Important Part of the Day

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:00:04] Today, we’re going to talk about. I think an important part of the day, which is the morning and I’ve done a lot of research in the morning and I’ve changed my routine a lot in the morning, but I’m kind of down to what I feel is a science that works for me. And the one thing that we want to do tonight is introducing some tips and some simple steps that you can choose to take part in or all of yours. Whatever you decide to do, I think the way we start our morning is going to be. Determined. That’s the word of how you’re going to end your day and how your day is going to go. Fair to say that, absolutely.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: [00:00:47] Yep, we’re here, we’re talking about the morning hour of power, guys, and have you ever felt like you’re rushing or catching up from the minute that you wake up in your day? How we begin our day has a tremendous impact on how the rest of our day seems to go. If you’re not focused. Or if you’re always checking off boxes throughout your day. You’re essentially catching up with things from the moment that you wake up. Instead, with a morning power hour, it’s about allowing yourself to begin your day with more confidence, peace and essentially giving you a positive attitude and an outlook.

Moreover, we’re here to offer some tips and tricks on the things that we do before we go into our office every morning and how we feel we can be our best for you guys. When you come in to see us, absolutely.

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:01:52] So in case you’re just joining in this is Dr. Roach and Dr. Ben Boudreau, this is episode number four. So we’ve been enjoying this. If you want to show us a little bit of love there. Send us a little bit of hearts and thumbs-ups. And one of the things that we’re encouraging everybody to do is to share episodes. The more people share these episodes, the more the word goes out in terms of what people can do to grow, expand, get better. Redefine their lives a little bit. That’s our goal, is to make it think and take some of the things that we tell you and implement them in your lives in whatever way, shape or form you feel appropriate. So let’s begin, Ben, with this episode. As we said, we’re going to talk about the morning hour of power.

Now, our words might scare you a little bit. It does not have to be an hour. You can define your morning whichever way, shape or form you want based on how busy you are and how your mornings go and everything. But we’re going to talk about the all-encompassing morning. That basically drives your whole day, so why don’t you start off then I know you got some stuff that you’re going to talk about and all kind of chime in and I’ll let you kind of run this one and we’ll go from there.

Why Is It Important

Dr. Ben Boudreau: [00:03:05] Sure. OK, so, yeah, the morning hour of power, why is this so important? And I just ask the question, have you ever felt like you’re rushing or trying to catch up with the things from the day before? Just think about it. Are you still or do you wake up and you still have on your mind? I didn’t do this yesterday or I have done a job from the day before. Yes, OK, so here’s the thing, it’s not supposed to be that way, we’re not supposed to wake up stressed about the things that we are still focused on. I know it’s hard to say or it’s easy for me to hold at it.

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:03:45] Furthermore, let’s have people actually write that. How many people right now listening in? Just comment, yes or no, whether or not you wake up thinking about stuff in the past when already in the past, some are starting to today off, how many of you still think about what’s going on or what has gone on? Yesterday or the day before, so just comment, yes, no, and we’ll see how things go. Go ahead. And sorry, it’s one

Dr. Ben Boudreau: [00:04:11] Polling on how we begin our day has a tremendous impact on how the rest of the day seems to go. Really, it’s not focused, the hour of power isn’t focused on how much time is spent, how early you wake up. It’s not how much you actually accomplish, it’s not who’s checking off the boxes instead. It’s allowing yourself to begin your day with confidence, peace and a positive attitude. It allows you to effectively complete tasks, organize your task into the ones that matter most instead of organizing yourself into tasks, completing some, leaving some on the back burner and then worrying about it the day after. It allows us to handle things that come our way without constantly feeling stressed or overwhelmed.

Moreover, there are a few benefits. Actually incorporating this into your lifestyle, there are physical and emotional benefits. Feeling good physically can certainly influence how we feel emotionally, according to a Harvard or Stanford University study, workplace stress. Can be almost as damaging to your health as second-hand smoking. Think about that. Just think about it, the amount of stress that you feel. Comfortably throughout the week, almost as damaging. As second-hand smoke. And just for context, we don’t usually walk around having the flu with a smile on her face or being overly optimistic.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: [00:05:55] Likewise, the way that you feel on the inside and the way that you prime. How you’re feeling in the morning truly has an impact on the rest of your day. Additionally, your emotional health can be impacted by how you feel. We are hanging our day over time. If our stressful patterns continue, it makes sense that we possibly begin to feel hopeless, as if we’ll never catch up with the things on our list. We’re just completely compounding, compounding, compounding. Every day we’re thinking about the same things. Again, all I got to wake up and I got to do this. This comes back to that attitude shift we spoke about weeks ago.

