Always Tired? No Wonder Your Life’s Falling Apart — Watch This!

1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:00

   I wonder if you might recognize elements of this in yourself. She said, "Doc, I get home from work and I'm knackered." Right? "So I grab what I can in the kitchen, and then I slump in front of the sofa and put the telly on. And before you know it, it's sort of 9 or 10:00 PM. I'm onto Netflix. I'll be watching an episode, and I, I keep thinking I should get to bed. I know I've got work tomorrow, I'm gonna be tired, but the telly keeps calling me one more episode, one more episode, and before you know it, it's gone midnight. It's half past 12. I finally get to bed. And then when my alarm goes off at 6:00 AM, I just wish it would stop, so I press the snooze button. And about six or seven minutes later, it comes on again and I think, 'Oh, man, I need to get up.' So without getting out of bed, I'm trying to grab a few extra minutes, pick up my phone, look at my emails from yesterday. Often I'll just get really frustrated already whilst I'm lying in bed. Go onto Facebook, uh, I might see that someone's left me a snarky comment. Go onto the news, and I kind of see all the negativity that's happening in the world, and it just goes on and on and on. And from that moment on, I feel my entire day is out of control." Like, that's really, really common. I don't know if you've ever felt like that before. I don't know if you're currently feeling like that. But there's one kind of change that people can make, which for me has been waking up at 5:00 each morning, that can really make a difference there. Now, I get it. You might be thinking, "5:00 AM, that's way too early for me." Just stop for a moment and hear me out. It doesn't need to be 5:00 AM for you necessarily, okay? The principle of the matter is if you feel like you're a passenger in your own life, one way to put yourself back in the driver's seat is to intentionally get up a little bit earlier than you currently are getting up. For me, in the context of my life, my job, my two kids, my wife, getting up at 5:00 AM has literally been transformative. I'm gonna explain to you what exactly it's done for me, and how if you can create your own version of that, it's gonna have transformative effects for you. So a few years ago, I became a dad, and my son would always get up early, always. And within a few months, I realized that I need to get up earlier than my son. Why do I need to do that, right? We know sleep's important, right? And I'm gonna talk later about how we balance the need for sleep with my recommendation that you think about getting up a little bit earlier. But I realized that I need time to myself. Like, I'm a better human being when I've got time to myself. Like, so when I get up before anyone in my house and spend a bit of time with myself, and I'll explain what exactly I do with that shortly, every aspect of my life gets better. I'm a more patient father. I'm a more attentive husband. I think I'm a better doctor when I get up earlier. Because it's not actually about getting up early, right? Whether it's 5:00 AM, 4:30 AM, 6:00 AM, 7:00 AM, actually, it's not the time that matters, it's the intentionality behind your decision, and it's what getting up at that time actually gives you, right? There's many things it gives you, but one key thing that it gives you is a sense of control. But why is that important? Well, the world, much of the time, feels out of control. Alexandra's life felt out of control, right? You can put on the news these days and see headlines and feel down about the state of the world, right? But if you feel the world is out of control, it's gonna impact you. You're gonna feel stressed, you're gonna feel anxious. You're gonna struggle to focus on the important things that you need to focus on. But if you can get up early and do a few things that nourish your body, your mind, your soul, you give yourself a sense of control. Now, this is really, really important. The world is uncontrollable. What's gonna happen in the future is uncontrollable. You may think you can control it, but you can't. So it's really important that you give yourself a sense of control. And we know from the scientific research, right, people who have a strong sense of control are happier. They're less stressed. They're less anxious. They earn more money. They're more productive, and they live longer. Right? So what can you do each day to give yourself a sense of control? I would argue that getting up early, or certainly earlier than you currently are, is gonna give you that sense of control. Now, it doesn't necessarily change the fact that you do have emails to answer, that you do have to get your kids to school, that you do have to go and drop a parcel off at the post office and then drive through traffic to get to work, right? It doesn't change that. Those things are still there. But what it does, it makes you feel better equipped to deal with the inevitable stresses and obstacles that are going to come up.But I'm not trying to say to you that getting up at 5:00 AM is gonna miraculously make those things disappear. It's not. We've all got them. I've got a busy job. I've got two young kids. I need to get them to school. I often need to rush around and get to work, and sometimes I'm running late. I get that. But if you get up early and you're really intentional about what you do with that time, you will find that you will experience those stresses very, very differently. They're not going to knock you off balance. You're not gonna get overly stressed. If I think back to life before, before I would get up early and be intentional about my time, I've always been a bit of an early riser, but it's not just getting up, it's what you do with that time. You know, are you gonna go straight onto Instagram and the news and have your brain filled with other people's agendas, or are you gonna set the tone of your day? I mean, that time for many of us is the only time when we have any control over what happens. Often when the day has started, when our kids are up, when we're at work, we're, we're kind of reacting to what's going on in the world. So why would you wanna start your day reacting to what's going on in the world as well? Like, if that's what you do do, is it any wonder that you're feeling stressed, anxious, out of control? Like, I'm just trying to be honest. Like, if you look at that rationally, how could it be any other way? And if you don't have any time in your day where you're intentional about what you're doing with that time, what does it really say about your priorities? What does it really say about who you are and what you value? Look, I've seen patients for over two decades, tens of thousands of patients, and I'm yet to find a patient who couldn't apply some of the elements I'm gonna be talking about. Right? Even, uh, I've got someone, I had a single mom with two kids who thought she wasn't a morning person. I found a way for her which made a huge difference. I'm gonna share what exactly I did with her shortly. But I just want you to ask yourself that question, why? Why do you think you can't do it? If you're pushing back and thinking, "Oh, it's not for me," why? Could it be a possibility that actually doing this and getting up early might change your life? It's changed mine. I know it can change yours. But you've gotta be willing to give it a go. Now, I wanna explain a concept that I think is really, really important to understand, to truly get why getting up early can help you, and it's what I call our own personal stress threshold. Right? We've all got one. I've got mine. You've got yours. In fact, our personal stress thresholds are gonna vary between people. Right? Mine's gonna be different from yours, and actually from day to day they may also be different, but they're unique to us. And here's the thing about a stress threshold, right? When you are far away from it, there's no real problem. You've got loads of headroom in your day, right? You've got, you know, resilience really, a form of resilience. You can actually deal with the stresses and the obstacles when they come up. But when you are living very close to that stress threshold, well, that's where it becomes a big problem because you don't have much headroom. Now, remember Alexandra from the start, right? Think about what she's doing first thing in the morning. She's accumulating what I call micro stress doses or MSDs. I would say that