me the me I want to be."

To take that to the next level, of course, after nutrition, we have the fifth and final habit to never miss, or hopefully never, which is fitness, taking care of your physical self.

My fitness journey has been one of high highs and low lows, everything from running marathons and ultra marathons and feeling epically fantastic, all the way down to having high stress, panic attacks and back surgery.

I've seen a real wide spectrum of what this can do for you, both in the positive and in the negative.

Where I'm at in my journey today is a guy who literally is about to turn 40 years old in less than two months.

I've got a wife, two kids, a business, a house, and then that midlife experience, very much midlife.

Is a midlife crisis coming?

Has it already arrived?

Probably so.

But one thing I can say about this current season of my life is the value that fitness provides not because I want to run a marathon in the future, although it could be a great goal, and not because I have some epic vision for looking sexy in the mirror, although that could be a goal as well.

What I'm really striving for is that feeling of confidence, that feeling of I've got this, whatever life throws at me, I can handle it.

Recently I saw a post on Instagram from David Goggins.

I discussed him in the podcast before.

He is a very intense individual.

Some of the most intense perspectives on life you could have, David Goggins provides.

And on his Instagram post that he had, he was showing himself shirtless on stage at an event.

And the post that he was discussing, the reason why that was there was because somebody in the audience asked him to take his shirt off.

And he said yes, and then he flexed his muscles and showed how strong he was.

And his post was not about, "Hey, here, look at me, I have my shirt off."

The post was, "I train for life.

I train so that every single day I have what it takes to do whatever comes my way."

And so in this case, maybe it's more shallow, but really he's talking about this idea that life can be hard.

We have challenges and we should be prepared for them.

I want to be able to go to the gym and lift weights.

I want to be able to carry my groceries and not have back pain.

That might be a really low bar.

That might sound kind of ridiculous.

At the same time, one thing I can definitely say about aging is that it hurts.

You need more intentionality than you've had before.

And the aches and pains of aging aren't going to go away unless you intentionally and directly address these things.

And for me to say I have bigger visions for the future, marathons, ultra marathons, other grand goals, wonderful.

But at the core of my rationale, my why for fitness is I want to wake up tomorrow morning knowing at the core of who I am that I can take on my life.

I can do whatever comes my way and I'm going to feel great and strong and confident when I do those things, whatever those things happen to be.

And so my daily objective is to move and sweat and breathe deeply and grow at least, let's say 1% every day and have this focus on physical activities that make me a better me, not just in the moments, but a better me down the road.

And for me to be that better me down the road, I want to have fitness activities that align to that vision, that cardio or running or trail running for me personally is what makes me happiest and most vibrant and most energetic.

And I want my fitness to align to that vision.

Now I still lift weights and I love the strength and confidence that comes from that and the necessity for me to do that.

Having had back surgery years ago, I've got vulnerabilities that I need to strengthen.

I need to have that core physical ability to move.

All that to say that the fitness journey is a journey and it requires this habitual nature of a daily decision to get back to it.

Whether you choose to run or lift weights or swim or cycle, it doesn't matter what it is as long as it aligns to who you're becoming, it's baked into your life.

It's part of who you are.

That fitness is not something you do at a gym.

That's not some goal you may have set 10 years ago.

That fitness is part of your lifestyle because you can't imagine tomorrow morning waking up being injured yet again or sick yet again or weak or broken.

Those kinds of emotions should, if things go as planned, instigate action to solve those problems, should lead you down a journey to say, "Let's grow.

Let's improve.

Let's be that better me and let that better me start tomorrow morning, maybe at 5 a.m."

And for the action step this week, choose one new daily habit.

The best way to eliminate bad habits is to just start some new better ones.

So pick just one habit from the episode this week and bake it into your schedule starting today.

Habits take time to build, so there is no better day than today to begin that process.

Now of course, be sure to subscribe to this podcast in your favorite podcast app, or you can become a VIP member of the 5 a.m.

Miracle community by getting the premium ad-free version with exclusive bonus episodes at 5ammiraclepremium.com.

That's all I've got for you this week here on The 5 AM Miracle Podcast.

Until next time, you have the power to change your life, and all that fun begins bright and early.

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