Emotional Impact

Dr. Ben Boudreau: Don’t have to do it versus getting to do it versus can do it. Additionally, another positive benefit is that it may be beneficial in your relationships, waking up in the morning, feeling peaceful, having that time too and we’re going to teach you the things that we do. But it can improve your relationship as well, instead of stressing out throughout the day and then coming home and taking out some of that stress or feeling fed up. Yeah, taking that out on some of your family members.

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:07:05] Furthermore, here are real-life examples, sometimes in the morning, and if you don’t have that morning routine and you’re running behind and you’re stressed, you’re probably going to be short with your kid, you’re probably going to be short with your wife, and you’re probably not going to be able to connect before you head off to work. Again, how many of you have heard about a story where, you know, a couple separated in the morning to go with their individual works and maybe the morning didn’t go off as well? And God forbid something happens, there’s an accident that happens and all the regret that you would have. Knowing that you did not start the morning in peace and love and so you just never know.

Productivity

Dr. Ben Boudreau: [00:07:46] On the right foot. Totally. Again, it also equals better productivity. So, as I said, prior, productivity doesn’t necessarily equal how much you get done in the morning, but rather the quality and the attention you are giving to the tasks that you’re doing as chiropractors. We talk a lot about present consciousness.

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:08:07] just to see what that is, present consciousness

Dr. Ben Boudreau: [00:08:10] Moreover, being focused at the moment, doing the task. Full intention, meaning that you’re putting the task and organizing this is based on importance. This is important. This what matters at this moment. This needs to be completed prior to this. It doesn’t mean that one task is more important than the other. It just means that this is where I want to focus my attention. Focus your attention and finish the task. Move on to the next. There’s nothing worse than coming home at the end of the day and having five half-finished tasks completed. Yeah.

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:08:48] Yep, totally agree.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: [00:08:50] Additionally, another thing before I move on before we break off into what we do is confidence. It builds self-efficacy in yourself. It’s that in itself is a term that we can achieve goals and complete tasks. It builds confidence and resilience in yourself. So right now, I’d like to ask you guys to do one simple exercise. OK, everyone take a piece of paper, please. One piece of paper, one pen, write down something new and follow it through for one week, something new. If you’re not already making your bed in the morning, please write that one down, please, and follow through for a week. It builds self-efficacy in yourself to complete tasks.

Furthermore, we are always talking about making bad. We’re always talking about washing sheets. Build self-efficacy in one’s self is to follow through with the tasks that you believe you can do. If you actually do what you say, you’re building resilience and confidence in yourself. You’re walking the walk.

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:09:53] Now. So here’s what going to do. Guys, we’re going to go into strategies right now and what Ben wants you guys to do is just write down one thing that we’re going to say that you’re going to start implementing in that morning routine. And it could be two things. It could be three things, whatever you feel comfortable with. And we’re getting close to January 1st and we make all these claims and promises. We’re just going to ask you to do one thing. If you’re overzealous and you want to do two or three things, then sure, go ahead and do it. But pen and paper, one thing that we’re going to mention starting right now. So go ahead with the first few things, Ben, and I’ll chime in.

The Snooze Button

Dr. Ben Boudreau: [00:10:31] Moreover, the thing the first thing to really do, and this is something that I started doing, is not hitting the snooze button. Likewise, don’t worry about what other people are doing, for one, don’t worry about getting up and being a part of the five o’clock club, if you know that you’re don’t function your best waking up at five a.m. Of course, it takes time to get into a routine, but it doesn’t take a whole hour or 90 minutes to be to have a morning power, our. Right, they say the optimal morning power hour is anywhere between 30 and 90 minutes.

Furthermore, if you only have enough time to make it a forty-five-minute morning, that’s OK if you only have time to make it a 30 minute morning. That, too, is just fine. Keith, so what a reasonable time to wake up, I’m 5:00 a.m. don’t hit the snooze button and give yourself between 30 and 90 minutes.

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:11:31] Yeah, that’s No. One. Whatever time you choose, you choose, right? All right, my next thing. One thing that I do, and that’s something that’s hard right now, am I avoid emails and phone. In that morning routine. There is nothing that is going to ruin that morning routine other than being taken away on a tangent because somebody said something on Facebook that you feel the need to respond to. You see it as an emergency and it’s obviously not an emergency, but you respond and all of a sudden that morning routine that you committed to doing is now off on a tangent like I said, or you feel the need to respond to an email or whatever it is.

Moreover, there are all kinds of opportunities to go to the west, to the east, to the north, to the south. When you open that cell phone and get bombarded with the brand new news feed on Facebook, that’s basically curated to grab your interests like a gambling machine, because every time you go back on your news feed, there’s something new and they know what you’d like to look at. So that’s what you see. And all of a sudden, you’ve wasted your whole morning hour looking at stuff that’s totally irrelevant to what your plan was. So one, avoiding or two, avoiding looking at your phone during that morning hour of power somewhere or something you shouldn’t do versus something you should do.

