Daily Routines: Your Realized Potential
![](https://madetoreason.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/1_RhZFZeRaiLbQ_UlYY3_FSQ-850x964.jpg)
Sisyphus (1548 – 1549) by Titian
Without a morning and nightly routine, you will not be successful. Success is a measure of one’s ability to reach one’s potential, and in the absence of this vital tool, you will never so much as conceive of the upper limits to your ideal self or your ideal life. Routines, if properly formulated and precisely executed, create positive habits, impart enlightening perspectives, and promote unimaginable progress. The compound effect of this over weeks, months, and years makes this one of the 20% of your actions which will yield 80% of the improvement in your life (re Predo distribution).
There is a simple formula to any daily routine, though it need not always be in this exact order:
1. Specific Cue – a time, activity, object, or location which serves as the routine’s trigger
2. Mental Reframing – a period of mindset adoption
3. Ordered Goals – a list of goals, concrete/daily and abstract/distant, to be attained
4. Holistic Edification – a series of physical, mental, emotional, and/or spiritual exercises
5. Constructive Preparation – a final task to establish directional momentum for the day
Allow me to demonstrate how this works using my morning routine
1. Specific Cue – waking up (6:00 AM)
2. Mental Reframing – prayer and positive affirmation
3. Ordered Goals – today’s tasks and future goals (pick at least one from every category)
4. Holistic Edification – workout, bible reading, meditation, journal, and cognitive exercises
5. Constructive Preparation – brush teeth, wash face, and dress
Here it is all written out:
![](https://madetoreason.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/c177ae_bd91c6384a3f4661a0982f278f465a04_mv2.webp)
And its corollary, the nighttime routine:
![](https://madetoreason.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/c177ae_14b84ea3784147279201dc5a6e5f78ac_mv2.webp)
If we take the time to perform routines like these, it is impossible to stay the same person for very long. The process will ensure improvement, almost independent of your efforts, so long as it is (1) designed correctly and (2) adhered to, very similar to impeccably crafted computer code designed and proven to enhance your software. Just as the user need only press “Enter”, you need only obey your routine’s trigger.
Finally, never forget the two main purpose of having both a routine:
1. “Control your environment, or your environment will control you.”
2. “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
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