this is one of the most useful concepts that I talk about with my patients. Like, time and time again, they'll feed back to me and say, "Oh, I get it now. Oh, I totally get it now." So what is a micro stress dose? A micro stress dose is a small dose of stress that in isolation you can handle no problem, but if they keep accumulating and building up one by one, they get you closer and closer to your stress threshold. So let's think about Alexandra's morning, right? Micro stress dose number one was her being jolted out of a deep sleep because she went to bed so late the night before because she was unwinding in front of Netflix, right? Her alarm clock goes off, boom, micro stress dose number one. Then because she pressed snooze, six minutes later again she gets woken up again, micro stress dose number two. Then first thing she does, picks up her phone, looks at her email, sees all the work emails she hadn't replied to yesterday, gets another hit of stress, micro stress dose number three. Then she goes onto social media, sees a snidey comment from someone, micro stress dose number four. Goes onto the news and sees the latest tragedy that's gone on in some distant part of the world, micro stress dose number five. The point I'm trying to make is, right, this is the key point, that by virtue of the way she starts every day, even before she's got out of bed in the morning, she's probably accumulated about 10 micro stress doses, and before she's even got out of the house and gone to work, she may be on 15 or 20. But that is real. Why don't you just take a moment to assess in your own life how many of those micro stress doses are you taking a hit on every morning? Because here's the problem. If you have zero micro stress doses before you leave the house, and we think about your stress threshold, right?You leave the house a million miles away from the threshold, which means you have got loads of reserve to deal with all the hits that are gonna come throughout the day. But if you've accumulated 15 or 20, you're already here. You've probably only got a few hits left. That's why on those days, that email from your colleague at 10:00 AM starts to bother you. Whereas on another day, it might have been that email at 4:00 PM because at 4:00 PM, yeah, you've got closer and closer to that threshold. But at 10:00 AM, you're absolutely fine. The problem with the stress threshold is, is that when you get to it or near it, that's when things start to go wrong. As I mentioned, that's when the email starts to bother you. Probably a neutral email that if on a Monday morning you'd slept well and you'd had a relaxing weekend, you'd be totally calm about. But because you're so close to that threshold, it really starts to bother you. Well, I, I kind of know that feeling, honestly. Like, I've sometimes in the past, I think, you know, you, you see that email at the end of the day and, you know, you get wound up. Why is this person sent it like that? You know, you, you can feel it inside your body, the frustration, but it isn't actually the email that's the problem. And we think it is. No, it's the state of us. It's the state of our nervous system, right? We see the world through the lens of our own stress state. So if you're near your stress threshold, you're gonna get triggered, you're gonna get annoyed. You may well take that next step and reply in that stress state, which compounds the problem. But if you can do things each day that keep you away from that stress threshold, you're gonna find you've just got more headroom there. You've got more self-awareness, and you'll find you just don't get that close. Like, that's honestly what's happened for me. Over the past years of getting up at 5:00 AM, having a precise morning routine that I can change from day to day, but I have a kind of broad framework. I found that I just don't feel stressed as much as I used to. I feel calmer and more present with my colleagues, with my patients, um, more present with my wife. I mean, you know those days where you, you've had a busy day at work and, you know, you get home, maybe traffic's been bad and, you know, someone's cut you up and, you know, you, you feel all these emotions kind of building up inside you, and then you turn up at home and, and it kind of spills out. It affects how you interact with your wife. You know, you may, you know, you may have a little row or, or snap or snap at the kids. You know, that's really common, isn't it? It's very rarely the situation that you're reacting to that's the problem. It's the buildup of what I'm calling micro stress doses throughout the day. Especially if you don't take a lunch break, especially if you have no time in the day to pause and allow things to settle, which is the case for many people. Many people start off the day in reactive modes. They continue all day in reactive modes. Is it any wonder that your relationships are affected late afternoon, early evening? And it's not just that. It kind of bleeds into your entire evening. It affects the quality of your daily life. It affects the experience of life. And it may sound slightly trivial to say, "Well, what's waking up early gonna do here?" Waking up early is gonna do a lot here. It's about living an intentional life where you're the driver, you're in control. You're saying, right, that no matter what's going on in the world, no matter what's going on in my own life, no matter what I have to do, I'm still prioritizing myself. I'm saying that I'm still worthy of 10 minutes or 20 minutes or 30 minutes, whatever you can manage in your life. I'm still worthy of that, and that does something really quite powerful. If we think about behavior change, and this is something that James Clear talks about in Atomic Habits, actually, this idea that every time you do something proactive for yourself, it's a vote, right? It's a vote for the kind of person you want to become. So I think it's a pretty good point to ask you, you know, what kind of person do you want to become? Do you wanna be that person who's always reacting to life as a passenger in their own life? Or do you wanna start to feel as though you're in control, right? You can be the architect of your life. You can help to direct your life and what you're gonna end up doing. And although that may seem like quite a tall aim from where you currently are, it's actually not. It starts small. It starts with setting an intention that I'm gonna get up. Pick your time, right? For me, it's 5:00 AM. Why? Because for me, for many years, my son would wake up at around 5:30. So for me, it was important that I get ahead of that, 'cause if I can get ahead of it, I can do some stuff for me.Right? I can move my body a little bit. I can meditate. I can have a cup of coffee. I can read something uplifting, right? I'm gonna get to my framework shortly. Hopefully, it will help you create your own framework, but that's why 5:00 AM worked for me. Doesn't mean it's gonna work for you. Maybe it's 6:00 AM. Maybe it's half 6, right? It doesn't really matter. It's what you do with that time and it, and it's also what that time says. What vote are you giving yourself? What you end up doing is that you start building up the identity of someone who really values themself. Now, I just wanna tell you a story about one of my patients from a few years ago because many people, when I talk about this, if I, if I post about this online, which I do sometimes, you know, some people will push back straight away, go, "Ugh, doesn't work for me. I've got too many things to do. I'm, I'm a mom. No way will that work." So perhaps this patient of mine might speak to that, right? 