Fuel

Dr. Ben Boudreau: [00:13:03] Again, absolutely great point, Clayton, point number three, moving along here, practice stillness in the morning. I myself am a bit of a divine practitioner in that way, the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is I pray, but you don’t need to pray. Practising stillness means meditation, breathing techniques like breathing techniques, getting into a yoga pose and calming down and giving yourself time to positively think about your day. Likewise, I usually like to give myself positive self-talk, I can do it by saying things as I can do it, I get to do it on the master of my universe. No one can stop me.

Furthermore, there’s no such thing as a life that’s better than mine and loves yours. These are some of the things that I do as soon as I wake up. I roll out of bed and I have a yoga mat next to my bed. I literally roll out of bed, land on my yoga mat, and get down and start doing some positive self-talk.

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:14:06] Likewise, many of us, and I don’t know if any of you can can attest to that, but if you’re a victim of this or if you’re a culprit of this, you need to stop. You look at yourself in the mirror and say, man, I look like crap today. What a way to start the day. Look at the mirror and say, I’m a wonderful human being. I get to do what I do. Whatever positive affirmation you can make about that day, I’m telling you, is going to have a huge, profound effect on how the rest of the day rolls instead of starting with the negativity.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: [00:14:41] Absolutely.

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:14:43] Next item, so fuel, I think, is important. One thing that I’ll tell you is whatever routine you have around food in the morning. Could be different than somebody else, I love to do intermittent fasting in the morning, so I’m not a big breakfast guy. I can definitely speak to the science of that. Some people love breakfast. You can incorporate a shake, know whatever you decide to put in that shake. I always recommend 80, 20, 20 percent fruits, 80 percent vegetables. You can get into a practice of vitamin supplementation, whatever you take. That is part of the routine. That is part of your hours to the whole hour is not sitting like meditating for an hour.

Moreover, the hour encompasses a lot of these things. One of them is eating if you desire to eat in the morning, including supplementation shakes, anything that’s going to fuel your body for whatever the day is going to bring. That is your fuel. It’s like a car and you’re starting off a road trip with half a tank. For the next seven hundred miles, you’re going to run out of fuel. And many of us, I feel and I see it in my patients that come in to see me in the afternoon, I’m all gung ho and I got these patients that are coming to me at three, four o’clock and they’re like they box 12 rounds with Muhammad Ali. By the same token, we need to be careful in terms of what we put into our bodies and the types of foods as well.

Additionally, if you’re loading your morning with muffins from Tim Hortons, no offence and you’re full of carbs by 10:00. I mean, this is not a great routine. So think about what you put into your body, garbage in, garbage out and what you want to project to maybe your kids and the examples you want to set that’s relevant in my life right now. So just be careful in terms of how you treat your body. And if you treat it well, it’ll treat you well for the rest of your life.

Review Your Day

Dr. Ben Boudreau: [00:16:46] Some points, Clayton. Furthermore, another point that I usually do is review my day. I take an intentional look at my day, and I don’t let my control or my schedule or control me, I control my schedule, I’m honest with myself about the importance of tasks. And I know that not everything is a top priority. I try to focus on one thing at a time, and I know at some days I have a long, long list, but I know that if I can get rid of some of my top priority items one day.

That that was a good day. If they’re not pressing, I can get rid of them and then I can go home. I feel like I’ve done everything in my power that day and I knock them off my top priority list. Moreover, they’re seriously nothing better that you can do in the morning than quickly think about intentionally the things that are the top priority for you that day.

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:17:48] Furthermore, a good example of that, Mary Kay, how many did you know, Mary Kay? Right, she built a huge business on care products, and in order to run that type of business, you need to have priorities. So she was known to walk around with the lists in her pocket of the seven most priority items she needed to accomplish that day. And at the end of the day, she that was her accountability, she looked at that list and how many things she accomplished or those seven things. Well, from Mary Kay.

Conclusion

Dr. Ben Boudreau: [00:18:21] Additionally, a tip on organization, be flexible, let go of any expectations. We’re not looking for perfection in your day. Be consistent because it helps your routine feel more and more natural over time. It’s going to be difficult to start, but be consistent. Especially with your wake-up time, be consistent with your wake-up time. Take charge of technology, use it as your alarm, maybe use it for music in the morning, but don’t use it for Facebook and Instagram.

