“I didn’t meet my day’s goals.”

How often do you repeat this tragedy to yourself?

Your morning is precious and, without the right morning mindset, you start your day on a shaky pedestal. Every second is dear to the productive mind and it will cost you a loss of inner peace when you end the day without meeting your goals.
For ten years I began each morning, unprepared, without a purpose behind what I did. I was distracted, almost bereft of focus. Also, without a morning mindset ritual I followed, life was a game of chance.

I wanted to be prepared each morning, reminded of my goals, achieve these goals, and stop repeating those words of misfortune to myself each day. I wanted to be productive. And then I fashioned a mindset about my mornings, and that was intentional.

Today, there’s a little “inside information”—a morning mindset ritual—I’ll be passing on to you, because I know you want to achieve your goals, and it concerns you.

My Morning Mindset Routine

You can’t escape the morning mindset. Of course, we all have these dispositions, planned or unplanned. But you can nurture the right morning mindset, build it into a habit and make your day count.

You know—it’s a queer thing—but sometimes we are new and refreshed, and at other times, ripened and spent. The occasions when you need to express yourself effectively are the mornings—when you bounce out of bed energized at the birth of dawn.
It is this “I didn’t meet my day’s goals” regret that ought to nourish willpower and build personal candor—and make the proper morning mindset ritual a rampart of the mind.

And of all ways to feel prepared for the day and stay focused to execute your agenda, none is more motivating and fulfilling than the prescriptions I’ve outlined below. They are not merely cheery and agreeable, but carry a warm-hearted reward for those who practice them instead of just reading them.

Let me show you how to start each day, striking the right note and enjoying the melody produced with these wonder-working morning mindset habits.

Build Goals into your Morning Mindset Routine

About that morning mindset routine of yours—

In the city of Port Harcourt lived Anayo, the wise old man. Many who live in the city came to him for advice, and he gave counsel to all freely, without asking for a reward.

One day Okafor, a young, intelligent, single man, who had put much into his career, yet was dissatisfied, came to Anayo and asked: “How can you help me make a job change?”

Anayo answered, “It is unwise to go to an airline ticket counter and ask to buy a ticket without knowing your destination. My son, begin by knowing your destination.”

Of course, many people, of course, live like Okafor. They begin their day without a goal. But what do you define as a goal? Well, a goal is simply a desire that you can act upon. It is clear and specific.

A morning mindset routine that doesn’t factor in a goal will make your day unproductive: wasting valuable time, and breeding a lack of commitment. Until you have established a clear goal or goals in the mornings, no forward movement begins because you have nothing to measure. In fact, you can’t make progress.

You are a rare and ingenious individual if you can draw up a five-year goal and keep to it. Since goal setting is an art and we are not all resourceful in drawing up and following a five-year goal, let me share with you my onward plan that will help you increase your productivity each day.

i) Commit to the Morning Mindset of Waking Up Early

Among the serious predicament of most people is this: they want to eat their cake and have it, getting fewer hours of sleep per night and complaining of unproductivity.

I don’t presume there is a category of people who appreciate the refreshing effect of gaining sufficient night's rest than my medical friends. And I’ve factored in getting a complete night's rest into my morning mindset.

One day, I was sitting at my desk on the construction site I managed, talking with the owner, when a laborer came to me. He said he wanted to ask me a question. I told him to give me a moment. After I finished speaking with the owner, this young man, in his late twenties, stood in front of my desk and said he wanted to know how I could come to the site before 8 am considering the traffic from where I came from. Overall, he was having difficulty waking up on time in the mornings and coming to the site that early. So I shared these tips with him on waking up early. They include:

• Make it a habit to turn off your TV at a set time each night.
• Avoid eating heavy meals at night.
• Commit to having your dinner early—preferably before 8 pm each day.
• Take a cool bath before retiring for the night. Now, depending on the day’s temperature, you could have a warm bath instead.
• Set an alarm for seven hours or more after bedtime for a start until you get accustomed to waking up early by yourself, unaided.
I recommended this 60-day challenge to him.

ii) Allow Ample Time Before Stepping into your Work Domain

This morning mindset habit has taught me how quickly circumstances could combine to place men of exceptional abilities in a pathetic position where they begin the day’s work with a struggle.
Again, the saving event in my mornings that has cemented the shaft of assuredness in my work is dividing my life into three domains: HOME, SOCIABLE, and WORK.
Giving yourself sufficient time to physically and mentally take care of vital tasks in the HOME and SOCIABLE domains will help you get prepared for the work domain each morning. Some goals to take care of in the Home domain include:
• Preparing healthy breakfast for the family.
• Getting the kids set for school.
• Dropping the kids off to school.
In the Sociable domain, some likely goals include:
• Calling your loved ones.
• Talking to friends that encourage you—sharing helpful tips with you.
• Going to the gym for workouts.
• Playing your favorite music.
The aim of taking care of both domains before delving into the Work domain is to promote happiness and propel you into the flow state that encourages zeal for your work life.
Many people I have spoken to affirm this to be true of their lives, and we know it’s true of ours. So instead of bringing railing accusations against this mindset, set aside plenty of time for both domains so you don’t start your mornings provoking contention. Be intentional about this mindset and you will succeed with the day’s goals.

iii) Visualize

As the year begins, I expose my life to its bare bones. I visualize goals for my three domains.
Over the years, I’ve found out that fanning out my future into the three domains had reduced the confusion in my life and eliminated conflicts.

So at the beginning of each year, I grab my notebook after visualizing my goals for the year and write my long-term goals—a 12-month aspiration for the three domains. Recently, I laminated it and kept it on my writing table. So in case you do not have one. This is where to begin.

“We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles, but by a clear path to a lesser goal.” so says Robert Brault,
In the rush and excitement to execute our clear, specific yearly goals, we are likely to forget one thing—it’s the little niceties of life that matter. Therefore, do just a few things well instead of you striving to do them all at once. Also, to become focused, begin your day with a vision of your weekly goals, extracted from your 12-month intentions.

a) Nurture Devotion

Without commitment, you cannot give that task all the effort it demands to succeed.

The success of my day lies in nurturing devotion to my daily goals. Picturing and writing these daily goals is a morning mindset routine I never break.

Many people set goals but lack the commitment to execute them because they don’t have clear daily goals they can act upon during the day. The magic in regularly writing your daily goals is that it gives you something to keep track of and measure your progress, improving your daily productivity. I extract my daily goals from my weekly goals.

You recollect how Thomas Edison dreamed of a lamp that electricity could energize and how, despite trying and failing over ten thousand times; he stood by that dream, never letting it die until it manifested in the physical.

It is this “I-will-never-give-up” attitude that amplifies and bolsters self-respect.

Every man can look back and remember circumstances where lack of planning cost him opportunities or the respect of someone whose good counsel he treasured. But I know you’ll not consciously lose such opportunities anymore.

And to find out if you really want to inculcate the morning mindset routine and meet with success in your day’s tasks, I am offering you an eBook: Purpose and Habits for FREE.

Hidden inside the pages of this eBook, you’ll find the steps to turn your desires into gold, overcome temporary defeat, and erase limitations in your mind.

Remember, it comes with no risk to you—all you have to worry about is how to skyrocket your productivity and find happiness.