“There is a powerful driving force inside every human being that, once unleashed, can make any vision, dream, or desire a reality.” – Tony Robbins
Over the last 30 years, Tony Robbins has established himself as the number one motivational coach in the world. His work, such as New York Times best-seller Awaken The Giant Within, has inspired hundreds of thousands of people. Tony has been known to work grueling 18-hour days, while usually only catching around four hours of sleep. Robbins, at age 57, is a fully charged machine capable of withstanding jumping on his feet all day, motivating and shouting at enormous crowds, and being at peak performance during his most intense seminars. He seems to have a never-ending flow of energy, which he credits in part due to his intense and highly unusual morning routine. This morning routine has been heavily researched, and works extremely well.
Tony starts off everyday with the same routine that he calls “priming”. He does this routine every single day no matter where he is in the world. This routine can be done in under 10 minutes and works wonders for improving your focus and energy for the rest of the day.
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Tony Robbins Morning Routine
Tony’s morning routine has three main steps:
- Cold Exposure – typically an ice bath
- Priming Exercise
- Fueling up with a nutritious breakfast
Wake up and do a cold plunge
Robbins has both a sauna and cold plunge pool in each of his seven homes. You don’t need a cold plunge pool to do this, a simple cold shower will work. The benefits of taking a cold shower in the morning are endless. The purpose of exposing yourself to the cold is a neurology state change. The cold water will snap you out of your usual morning grogginess better than a double shot of espresso. By taking a cold shower, your body actually increases its production of endorphins. In fact, taking a 5 minute cold shower 2-3 times per week was shown to relieve symptoms of depression in a clinical trial.
Cold showers work as a sort of electroshock therapy, with the cold water sending electrical impulses to your brain that shock your system into increasing your energy, alertness, focus, and clarity. A simple cold shower in the morning can increase your feelings of well-being and put you in a positive state of mind. You’d be surprised how much better you feel in the morning by taking a cold shower. It is important to start slowly by ending your normal shower with 30 seconds of cold water, and then begin working your way up to colder, longer showers.
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Prime for the day
After the cold plunge, the energetic entrepreneur will engage in a series of mindfulness and breathing exercises that “prime” him to be more grateful throughout the day. By “priming” yourself and your emotions each morning, you will ensure the tone of your day is not set by stress, anger, or fear – but instead, by gratitude and optimism.
Below is a 15 minute video of Tony’s priming routine for the morning.
Here are the steps of Tony Robbins’ Priming Exercise:
1. “Breath walking”
After the cold plunge, Robbins does a series of breathing exercises to change the way he feels and get in the right “state”. The science behind these exercises is called “breath walking.” You’ll use this technique to stimulate your lymph nodes, while simultaneously energizing your body.
You’ll start by inhaling four times through your nose, and then exhale haling four times through your mouth. The breaths are to be purposeful, short breaths, one after the other. Four quick breaths in through the nose, followed by short quick breaths exhaled out of the mouth.
- Inhale four breaths in a row, in a fairly quick fashion, through your nose.
- Immediately exhale four breaths in a row, in the same tempo, through your mouth.
- Repeat the inhaling and exhaling 30 times without interruption and then breath normally for a little while.
- Repeat step 1-3 above three times. Ie. the whole exercise is 30 x 3 complete breaths.
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2. Create an emotional state of enormous gratitude
In this step, you create an enormous state of gratitude. You do so by acknowledging and appreciating both people and situations that you are grateful for. Tony uses the first few minutes to focus on something that makes him feel grateful.
Think of someone or something in you life that you feel grateful for and feel the gratitude fill up your body. Think of how lucky you are to have whatever it is you are focusing on. Be sure to do this for at least three minutes, and even more if you have the time.
3. Visualize yourself thriving in the future
For the last few minutes, visualize what you want to create in your life. Focus on the future, and envision everything you will be grateful for, but be sure to picture it as if it already exists. By doing this daily, your mind will begin to build certainty around this future you have envisioned for yourself, and help you achieve it in resourceful ways. Affirm this vision. Tell yourself it will be accomplished. Your mind and body will follow. Everything we create in our life is first created in our mind as thoughts, feelings, or desires.
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Finally, fuel up.
Once Robbins finishes the visualization techniques, he will then eat a nutritious breakfast. Tony firmly believes that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Tony starts every day by going green. Tony will typically eat a salad topped with other nutritious veggies, finishing it off with a piece of grilled fish. On Tony’s website, he talks about the various breakfasts he will have. The important thing to is to start your day off with something healthy that will fuel your body with nutrients and vitamins. The typical American breakfast of eggs and bacon is not the way to go if you want to start the day off like Tony. It is important to note that Tony follows the diet of Dr. Gundry, the author of The Plant Paradox.
After completing this morning routine, Robbins is ready to take on the day with energy, optimism, and a positive outlook. Check out the video below of Tony’s Robbins morning routine.