The FOUR Key Questions I Ask Myself Every Morning...(that you can STEAL from me) 😅 Ep 121

In this podcast, Alex shares his personal morning routine designed to optimize his day as a leader and entrepreneur. He begins by highlighting the importance of self-reflection through four key questions: identifying someone to express gratitude towards, pinpointing what excites him about the upcoming day, anticipating potential stressors and planning responses, and addressing any lingering discomforts from the previous day. Alex emphasizes the power of these questions in fostering a positive mindset and proactive attitude. Additionally, he offers a bonus tip: focus on accomplishing one significant task daily to maintain momentum and avoid overwhelm. Throughout the discussion, he stresses the value of simplicity and consistency in personal and professional growth.

• The speaker is sharing their morning routine, which includes a journaling practice.
• They acknowledge not being perfect in maintaining this routine daily but aim for consistency.
• The routine has helped them improve their leadership and decision-making skills.

"And so I wanted to talk to you about, I think about the most important part of the morning journal for me, and it's the four questions that I always ask myself every morning to start my day."

The quote introduces the central topic of the discussion: the speaker's key morning journal questions that they believe are crucial for starting their day effectively.

• Journaling is a common practice aimed at improving productivity and self-awareness.
• The speaker has experimented with various formats, including apps and physical journals.
• They emphasize the personal nature of journaling, suggesting it's not one-size-fits-all.

"Layla and I, I mean, Layla's even better at this than I am, but we've gone through so many different journals in our know looking which ones?"

This quote reflects the speaker's experience with journaling and the trial-and-error process of finding the right journaling method, indicating the personalized nature of the practice.

• A typical journaling prompt is listing things one is grateful for.
• The speaker points out that repeating this exercise daily can lead to a sense of redundancy and guilt.
• They suggest that sometimes the typical prompts in journals may not always be the most effective.

"But what happens is, if you start doing this every day, usually you start running out of things to be grateful for, and then you either just start skipping it and feeling guilty..."

This quote highlights a common issue with daily gratitude lists in journaling, where the practice can become monotonous and lead to negative feelings.

• The speaker has developed four specific questions they ask themselves each morning.
• These questions are intended to evoke more meaningful reflection and action.
• The first question shifts the focus from what the speaker is grateful for to whom they are grateful for.

"The first one is, what person do I want to send a note or token of thanks to say that I'm grateful for?"

The quote reveals the first of the speaker's four morning questions, which encourages them to express gratitude to someone in their life, promoting a positive and proactive start to the day.

• Expressing genuine gratitude to team members can significantly impact team culture.
• Acknowledging the contributions of often overlooked roles, like operations managers and head trainers, is essential.
• Personalized appreciation, mentioning specific instances (x, y, z), enhances the value of the gratitude expressed.
• Heartfelt and genuine messages of thanks can evoke strong emotional responses from recipients.
• Gratitude should lead to action, suggesting sending a note or gift as a tangible expression of appreciation.

"I can't tell you how much it means to a teammate. People that you think know how much you appreciate them on a regular basis. Maybe it's your operations manager, maybe it's your head trainer."

This quote emphasizes the importance of regularly expressing appreciation to teammates, including those in supportive roles, to positively impact team culture.

"And you did x, y, and z that one day, and I can't tell you how much it meant to me. So I just want to say, sincerely, thank you, and all your effort doesn't go unnoticed."

The speaker highlights the significance of acknowledging specific actions, which personalizes the message of gratitude and reinforces its sincerity.

"You made me cry this morning when you sent me that."

A recipient's emotional response to a message of gratitude illustrates the profound impact that genuine appreciation can have on an individual.

• Using the phrase "What am I excited for?" to start the day can set a positive tone.
• Thinking about upcoming events or tasks with excitement can transform them into opportunities.
• Excitement is described as a somewhat childish emotion, but one that adults could benefit from experiencing more often.
• Even mundane tasks can become exciting through a positive mindset and anticipation.

"So the question would be like, who could I send a gift or a note to say thank you and that you're grateful for? All right, so that's the first one. The second one is, what am I excited for?"

The speaker suggests that gratitude should be followed by action, and then shifts to discussing the importance of looking forward to the day's events with excitement.

"And so in some ways, it positively frames your day so that you're looking at a lens of your day as opportunities, basically, to be excited, which is cool, because I feel like excitement is something that's a little bit of a childish emotion."

By framing the day with excitement, the speaker believes that it encourages a positive and opportunity-focused outlook, likening excitement to a beneficial emotion often associated with youth.

• Anticipating potential stressors can help in preparing for them.
• Entrepreneurs, characterized as emotional and driven, need to ground themselves for stability.
• Identifying possible challenges in advance reduces the element of surprise and allows for strategic handling.
• The best version of oneself should be the benchmark for responding to stress.

"What things could stress me out today, and how would the best version of myself handle it?"

The speaker encourages self-reflection on potential stressors and advocates for responding to them as the "best version" of oneself, implying a thoughtful and composed approach.

"The things that will throw you off, you know, the things that probably drive you nuts. A customer could reach out and ask for a refund. All of a sudden, out of the blue, an employee could show up late or not do something that they're supposed to do."

This quote lists examples of common stressors in a business environment and reinforces the idea that being aware of these potential issues can help in managing reactions to them effectively.

