Mindfulness and mindset — I believe these practices are directly responsible for 70% of my success.

But facts, friends: I’m not your naturally positive, starry-eyed optimist.

By nature, I’m a pessimist. (Aka, realist.)

This fact may have a great deal to do with the fact that I grew up in a household of four, where we lived on $400 every month – below the poverty level.

In my writing agency, before I exited and sold it, we crossed an astonishing 35,000+ projects done for writing clients — more, if you count the years of projects done before we tracked them.

And what I’ve learned through ten years of full-time content creation and entrepreneurship, is that if you want to build the mindset of high achievers and top content creators, a part of that is learning to create your own optimism.

A book written and launched every year… a monthly column on top places like Search Engine Journal, Entrepreneur… multiple businesses… team members of 130+ now… a wife, a mom.

I don’t burn out. I enjoy what I do. A ton.

But I’m also not Superwoman. I get frustrated. I break down. I have to overcome my own pessimism.

So, how do I do it?

My life changed when I went from reactive and frustrated throughout the day…

To proactive, positive, and goal-oriented.

Making my morning routine the FIRST thing I did before work was one of the mental and mindset changes I made a year ago, and it’s changed my life.

Today’s blog and YouTube video are a sneak peek at that routine.

The Mindset of High Achievers and Top Creators: My Morning Mindset Routine

Looking for My Morning Routine Video? Here It Is

Mindset (how you think) vs. routine (practical).

I explore both here on the blog.

Here’s the video and blog where I talk about my practical, hour-by-hour morning routine.

How I Structure My Morning Routine

My morning routine is a practice I don’t skip.

Ever. 

It’s gotten to a point that I don’t even skip it on weekends.

I’ve found that if I skip it and plunge right into the day, my entire day is 50% as good as what it could be.

I’m reactive.

Prone to more error.

More quick to make conclusions.

Less objective, more subjective.

All the things a high achiever should not be.

My morning routine mindset is 40% exercise, 60% mindset and meditation/prayer.

Let’s get into what this specifically looks like.

High Achievers Practice Daily A.M. Exercise

It sunk in how critical daily exercise is to a creator when I read The Boron Letters, written by arguably one of the highest revenue-producing copywriters, Gary Halpert.

Inside, he said an hour of exercise was how he got out of his own head and into the zone of writing and focus every day. (He has sold millions of other people’s products and services through his writing).

He called that hour, which was around 8 a.m., “road work.” He ran down his road by his house and wore himself out physically. Only then was he able to work with solid mental clarity.

Besides exercise (and for me, it can be as simple as 10 minutes of yoga!), you need to prepare your mind.

Let’s explore what that looks like.

High Achievers Practice Mental Health BEFORE They Start a Day of Work

You know that you are more important than the work you do, right?

The day you stop slaving to whatever chore or task you do, and take control of the day by claiming back the first part of it, is a powerful day.

Now, I never skip this routine. Not even on the weekends.

My mental health grounding routine includes:

• Reading the Bible
• Finding three things to be grateful for and practicing gratitude every morning
• Visualizing a day of success
• Praying for and visualizing success over the people I serve — not just over my own activities
• Deep breathing

Let’s explore a few of these.

Daily Gratitude Is a Mindset of High Achievement

Science shows that gratitude actually reduces toxic emotions, from my very own personal negative pessimist outlook all the way to general envy, frustration, and regret.

Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., a leading gratitude researcher, has conducted multiple studies on the link between gratitude and well-being. His research confirms that gratitude effectively increases happiness and reduces depression.

What’s more, grateful people experience fewer aches and pains and feel healthier than other people.

What happens when you practice daily gratitude and make it a morning routine? 

You go from waiting for gratitude to hit you, which often never happens (especially if a day goes wrong!)…

To create a mental frame that encourages and celebrates gratitude.

Huge, my friends! Huge.

I find three to five things to be thankful for every morning. Fill in the blank — it can be incredibly simple stuff.

• I am thankful for ____ the house I live in.
• I am thankful for ____ the family I have.
• I am thankful I get to ___ today.
• I am thankful I woke up and get to breathe the air.

The Visualization of Success Is a Mindset of High Achievement

You don’t plan for failure.

Sure, it may happen. And you know that, and you’re okay with it (that’s important).

But you also plan for success.

The visualization of and belief in success is a mindset of high achievers.

“The body achieves what the mind believes,” says Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich.

It’s true.

Set up a scene of success in your mind, and apply yourself throughout the day to see it through.

It WILL happen.

The Three Parts to a Whole, Non-Burned-Out You

In the Mindfulness for Creators course, I go beyond mindset and morning routines into three keys 🔑 that I believe every creator needs to master to achieve their best life. These three keys are:

• Mindset: the work you do in your mind to overcome self-limiting beliefs and pessimism and change I-can’t-do-it into I can and I will!
• Setting: where you work, with multiple places in your house for different moments of inspiration (our brains and bodies crave variation to stay inspired!)
• Nutrition: know your body and the foods you’re feeding it, so you run on the best fuel possible

It was when I mastered all three areas (which took seven years, no joke! out of my ten years of full-time work-from-home entrepreneurship), that my life went from burnout and frustration to joy every single day and burnout less than .01% of the time.

My life truly changed when I worked on mastering mindset, setting, and nutrition.

But this is a DAILY practice. This isn’t a one-hit wonder. And this is exactly what I teach you in my new course.

You will be inspired. Motivated. You’ll be challenged to be the best version of yourself.

That’s all we can ask for in life, isn’t it?

Go Forth & Achieve, My Friends

I’m not the only one who can write a book a year, accomplish multiple goals, run several businesses, and be a fulfilled mom.

You can, too. (If it includes or doesn’t include the mom part. 😉)

Stay one step ahead with WorkMind’s blogs, crafted to deliver real results for students and professionals. See what we have in store for you.