42-year-old lady when she came to see me. Single mom, two kids, had really bad skin. Now, she tried all kinds of things, creams and various things with some effects, but it was still bothering her. It was still affecting the quality of her life, and it was really clear to me from talking to her that stress was a big player here. Huge player, right? When she would get stressed in life, her skin would flare up, and this is pretty common for all kinds of conditions, actually. Yes, a lot of skin conditions, but even beyond that, we see all kinds of things. Our perception of pain is worse when we feel a lot of stress. Uh, our gut symptoms... You know, gut symptoms are really common. There's this... There was this kind of survey done in the UK a few years ago of UK adults, this says, which showed that about 80% of UK adults suffer from at least one gut problem in any given year. I mean, that's huge, isn't it? 80%. That's nearly the entire adult population, and everyone's always jumping to food. You know, what foods are causing that? And of course, food plays a role, but I can tell you in my experience, stress is the number one player because the stress response affects every organ system in the body. It affects your guts. Hugely affects your guts. So I'll get back to that shortly. I wanna explain what exactly the stress response is and how it affects the gut. But let's get back to my patient, right? Complaining of skin problems, single mom, two kids, working hard. I say, "Well, listen, what about getting up a bit early, doing something before the day starts to give you a sense of control?" She says, "Doc, I do not have time. No way is that gonna work for me." And, you know, I've made all kinds of other suggestions. I always try and work with patients around what they want to do because it's, I think, the only way, really. You know, instead of trying to enforce what I think they should be doing, it's like, okay, in the context of your life, what can we do? But I, I, I did always have this feeling that there was gonna be a way to help her in the mornings, and I think it was a few weeks, maybe a few months, where we finally got to the point. I said, "Listen, come on. Hear me out. What about if you had a five-minute morning routine, right? Can you get up before your kids do, or even whilst they're getting ready? Five minutes. Can you give me five minutes?" And I walked her through what I call my 3M framework, the three Ms of a morning routine, mindfulness, movement, mindset. You don't need to do them all. But she thought, within five minutes, I'm gonna do this 3M. So what did she do? So for the first minute... Well, no, let's just back up a minute. She'd get up. She'd get down to her kitchen. I think she'd put the kettle on from recollection. But then her, her kind of five-minute morning routine would start. She'd do one minute of mindfulness. That happened to be a breath that I taught her called the 3-4-5 breath, where you breathe in for three, you hold for four, and you breathe out for five. Right. Now, it's a simple breath that I've been using with my patients for years, but an important thing to understand is anytime your out breath is longer than your in breath, you help to switch off your body's stress response system, and you help to promote the relaxation part of your nervous system. So it's a very relaxing breath, okay? So one minute of 3-4-5 breathing. Super easy, super quick. Then two minutes of movement. Now, for me, it doesn't really matter what movement you wanna do, right? Moving your body first thing in the morning is a fantastic thing to do for a variety of different reasons, right? It can help lower anxiety, lower stress. It can help change your mood. It can help you feel happier. You can feel calmer. It can make you more creative, more productive, right? All kinds of things happen when we move our bodies. So it's a really good thing to do first thing in the morning to get you set up for the day. But she used to practice yoga years ago, and she really liked the sun salutation sequence. So she basically did her version of that for two minutes. Again, so let's just back up. First thing in the morning, she's in the kitchen. She's putting the kettle on, and then she's doing her five-minute morning routine. One minute of 3-4-5 breathing, two minutes of some yoga poses that she really likes, and then for the final two minutes, this is the kind of mindset part-She took my recommendation of reading. I said, "Listen, I'm not talking about reading an entire book, an entire novel, an entire chapter." I shared with her how I love to start the day by reading a few pages from a kind of uplifting book, right? And what I like and what you like is probably gonna be different. So it's not about choosing the books that I read, it's about what are the books that make you feel good, right? Do you have any? Why not have them kicking around? And she would literally for two minutes just maybe read a page or two pages. Now, it's so small, but she got up early, five-minute morning routine, and it kicked into effect what I call the ripple effect. Now, before I explain the ripple effect, let me just say something head-on. She was skeptical. Like, really skeptical. She thought, "How is this going to help me?" Right? "I get it. I, I, I'm desperate, so I'm gonna do what you, what you're recommending, but how's this gonna help me? I am busy. I have got two kids. I don't have any help. I don't have a partner. I've gotta get to work, and my skin's bad." And what was amazing is within a few days, I think I got a call. Yeah, I don't think she'd come in to see me yet. I think it was a call at my clinic where she basically said, "You know, I'm, I'm starting to feel better. Like, I feel less anxious. I feel calmer." Right? And then about a week, week or two later, when she did come in to see me, she said, "Yeah. And, you know, because of that, because of these new feelings, I then stop at lunch and go for a 20-minute walk," and all kinds of other changes on the back of that. You know, what, what, what was incredible is it was almost as if instead of being in reactive mode all day, every day, by having just a little window of calm, like a five-minute window of calm each morning that she was intentional about, it almost showed her how she could feel, what emotions it was possible to experience. And so she started going for that walk at lunchtime, not because I asked her to, but because she wanted to. Now, that's a really key point for me. Like, you know, in all my experience of seeing patients, I always wanna get to that point where I'm simply used as a guide to help point someone in the right direction, but I always want at some point my patients feel empowered that they're in charge now. Like, this is what I want. When I do this, I feel better. When I don't, I feel worse. That's the secret to long-term behavior change, honestly. That really is one of those key secrets, because no one is ever gonna do something because somebody else told them to. It, it, it's just, just think about it in your own life. I know I wouldn't. Right? You know, we don't. You know, in the new year, in January, often people do. They think they're gonna manage. They think, "Right, I'm gonna follow this plan now." But whilst a plan remains someone else's plan, you're always a little bit removed from it. You'll, you'll follow it for the first week, maybe the second week, maybe for three or four weeks, but if you're not engaged, if you don't take ownership of that plan, like, "That's my plan. I'm doing it because I feel good," you're never gonna do it. You're never gonna do it in the long term. And that's what I love about this particular lady, is that she started to make changes 'cause she wanted to do them. She felt good. She experienced it. It wasn't 'cause I asked. Right? So what was the upshot? The upshot is she's feeling better, but her skin starts to get better as well. Remember, she had tried loads of creams, loads of medications and, as I said, I strongly felt stress was a big driver of those skin problems, and she basically had about a 70%, 80% reduction in symptoms and flare-ups, and it all started with getting up early and having a five-minute morning routine. And that's why I'm so passionate about this, right? This is not just for CEOs who might have personal trainers and have time to block off the first hour of their morning. Right? We've all seen those videos of, you know, the top performers, the big business guys who get up, win the day, they attack the day. You know, while the rest of the world is sleeping, these guys are getting ahead in whatever way. And I wanna be clear here, I'm not against that. Honestly. I think certain messages work for certain people, and for many people, that's the right message for them to hear. It helps to motivate them. They get up early. They spend an hour on a morning routine, then they start working. Right? Great. I'm delighted to announce that AG1, the daily health drink that has been in my own life for over six years now, have updated and improved their formulation based upon the latest science. And to celebrate by giving my audience a very special summer offer. 