• The host has a book titled "100 million dollar offers" available on Amazon.
• The book has received over 8000 five-star reviews and has almost a perfect score.
• It is priced at $0.99 on Kindle as a strategic offer to the community.
• The host's intention is to provide value to the audience and potentially form future business partnerships.

Over 8005 star reviews. It has almost a perfect score. You can get it for $0.99 on Kindle.

These quotes highlight the book's success and the special Kindle price, emphasizing the value proposition to potential readers.

• Speaker A practices a very concise form of note-taking, avoiding full sentences to save time.
• This method focuses on capturing the essence of thoughts rather than detailed journaling.
• The approach is designed to facilitate quick recall and efficiency.

I do not write sentences, period. I don't write sentences. I got time for sentences like I write a word or like the beginning of a word, because it's just the thought that matters in my opinion.

The quote illustrates Speaker A's belief in the efficiency of capturing only the necessary elements of a thought for note-taking.

• Writing how one's best self would respond to potential stressors can pre-program a positive response.
• Demonstrating control and presence during stressful situations can increase respect from others.
• Maintaining composure is particularly important when dealing with vendors, as it sets clear expectations and promotes better work output.
• Taking responsibility for a vendor's work and providing positive reinforcement can lead to improved outcomes.

When you write how you, your best self would respond to that stressor, it kind of pre programs you.

The quote explains the concept of mentally preparing for stressors to enhance real-time responses.

• Speaker B suggests starting the day by considering who to send a thank you note to as an act of gratitude.
• Identifying what one is excited about for the day can create a positive lens for daily activities.

So first thing is who could I send a thank you note? A note of gratitude that I appreciate them.

This quote emphasizes the importance of recognizing and expressing gratitude towards others as a positive daily practice.

• It's helpful to identify potential daily stressors and plan responses in advance.
• Understanding and addressing the sources of yesterday's discomforts can prevent them from becoming today's stressors.
• The exercise aims to identify solutions, whether it's hiring someone, starting a project, or implementing a process to alleviate discomfort.

What things could stress me out, and how am I going to respond to those things if they come up and we all know what they are?

The quote underlines the proactive approach of anticipating stressors and planning responses to maintain control and effectiveness.

• Reflecting on uncomfortable experiences from the previous day can inform today's planning.
• The goal is to address and fix sources of discomfort to improve personal and professional environments.

What are the things that made me uncomfortable yesterday? And so there's probably sometimes you have these lingering cobwebs, you know what I mean? Lingering anxieties from the day before that came up, right.

This quote captures the idea of using reflection on past discomforts to inform current problem-solving strategies.

• Self-awareness is crucial for personal growth and avoiding repetitive draining experiences.
• Reflecting on bothersome issues helps in recognizing and addressing them effectively.
• Daily reflection aids in understanding what truly affects one's emotions and behavior.

"Because if you don't change it, it will ruin you. Right? It will continue to drain from you over and over and over again."

This quote emphasizes the detrimental impact of not addressing issues that bother us, suggesting that unresolved problems can persist and cause ongoing distress.

"So writing out those things of the things that bothered you yesterday are just going to. And also, it just makes you aware of yourself, really."

The speaker highlights the benefits of writing down issues from the previous day to enhance self-awareness and to deal with those issues more consciously.

• Believes in setting goals that are easily achievable rather than stretch goals.
• Prefers to dominate every goal set to avoid the feeling of failure.
• Focuses on gaining momentum by accomplishing one primary task, which leads to a more productive day.

"I'm a big believer in setting goals that I can absolutely demolish. I'm not a big stretch goal person."

This quote reveals the speaker's personal strategy for goal setting, which involves setting targets that they are confident they can achieve to maintain motivation and avoid disappointment.

"Let me get momentum and just crush this one thing. And then when I do that, I feel like everything else is gravy."

The speaker discusses the psychological benefit of completing one key task, which creates a sense of accomplishment and makes any additional tasks feel like a bonus.

• Advocates for choosing the single most important task to focus on each day.
• Simplifies task management to avoid overwhelming to-do lists and the stress associated with them.
• Suggests that successful people are not necessarily doing complex things but consistently practicing the basics.

"I know that if I'm only picking one thing that I have to get done only one, then I'm going to pick the highest priority thing."

This quote underscores the importance of prioritizing tasks and the speaker's method of ensuring that the most critical task is identified and addressed.

"The advanced people aren't advanced because they know sexy things. It's just because they just never don't do the basics."

The speaker implies that the key to being highly effective is not about knowing complex strategies but about consistently applying basic principles.

• The speaker has a set of four questions they ask themselves every morning to start the day with intention.
• The questions cover gratitude, anticipation, stress management, and reflection on discomfort from the previous day.
• Additionally, the speaker asks themselves what one thing they need to accomplish that day.

"Who am I going to tell that I'm thankful for today and who am I going to tell actively? What am I excited for today? What are the things that could stress me out and how I'm going to deal with them? What made me uncomfortable yesterday?"

These verbatim questions from the transcript are the exact four questions the speaker uses to frame their daily routine, focusing on gratitude, excitement, stress management, and reflection on discomfort.

"And then what's one thing that I'm actually going to get done today no matter what?"

This quote is the additional bonus question the speaker asks themselves, which centers on identifying the one most important task to focus on for the day.