Sixty years ago yesterday, May 25, 1965, the great Neil Leifer took this photo of Muhammad Ali knocking down Sonny Liston just 1 minute and 44 seconds into their title bout. Many consider it the best sports photo ever taken.
How to own your morning:
On an ordinary day a thousand years ago, Emperor Marcus Aurelius had trouble getting out of bed. We know this because he wrote about it in his journal, a remarkable document never intended for publication that somehow managed to survive through the eons. What’s most remarkable is how modern Marcus’s struggle reads to us.
A notorious insomniac but a dedicated public servant, Marcus writes: “At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work—as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for—the things which I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?’”
Of course, no matter how much we love our life, getting out of bed is no easy task. As a Stoic, Marcus suggested one remedy for getting over this hump: discipline. His sense of duty was what propelled him through the morning and into the world.
You can have all the stoic discipline you want, but if you don’t handle the first twenty minutes after you get out of bed correctly, you are going to be fighting an uphill battle all day. Tough mornings aren’t tough because of insufficient willpower. They’re tough because no one teaches us how to make them easy, let alone perfect, even though the perfect start to your day is perfectly within reach.
It’s about building momentum. You know this because you’ve had one of these mornings before. When there isn’t a rushed second, when you feel like you’re a step ahead of everything and the whole day feels like it’s at your leisure. Most of us have these days completely by accident, but the reality is, we can have them on purpose, and we can have them regularly.
These 3 things have been the staple of my mornings for the past 10+ years, and I’m 100% certain if you apply them, you’ll notice a major shift:
1) HYDRATE
The ideal is you don’t just drink any old tap water. You want natural spring water with a pinch of salt. You just spent the past 8 hours without water, and you are 60% water, so if you want to feel alive and energized to start your day, you need to replenish everything you lost during sleep. The reason we need electrolytes in there is because water doesn’t hydrate you unless it can actually enter the cells, and it needs minerals like sodium to do that.
2) LIGHT
You can give a plant all the water it will ever need, but if it isn’t exposed to enough light, it just won’t grow. It’ll only drown. The same is true for human beings. Viewing sunlight ASAP after you wake up is crucial for not only waking you up and kickstarting your energy, but also for your entire circadian clock.
Biologically, we are supposed to wake up with the sun and go to sleep with the stars. This is the timing that our body patterned for millennia, and the essence of circadian rhythm.
3) MOVEMENT
There is real science behind adding a few minutes of playful activity in the morning. Even light exercise boosts circulation and improves cognitive performance. It releases endorphins and, most important of all, helps entrain that fickle bastard, our circadian rhythm. In addition to sufficient blue-light exposure, regular activity—however brief—sends strong cues to the body that it is time to wake up and get going.
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Accomplish these in the first twenty minutes, and you have set the tone for the entire day. It’s your on-ramp to the highway of happiness and effectiveness. It ensures you will be sufficiently warmed up and lubricated, so when we hit the gas later on in the day, you roar like the muscle car you are.
Hydration, light, movement. That’s all it takes. That’s all it will ever take. With a regimen this simple, great mornings should not feel like miracles. They should not arrive like a rainbow—a beautiful surprise that is out of your control. You are the captain of your internal universe. You choose to go get the sun and the water and to move the clouds of stagnation in your body to make your own fucking rainbow.
Vice President JD Vance has a powerful message for young men 🔥🔥
“My message to young men is don’t allow this broken culture to send you a message that you’re a bad person because you’re a man, because you like to tell a joke, because you like to have a beer with your friends, or because you’re competitive.
Our culture “wants to turn everybody, whether male or female, into androgynous idiots who think the same, talk the same, and act the same.”
“We actually think God made male and female for a purpose, and we want you guys to thrive as young men, and as young women. And we’re going to help with our public policy to make it possible to do that.”
Amen.
My friend and fellow former presidential candidate is joining President Trump’s team. Congratulations @TulsiGabbard. Can’t wait to join forces to end the wars, end the censorship, and Make America Healthy Again. 🇺🇸
BREAKING: Kamala Harris and Joe Biden skip Arlington Memorial Ceremony for the 13 troopers who died in Afghanistan on the 3rd anniversary
Only 1 former president showed up
His name is Donald Trump
Are you better off now than you were when I was president?
Our economy is shattered. Our border has been erased. We're a nation in decline.
Make the American Dream AFFORDABLE again. Make America SAFE again. Make America GREAT Again!
#TrumpOnX
Congrats to @Vol_Baseball on the National Championship 🏆 Was an honor to take their field with our team and throw out the first pitch on Ice Bears Night #strike#rockytop