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To get 10 free Travel Packs instead of the usual five and an awesome Welcome Kit containing your shaker, scoop, and canister with your first subscription, go to drinkag1.com/livemore. I'm not criticizing that. I'm not being condescending about that. You know, I very much respond to approaches like that, if I'm honest. But what I can tell you is that morning routines are not just for top CEOs and businesspeople. They're not. They're for everyone. Right? They're for absolutely everyone. Let's just bring it back to Alexandra, right, right at the top. Alexandra's life was reactive. Micro stress dose after micro stress dose. She's already starting her day with very little headroom. Of course she's a passenger in her own life. Of course every little thing is gonna start bothering her and she's gonna feel out of control. I would if I started the day like her. That's the truth. But as you can see, by intentionally starting the day differently, you're gonna kick into gear a ripple effect which will have profound benefits in many aspects of your life. And that particular patient, over time there were all kinds of other benefits, right? She started moving a lot more. She started journaling, right? She got into a really good long-term relationship a few months later. All kinds of things. And can I put them all down to that five-minute morning routine? No, of course I can't. I can't prove that to you, right? I can't. But I have recommended this with so many patients over the years, and it always makes a difference once you find the right approach. Now, I posted about this last week about my own morning routine. You know, it was a little clip from a conversation I had on another podcast where the host asked me, "What do you do each morning?" And I shared what I did. And like with many things these days, you know, a lot of positive feedback, a lot of people liked it, a lot of people took it as inspiration to go, "Oh wow, I'm gonna take some elements of that and I'm gonna see what's gonna work for me." But I got one message. I've, I've got it here. Right? I'm not gonna read the, the entire message. And she said a few things. "I challenge any mother with kids to have the time to meditate, read, or exercise before getting our kids to school. Maybe getting up earlier will cause us to lose vital sleep. These messages are unhelpful. They're gonna make most of us fall at the first hurdle. Please stick to science and advice for all, not for those who can afford nice coffee and have too much time on their hands." Now, while I don't know this person personally, but, you know, as I reflect on the message, I have no doubt at all that what she is saying reflects the feelings of loads of people, right? There's a genuine need there. Life does feel out of control for so many people. Like, I've felt this. Like, honestly, I've felt it. I have... I know what it's like to get up a little bit late, be rushing around. You're trying to get things done, trying to get the kids off. You're on the motorway. You're looking in the mirror. You're looking at your watch thinking, "I'm gonna be late, I'm gonna be late, I'm gonna be late." And then even if you do make it on time, what state are you in when you get to work, right? You're not in that calm, present state where you're gonna make good decisions, where you're gonna be that present with people, that kind of kind and compassionate... You're just not gonna be your best self when you're feeling like that. So I get it, right? I understand it. But one of the reasons I wanted to speak to you is to say that this really does work. You know, "I challenge any mother to do that and get their kids to school." Well, I'm not a mother, right, so I can't speak to that. But I have been a doctor for over two decades and I've seen thousands of mothers, and I've just shared an example of a mum who was able to do that, who didn't think they were able to do that. Very much like the person who sent me that message. They thought, "That's not applicable to me." So if you're pushing back, I want you to just ask yourself, have you got five minutes? Do you have five minutes in the morning? Right? Have you got 10? But maybe 10's too much. Start with five. What might you be able to do in those five minutes that gives you a head start on the day?Like, I get it, right? I understand that message. I understand that that person is probably struggling, and they genuinely feel this is not relevant. But as I've already said, there is always a way to make this work, always. And if for whatever reason you can't make it work, then sure, maybe another time of the day is gonna work. But if you literally cannot find five minutes at any part of the day to do something for yourself, it honestly is time to ask yourself, "What kind of life am I leading? Am I really that busy where I can't create this five-minute period at least where I could do something for me?" What about the point she made about this interfering with sleep? That's a great point, right? That's a great point because I'm always talking about the benefits of sleep. Not just me, loads of people now. Uh, there's some fantastic books, podcasts. It's out there in the media, right? Sleep is really important for our physical health, mental health, emotional health, right? We're all kind of getting that message. And so that's a valid point. If I'm asking you to get up earlier, let's say 5:00 AM, right? If I'm asking you to get up at 5:00 AM, or let's say Alexandra, right? Let's say I'm asking Alexandra to get up at 5:00 AM. Can she still stay up late on the sofa watching Netflix till past midnight? Well, no. Or if she does, there's gonna be a consequence to that. Now, here's the key thing about change. You're not gonna suddenly click your fingers and overnight everything's gonna change. You're gonna wake up at 5:00 AM, feel fresh, feel ready to go, have the most blissful morning routine, have a calm, non-stressed day, and go to bed early. That's not gonna happen, right? This is gonna be small, incremental changes. But if Alexandra decides she's gonna get up at 5:00 AM, or let's make it more realistic, her alarm was going off at 6:00 AM. So let's say she was gonna get up at 5:45 AM, just a little bit earlier than she currently does now. I would say, well, let's work back from that. How many hours of sleep do we ideally wanna be getting? Probably, you know, let's at least aim for eight hours in bed, right? In bed. Doesn't mean you're gonna be sleeping the whole time. What we call a sleep opportunity. A lot of the time when we're thinking about sleep, seven hours sleep or eight hours sleep, we think about, oh, then I need to be in bed, let's say for 9:00 PM, waking up at 5:00 AM. But being in bed or being in the bedroom doesn't mean you're gonna be sleeping that entire time. But let's go for an eight-hour sleep opportunity, and let's say you might be sleeping for seven hours of that. If she's gonna get up at 5:45 AM, right, what does that mean? That's kinda 9:45 PM she really wants to be in bed for. Currently it's midnight. So that's quite a big adjustment. She may not be able to do that immediately. She may have to make some compromises in that transitional period. That's okay. You know, Rome wasn't built on a day. You're not gonna completely transform your life overnight. But even if instead of midnight you went to bed at 11:00 PM and got up at 5:45, man, you're still in bed for six hours and 45 minutes. Is it optimal? Probably not. But is it better than what it currently is? Yes. So that little bit of progress is gonna start making a difference, right? And what you will soon find if you just start to slowly make adjustments to going to bed time and waking up time, your body will start to adapt. You're not gonna wake up feeling fresh at 5:45 AM if you haven't done it before. It's gonna take you a few days, maybe over a week, two weeks to start to get used to that. Just imagine when you go on holiday, right? And you're going somewhere where they're on a different time zone. Even if it's just one hour or two hours, it still takes a bit of time to adjust because we are governed by these internal clocks, what we call our circadian rhythm. You know? It, it sort of goes on cycle. It's influenced by light. It's also influenced by food, but light is a big one. The point is, we can adapt. You know, if you go on holiday somewhere or you go away somewhere for work, you can adapt. It just takes time. Now, what about night owls and morning larks here? That's a big one, isn't it? People say, "Yeah, but I'm, um, I'm a night owl. I can't do mornings." And