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:18:51] Likewise, we had a question, what about protein for fuel in the morning? That is important, super important, proteins important.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: [00:18:58] Moreover, protein is important because muscles have this thing inside of them called mitochondria. Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell. Inside of this powerhouse of the cell produces this thing called ATP, ATP is literally energy, the more muscle that you have, the more energy you have to go about your day. I usually put about half a scoop of protein to a scoop of protein and a smoothie with half a banana, some frozen fruit, orange juice and almond milk. Blend that up with the granola bar at six o’clock in the morning, six-thirty in the morning. And that’s my breakfast. And then that holds me over until lunchtime. Protein is important. I use a protein from Costco.

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:19:45] Furthermore, if you’re dairy intolerant, there are different options Absolom way too many different options in terms of protein. One thing that I want to say, there’s this wonderful book called The Miracle Morning that my wife pointed out to me, and there are different versions of this book. There’s a miracle morning for the family. And it basically is a book based on the morning routine. And they had this acronym called SAVERS. So SAVERS everybody writes this down SAVERS and the acronym goes like this S is for silence.

Moreover, we talked about that, that meditation, that moment of clarity that you’re looking for, for your day, whatever thoughts coming your way, whether it’s gratitude, whatever it is, affirmation is a sort of savours s is for silence. A is for affirmation, what are you affirming? What are you about what is your mission today? Your visualizations visualize how your day is going to go. There’s research that was done and there were three types of basketball players and if you saw this, Ben, but one guy was practicing three-pointers actually on the court and the other guy was on the court. No ball practicing, just going to the motion.

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:20:56] Additionally, there was a guy at home who was visualizing the three-pointers and the end of the study, the guy that was at home visualizing the three-pointers and really focusing on what he was going to do as its actions at every single moment. Looking at the ball in the arc, he was the one that made the most three-pointer. So visualization is key is for exercise. Hour is for reading, whether it’s a poem, something that’s insightful. Loving thought-provoking, whatever and scribbling once you go through those steps, sometimes things will come to mental clarity, items, visions, you’ve got to scribble that down call it a journal so SAVERS, silence, affirmation visualization exercises, reading and scribbling.

Furthermore, the last thing I want to see, start your day with an intention started the day with an intention, if that’s to be more present with your kids, if that is to say three good things about something that you’re going to be in contact with the day at the end of the day, score yourself on a scale of one to 10 on how you followed up with those intentions that you set in the morning. That was my tidbit.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: [00:22:10] Your energy, your thought, your enthusiasm, your charisma can all be created by you. Create the day that is the morning hour of power.

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:22:25] Beautiful. Guys, if you like this episode, just show us a little bit of hearts and thumbs up there right now. Come on. And what I want you guys to do is make sure you share these episodes. There are a lot of people looking for a connection right now. There’s a lot of people looking for. For help there, I see a lot of patients right now, there’s depression, there’s anxiety, there’s fear. Any help that we can give people is something that will come back to us down the road you give for the sake of giving you love, for the sake of loving, to share these episodes do us a favour.

Moreover, the more people that chime in, the more results we can get and the more people can be helped by maybe one little message, one little tidbit that we shared that ends up changing somebody’s lives. That’s what we’re all about. This is what these days are all about. So make sure that you share these episodes like us on Facebook. Follow us on Facebook. That way, you know, when we’re alive. And I wish everybody a Merry Christmas, great holidays. Make sure to connect with family, make sure you exercise that presence, that present time consciousness as much as you have the stuff at work. I’m going to do my best to do that. Doesn’t always happen.

I have kids that remind me when I’m not present, but that’s what I’m going to focus on. That’s my intention during the holidays is to be present. How about you, Ben? Closing thoughts?

Dr. Ben Boudreau: [00:23:51] Likewise, I’ve had an absolutely wonderful time getting to know each and every single one of you over the course of the last month and a half, and I’m truly thankful to have the opportunity to be here on this Facebook live each and every single week and communicating with all of you. There’s a reason why I’m with you guys as a reason why I’m getting to know you. And I just hope that. Our paths will cross multiple more times throughout this coming new year into twenty, twenty-one, and I wish you all a beautiful and happy holiday and all the best going forward as we progress into a new year.

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:24:31] Thank you so much, Ben. Thank you guys for being live with us. We’re going to post the edited version tomorrow morning and we’ll keep posting throughout the holidays and we’ll see you guys next Wednesday. Take care and have an intent for the next few weeks. And hopefully, you put these things into practice. One thing that’s all we ask. Take care. We love you and appreciate you guys. What’s up? Listen, if you like this episode, you’ll probably like the other ones, chances are pretty good.

So here’s what you need to do. You need to like us and follow us on Facebook. Following means you get notified when these two guys are alive. Next, family, friends, you need to share these episodes because you never know. You might help them because they need this information as well.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: [00:25:13] Additionally, if you ever miss an episode, make sure you subscribe to us on YouTube. That way, you can watch the episode over and over and over again.

Dr. Clayton Roach: [00:25:20] Guys, we love you and appreciate you. Take care.