I just wanna make something really, really clear. These chronotypes do exist, so we know that some of us are kind of genetically predisposed to being night owls and staying up a little bit later, and some of us are genetically predisposed to being morning larks, you know, getting up earlier. But I think we, I think we kind of overly lean into that research, and we use it, many of us, as an excuse to go, "No, I'm a night owl. There's nothing I can do." Well, many night owls are simply night owls because of the way they're living their lives. Light is a key determinant, right? It's a huge player in what time our body thinks it is. It's a huge player in what time melatonin, the darkness hormone, the sleep hormone, gets released in our bodies. It does many things.But one of the key things it does is help determine at what point you're going to fall asleep. So you may be telling yourself you're a night owl, and you may be. You may have that, that sort of leaning. But even if you do have that genetic kind of underpinning, it doesn't mean you need to go to bed as late as you currently do. If you're looking at light, screens, right, late into the evening, it's gonna keep you alert. It's gonna push back melatonin release. You're gonna feel sleepier later, so you're gonna tell yourself, "Oh, I'm a night owl." The funny thing is, is when you take a lot of people camping without these devices, very quickly their bedtimes become a lot earlier. You may have experienced that yourself. Now, I just wanna be really clear. I'm not saying this has no bearing at all, but I think we overegg it. Our patients who would consider themselves night owls, who very quickly, if they stop looking at screens late into the evenings, if they start eating their evening meal earlier, right, it helps to reset their clock so they can actually go to bed earlier and get up earlier. It certainly can play a role, and I think certainly there may be the odd extreme case where we have to really pay attention to that. But in my experience, pretty much everyone can benefit from a slightly earlier bedtime and a slightly earlier wake-up time. And I just wanna reiterate, it gives you that, that sense of control. You start the day feeling that you're in charge of your life, that no matter what's going on out there, right at the start of the day, in here, you're the boss. You're in control. You have that sense of autonomy, right? This is so, so important when we talk about health, happiness, productivity, whatever it might be. This is so important. It's a core human need to feel that we can make decisions that impact us. Having a morning routine, right, is a key one there. Now, a lot of creative people, this may be you, a lot of creative people will say, "I do my best work at night." And I get that. I've been there. I think in my 20s I'd tell myself that story as well, and I did do great work. You know, the, the, the world starts to go quiet. You're at your desk. You know, you've got a little light on. The focus comes in. You think, "Yeah, I'm being creative." I don't doubt that. But the question is, is it the nighttime that's causing that creativity? Or is it the fact that it's a time when the rest of the world has gone quiet that allows you to really focus on whatever creative pursuit you're engaged with? Because, you know, I've certainly felt that. I, I, I used to tell myself that story. Like I said, that was me. But since I've readjusted my body clock, since I've been intentional, I go to bed super early these days, and I get up super early, and I've never been more creative. I've written five books in the last five years, published them, released them, done all the media around them, done tours on them. That all came from getting up early. It all came from shifting my rhythm and going, "No, I've got kids now. I've got a lot of responsibilities." I help look after my elderly mum, right? I've... I'm married. I've got kids. I've got lots of things to do. But also realize that if I don't take control of my life, and in particular the first part of my day, no one's gonna do that for me. No one. I've gotta do that. So I get up, I have my little morning routine, and then I often write or I create. I do something, right? So I just wanna say that please do not let that be an excuse, right? Give it a go. Challenge yourself to think, "Why don't I try it?" In fact, if you, if you're skeptical, I challenge you to give it a go. Try it. Give me seven to 10 days of doing it, like waking up a little bit earlier than you currently do and thinking about what can you do for those five or 10 minutes or 20 minutes or 30 minutes. What can you do with that? What's the impact gonna be? As I say, for me, I'm happier, I'm calmer, I'm less stressed, I'm more productive, my relationships are better. And, and I just wanna pause on relationships for a minute. We've spoken about health and stress, uh, and, and productivity, and my patient with skin problems and how the reduction in stress helped that. But one of the most powerful things about having this kind of small intentional morning routine is that it helps your relationships, and it does that for many reasons. First of all, it's really hard to prioritize other people in your life when you can't prioritize yourself. You know the old maxim about putting on your own oxygen mask first before you put it on for your child? It's, it's that same kind of principle. You know, you've gotta do it for yourself first. And if you can show up every day, do something small for yourself, you know, you make one promise to yourself, you commit to it, and you do it every day, you start to change your identity. You start to become the kind of person who does prioritize themselves, who realizes that they are worth it, that no matter what is going on in the world out there, they're still gonna give themselves a bit of time. And that then translates into your relationships. If you can be present with yourself, it's much easier to be present-With other people, whether it's your kids or your partner or your friends or your work colleagues. But if we think about it through the lens of microstress doses that I've already mentioned and how if you're just accumulating microstress doses from the minute you wake up, by the time you come home in the evening, if you live with other people, let's say a partner or kids, often they end up getting the worst of us. We've given the best of us to our job and to other people. And if you can start giving yourself that time in the morning, what you do is that you automatically reduce the stress load on your body. You do that in two ways. You may not have thought about them, right? The first way is that you're doing something positive for yourself, right? Which is taking you further away from that stress threshold, right? You're giving yourself a little boost of calm. But let's just think about the second way. The second way is if you weren't doing that, what would you be doing? See, this is not neutral, especially these days with devices and emails and news right on tap. If you're not taking time for yourself, it almost certainly means that you've started accumulating microstress doses. So just by sheer virtue of making a commitment that I'm going to get up early, right? I'm going to give it seven to 10 days before I assess whether it's working or not. You basically stop the accumulation of MSDs, these microstress doses, and that means you are going to be more present. And I tell you, the days where I think I don't have time today, you know, I'm too busy. I need to just get into my emails. And I have days like that where I think, you know, not today, you know, I would, but today I just got to crack on early with my work. I always feel it later. Always. I'm less productive, which is kind of ironic, isn't it? Because I'm getting up early. I'm starting my work earlier. But that's the myth. That's the trap we fall into. We think the way to get things done is to start and smash through them. Now, I'm a huge fan of VIVO Barefoot Shoes. I've been wearing them for about 12 years now. And one of the main reasons I love them is because when I'm wearing VIVOS, I feel fully connected to the ground beneath my feet. What do we want? We want feet that move naturally. And because VIVOS are wide, thin, and flexible, your foot can move in the way that it's meant to. A lot of modern shoes are stiff. They're narrow. They start to manipulate the way your foot functions. Whereas in VIVOS, your feet can do what they're meant to do. And that means they help your feet become stronger. There was this trial that showed within four months of wearing VIVOS, your feet are around 60% stronger. Your feet are your foundation. And when you've got problems in your feet, it goes all the way up the chain. It can go to your ankle, to your knee, to your hip, to your back, and even to your shoulder and neck. And as a doctor, I have seen back pain, hip pain, and knee pain actually start to get better when people start to wear barefoot shoes. To get 20% off your first order, go to vivobarefoot.com forward slash live more. But at AIN, you give yourself that time. You nourish yourself first. You'll be more productive later. I've seen this time and time again with myself. I've seen it with patients, right? So I get more work done when I do it. I'm more present with my kids and with my wife. And on the days where I don't do it, you know, often you see it later. You see the little niggles in the interactions. The little tiny things start to bother you or your partner. You know, the little things that actually, if you step back and go, this is nothing. Why has this become a big thing? It's because you know your stress threshold. Simple as that. And there are many mechanisms to try and get you away from that. I mean, being aware of it, number one, is a key point. But having this morning routine is also a very powerful and effective way of doing it. So let's for a minute just go back to bedtimes. If you're going to wake up early, let's call it 5 a.m. to keep it simple, right? If you're going to get up at 5 a.m., what time do you need to go to bed? Now, if you want to try and have this eight-hour sleep opportunity, which I think is a pretty good thing for us to aim for, you know, I definitely encourage you to go for longer, but let's try and keep it realistic. That means you really want to be in your bed by 9 p.m. Now, I know that may sound ridiculously early compared to what you currently do. First thing I want to say is I understand. Second thing I want to say here is that this is genuinely what I do, right? I'm in bed before 9 a.m. most nights and I wake up at 5, right? So I get good quality sleep. I get good amount of sleep and I feel fresh when I'm up. It didn't happen overnight. It took me time. But one thing I've had to kind of really ask myself is because you can make the case, yeah, but then I'm not going to be able to watch my box set. I'm not going to be able to catch up on this documentary or this show that all my mates are talking about.And I get that because I'm that guy. I'm that guy who doesn't know about the latest box sets. I'm the guy who doesn't know about the latest films. And you know what? It doesn't bother me. And if that would bother you to be that person, you've got to ask yourself why. What does that give you? Does it help you fit in? Is it important to you? Are you a film buff that you, you know, this, this is really important? Fine. I'm genuinely not trying to tell you how you should live your life. You've got to make these choices for yourself. I've chosen what works for me, and I really wouldn't have my life any other way. I, I love my job. I love what I get to do. I love spending time with my family. I like that I've got the opportunity to care for my mum, who's getting older and more immobile, and I don't think I'll be around for that much longer. I feel, okay, I can do this. Right? So something's got to give. There's only twenty-four hours in the day. Right? If you're listening because you're not happy with the way your life is, because you feel that you're not in the driver's seat of your life, that things are happening to you, you've got to ask yourself, "What's important? What do you want?" Right? Is it really possible to fulfill all your engagements, commitments, requirements, and stay up to date with every box set that comes out? Like, is it? Like, there's only twenty-four hours in the day, and if we should be sleeping for, let's say, roughly eight hours of them, I mean, that only leaves sixteen hours. It's not that much time. Something's got to give. If you're happy with the way life is, fine. You know? You probably wouldn't be listening to me talk right now. But if you want to make a change, you've got to ask yourself some serious questions. So let's imagine you're on the sofa in the evening and your current pattern is back from work, glass of wine or a beer, sit in front of the telly. I get it, right? Life can be incredibly stressful. Many people are feeling real pressure at the moment. I totally get it. Right? I understand. I, I, I'm trying to empathize, I promise. Right? I've heard this from patients over and over again, time and time again. But let's say it gets to ten PM, and you've had an hour in front of the telly. Before you press play on the next episode, just ask yourself, "What trade are you making?" This is what a lot of us don't realize. In that moment when we've already seen the start of the next episode, right, in that moment, we're making a trade, but it's a trade we're not aware of. The trade is this. I'm gonna enjoy myself for another hour. Right? I'm gonna see what happens next. But the cost of doing that, the consequence of doing that is I'm gonna get one hour's less sleep at least, and if it's something that's quite, uh, tense and agitating and stimulating, it may well affect how quickly, uh, you can fall asleep and how restful your sleep is gonna be. But we know now very, very clearly the impact of sleep deprivation. Even losing an hour's sleep like that is gonna mean the next day you're gonna be tired. You're gonna have less energy, less motivation. You're gonna crave more sugar. Right? We know that when we haven't slept well, we crave more sugar. We eat more. In fact, one study showed that if you were sleeping around five and a half hours of sleep a night compared to seven and a half, eight hours, on average, you ate twenty-two percent more calories the following day just because of that sleep deprivation. Right? So that's a trade you're making. I mean, on the subject of sleep, if you're staying up later watching the extra episodes, many of us, of course, not everyone, many of us will open the cupboard, have a cheeky snack that night, which again is increasing how much we're eating. For some people, really affects the quality of our sleep as well. So even if you are getting to sleep, maybe you're not getting all the deep restorative phases of sleep that you might have got had you not snacked late and had you gone to bed a little bit earlier. Right? So these are all those sort of things that are going on. We know that when we sleep less, we have less empathy the following day. And what's that gonna affect? Your relationships, right? This is huge for your relationships. You're gonna be less creative, right? Yeah, there's long-term risks, of course, in terms of long-term sleep deprivation, increasing your risk of Alzheimer's, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, all those things, but I'm just talking in the short term. You're making that trade. I just wanna shine a light on the trade you're making because you may not have thought about it. So tonight, when you're thinking about watching the extra episodes, right, just know the consequences of that. Now, I don't want you to feel bad. I understand that you may need a bit of time with this to think about it and sit with it, and maybe you're in a pattern. You're habituated to unwinding in that way. Or maybe you do it with a partner, right, and that's your bonding time with them. I get that, right? Your life is unique to you. I can't tell you exactly what you should be doing and how. But what I'm trying to do is introduce these concepts to you that I guess really make you think about what's important.Right? I've got comfortable with the fact that I don't know the latest films or the box sets. Fine. But I love the fact that I've got energy every morning, that I'm generally, although I'm not perfect, I'm generally pretty patient and present with my kids and my wife. I love the fact that I've got a job that I enjoy. I get to help people feel better. I, I'm writing books. I'm recording podcasts. Like, I really enjoy it. I get a buzz out of it. But I can't do that and watch box sets every night and stay up aimlessly scrolling news pages on Twitter. I can't. Right? But this didn't happen overnight. This happened sequentially over time, right? I started small. Now, I've got a long morning routine, right? I'd say it usually is at least half an hour. 20 minutes, half an hour usually. Could even be longer if, for whatever reason, I've got more time. So I just want you to think about it. Right? Don't be put off by 5:00 AM. Very quickly, your body and brain responds, right? It adapts. And the kind of benefits I've just shared with you, you can also have them. You can, right? You can have them, but you gotta choose. You gotta choose. Say, "I'm no longer willing to be a passenger in my life. I'm gonna be the driver." Right? So if you do get up early, if, if, if I manage to convince/inspire you to say, "Right, tomorrow or next week..." If... I'd encourage you not to go next week. I'd encourage you to go tomorrow. There's no better time than now to make that change, even just 5 or 10 minutes earlier. What are you gonna do if you get up, right? In fact, let's go with what's the biggest mistake people make? The biggest mistake people make if they decide to get up early and make a change is they try and do too much, right? They go... It's, it's the same mistake you see in January every year. People try and overhaul everything at once. I would say start small, right? Five minutes, 10 minutes. Like, that's enough. And decide what you're gonna do. I shared my 3M framework before. Mindfulness, movement, mindset. Mindfulness could be some form of mindfulness practice. It could be a breathwork practice. It could be meditation. It could be sitting in silence with your cup of tea or coffee, really tasting every sip. That's a mindfulness practice. It doesn't need to be anything fancy. It's just not doing that whilst also emailing and going on Twitter, right? Movement, anything you like. Dumbbells, kettlebells, a few hip stretches, right? Whatever you like. That's fine. Mindset is something to put you in the right frame of mind. I like reading a few pages of an uplifting book, a book that makes me feel good, that makes me think about living a more intentional, happier life. Now, I'm not saying do them all. I know the patient I shared with you did the 3Ms in her five minutes. Make it easy. Choose one of them. Maybe it's movement. Maybe you start with one minute of jumping jacks every morning. Right? Even that, I promise you, if you're skeptical, right, if you're skeptical of what I've said, you think, "Is this really gonna make a difference?" My challenge to you is, tomorrow, decide what time you're gonna get up, right? Make a promise right now to yourself, right? What time could you get up? Right? Get up and, you know, go into your living room or in your bedroom, get out of bed, and do one minute of jumping jacks. You don't need any equipment. You don't need to get changed. You don't need to go outside. You don't need to join a gym. You know, it's easy. Do it in your pajamas, right? And commit to doing that for seven days. Same time, seven days. And I bet you will feel a difference very, very quickly. These small things, when done consistently, are much more beneficial than going for a 30-minute walk once a week on a Sunday. Hey, nothing against that walk on a Sunday. But these small things done regularly, they build up our sense of self-worth, our self-esteem. So start small. As I say, one of the biggest errors people make is they try and make it too big. Now, you may think you've got more time than a minute. Go for five minutes. Go for 10 minutes. It's completely fine. But make it something you can stick to. Now, what's the other big mistake people make? Well, they kinda give up too soon, right? I've already touched on this. If you are not used to waking up at 5 or 5:30 AM, or even 6, whatever time you decide, if you're not used to it, you're not gonna suddenly wake up tomorrow morning feeling fresh. No, you're gonna feel sluggish, tired, lethargic. You're gonna think, "Pfft, is this really gonna work?" You gotta give it a bit of time. Come on, commit. Seven days, 10 days. Just commit. You will very, very quickly find that you adapt. Another common mistake is if you're gonna start getting up earlier, you gotta start adjusting your bedtime as well. Now, listen, the truth is, if you're just gonna wake up 10 minutes earlier tomorrow morning to get going, you can probably keep your bedtime the way that it is, initially at least. But over time, right, over time, if you're gonna bring your morning wake-up time earlier, you gotta bring your bedtime a bit earlier as well.And I think the, the fourth thing that I think a lot of people sometimes get tripped up on is weekends. Now, this is really quite important. As humans, we thrive on routine, right? We have these inner cycles, you know, influenced by light, uh, and less so by food, but significantly by food, which determine our internal clocks. What time is it? And those clocks don't know what day of the week it is, right? [laughs] They don't know, oh, today's Monday and you've got a busy day, or today's Sunday, you've got nothing to do, no work to get to, you can lie in. They don't know. So as you're starting to transition to this, I would really encourage you to do this at weekends as well. And I know that may sound hard initially, and I think over time you can start to adjust this, but genuinely the most successful people... I want to say successful, I don't mean in terms of societal success. I mean success at changing your mornings, right? The most successful people, initially at least, do this at weekends as well, and I really would encourage you to do that. Because otherwise you're kind of shifting your clock from Monday to Friday to Saturday and Sunday. Now, listen, I understand some people have got irregular work patterns and of course it may not be possible if you're working shifts, right? But even if you are working shifts, whatever time you do end up getting up, if you can be intentional about those first five or 10 minutes, you're still gonna get a lot of the benefits. And one thing I really want to emphasize here is this kind of principle that I'm always thinking about with patients. I'm always looking for what I call upstream levers. And what's an upstream lever? Whenever a patient has come in to see me, I'm always thinking what can I help them change? What can I help them change? But I'm also thinking, what's the one change I can recommend that they make that's gonna automatically have lots of downstream benefits? That's what I mean when I say upstream lever, right? You turn that lever, in this case having a morning routine, getting up early, being intentional about the first part of your day when you do have control over it, and automatically you can have all these downstream benefits. Less stress, less anxiety, more calm, greater feelings of happiness, improved relationships, more productivity, more creativity, more presence, right? You're not actively looking for all those things separately. How can I be more creative? How can I be more present? How can I have better relationships? No. They're happening as a side effect, as an inevitable consequence of being intentional with the first part of your day. I've seen it. I've seen it so many times. Another, another patient I saw, middle-aged lady, high achiever, kind of A type, you know, lawyer. Migraines for a long time, right? And she'd, she'd tried various migraine medications and they just weren't that effective, and they gave her a lot of side effects. And she came to see me and she was looking for some help. And again, as I got to know her, it was really clear that she never had any time for herself. She had three kids, right? Her husband had a busy job. She had a busy job. And I remember early on, one of the things she said to me, "Doc, don't, uh, don't even talk to me about yoga. It's not my thing. I don't have time for it," right? "Don't take me down the yoga route." I thought, "Okay, yeah, no problem. I'm not gonna mention yoga," right? [laughs] That, that was a, um, [lip smacks] that was a clear message in my head, "I've got to be careful here," right? I've got to be careful how I bring these concepts up. So I didn't go anywhere near yoga 'cause she told me she didn't want that. And over time, I managed to convince her that she did have five minutes first thing in the morning. She said, you know, for, for, for ages it was like, "No way. No way. No way. I don't have time. I don't have time, Doc. I don't have time." I said, "Do you really not have five minutes?" She goes, "No, I've got to get the kids up. They get up, they're screaming, they're trying to get ready." I said, "Okay. Well, what do you do when the kids get up?" She goes, "Well, doesn't matter what's going on, I'll go downstairs, put the kettle on and make myself a cup of tea." I said, "Okay, perfect. Perfect. That's your time," right? And we discussed a few options, right, various things, but one thing that really appealed to her, it wasn't yoga, because I was trying to find a way to help her lower her stress, right? Because I thought I just need her to access a calmer state. And there's a big trend in the UK for adult coloring books, right? People love them. Because when you're coloring, it automatically makes you mindful. You automatically have to switch off from all the noise and be really present to, you know, coloring in within the lines and trying to make it all work. And so she wanted to do that. I said, "Right, this is your time," right? "You've already said no matter what's going on, you're gonna make yourself a cup of tea. So whilst you're drinking your cup of tea, just for five minutes, let your kids do whatever they're doing, wherever they're doing it, and I want you to drink your cup of tea whilst coloring in." And it was transformative. Literally transformative. Because very much like my other patient, it was a little window into how she could feel. Because she started off saying, "I don't have time. That ain't gonna work for me." Then she realized, "Oh, I do have time. I can find a way for this to work for me."Oh, now I'm also feeling calmer. She came out the week after, said, "Actually, I'm, I'm a lot calmer [laughs] and present with my kids in the morning. I'm not getting as triggered and, and reacting and snapping." So that was her starting to go, "Wait a minute, this small thing is already yielding benefits for me." And again, the ripple effect kicked in. That one small change led to other changes, a longer lunch break, intentional switching off, diarying in time to see her friends and switching off from work, you know? Finding time at the weekends to go for long walks in nature, right? These were downstream consequences of her starting off with those five minutes of me time every morning. And that's why I'm so passionate about these small changes, and that's why I'm so passionate about this recommendation is for everyone. Right, I, I read out that comment before, right? Someone... I understand, right? I understand that people's lives are tough, and she thinks, like many of my patients, that they don't have time. But it also tells me there is a need. I have worked as a doctor for over two decades. I've worked in all kinds of different practices. I've worked with affluent patients. I've also worked in areas of low socioeconomic status where people don't have much money, they don't have much opportunity, they're not earning much, and these recommendations work even in that environment. You know, as I said earlier, getting up a little bit earlier and having some time to yourself where you're really focusing on yourself isn't gonna necessarily make the stresses in your life go away, right? It's not gonna suddenly mean you're gonna earn more money. But what it is gonna mean is that you are in a better state to deal with those problems. It's simply not true that these recommendations are for people with wealth and with time. Arguably, they're even more important for people who don't have those things. It's free what I'm asking people to do, right? It won't cost you any money to do this, right? It's accessible, and it's gonna mean that you give yourself a shot of calm first thing every morning that's gonna, in some ways, make... No, I wouldn't say make you bulletproof to what's happening in the day, but it's gonna give you almost, like, a coat of insulation, so you're gonna go out into the world with more resilience to face what's going on in your day. Another super quick point to mention is burnout. Burnout is on the rise, and the thing with burnout is a lot of people don't realize that they are burning out, and they're on the road to full-on burnout. And it creeps up insidiously. You see all kinds of signs, right? Withdrawal from others, emotional exhaustion, um, lack of creativity, inability to gain pleasure from everyday things, an increased tendency to procrastinate, and physical exhaustion. These are really common signs that indicate you may be on the road to burnout. And if you can have an intentional morning routine, especially if you adjust your bedtime accordingly, this can really help you stop it in its tracks, stop it from getting worse, give you a bit of self-awareness, give you a bit of, dare I say it, self-love, right? You're not getting it from anywhere else. You're not getting it from your job, from your work, but this is you giving it to yourself. So that's another powerful reason why I think we should all be considering this. And I guess, for me, a really important point to reflect on is what happens on those days where you don't feel like it, where you think, "Pfft, I've done it for five days. I'm, I'm just not feeling it today." I think this is where we really need to be careful we don't fall into traps. So often with behavior change, what happens is we do something for a few days, maybe a few weeks, and we, we feel good whilst we're on a streak and it's going. And then one day, for whatever reason, we can't do it. And then we say, "Oh, man. That's it. Forget it. It's not for me. Can't do it. I missed a day. Might as well not do it anymore." Before you know it, it was something that you used to do. I've been here. I used to be a very all or nothing type of person. I still have those tendencies where I'm either all in or I'm all out. Whilst I'm doing it day in, day out, I'm engaged, and as soon as I slip off one day, I'm like, "Oh, man." And it's easy to make that second day happen, you know, that third day happen, where you've missed what you're doing. That's a trap, right? Don't fall into it. We are all human. We all have those days where we just don't feel like it, you know? And there's a balance here, because some days you don't feel like it, you still gotta do it anyway. But maybe work's been hard. Maybe you got to bed late, and you really are exhausted, and actually, you could benefit more from an extra 20 minutes of sleep. That's the truth. Some days that will happen. But please don't regularly use that as an excuse to stop doing this, right? You've gotta get to know yourself. You've gotta be honest with yourself. Gotta ask yourself, you know, "Do I need this extra 20 minutes in bed today?" I, I have days like that where I think, "Oh, man. That was a bad night. I got to bed late. I'm much better off sleeping in this morning and not doing that routine." If it's happening now and again, fine. You just don't want this to happen too regularly. It's this real balance, I think, between self-discipline and self-compassion, right? Have the discipline to do it, but also have the compassion now and again to go, "Maybe today's not the right day." That's okay. Don't adopt this all or nothing, black or white mindset. It's never that helpful in the long term. So what are you gonna do? You gonna take action? You gonna think about it a little bit more? Like, I get it. We've all been there. But if you don't take action now, when are you gonna take it? You know? If you want your life to change, you've gotta change something. Don't just listen to podcasts, watch videos like this, and feel the inspiration in your head. It's not really gonna do much. You've gotta take action, right? Next time you're on the sofa and Netflix is priming you with a teaser for the next episode, use that as your prompt to press off. Right? Play a different game. Say, "I'm done. I know what I want. I want a happier life. I want a calmer life. I want a healthier life. I want more productivity. I want better relationships." I want for you what I've had, and I pretty much guarantee if you make the commitment tomorrow morning to wake up early and do some of the things I've recommended, or at least one of the things that I suggested, your life will start to improve immediately. Creating a powerful evening routine can have a profound impact on your sleep, your energy levels, and your motivation levels. To find out my very best tips on how you can build your own evening routine, check out the video here. When you feel tired all the time, it affects three key components of your life, your health, your happiness, but also your relationships.

Episode duration: 1:21:16