I used to believe that your morning routine is what sets you up for a successful day, but recently, I’ve also learned that a conscious evening routine is equally as important.
For today’s 5-Minute Friday, I want to share four key steps with you that you can do before bed in order to hit the next day running. But before I do that, I want to tell you a story.
My entire childhood, I dreamed of being an all American athlete. In college, I decided I wanted to be an all-American in track and field. And it wasn’t until about six months before the national championship that I decided to try a new event, which was the decathlon.
The decathlon has 10 key events, one of which was pole vaulting, which I had never done. I had NO idea how to pole vault, and experts say that the pole vault is one of the hardest athletic feats to tackle in sports. So I had a lot to catch up on in six months before the event. I decided that I was going to make every minute count in the day, specifically my evening routine. I would watch a highlight videotape of the best pole vaulters in the world and actually lay upside down in my bed while doing the movements the pole vaulters were doing.
In my mind, I visualized everything. I was putting the pole in the box, going upside down over the bar, and throwing my legs up in the air while I was watching this tape over and over again. I would do this for about 30 to 60 minutes a night for six months. The next morning at 6AM, I would actually go practice pole vaulting and implement the techniques I had visualized the night before.
Why is this story important? Because six months later, I became an All-American athlete in the decathlon. I credit it a lot to taking action every single day and having great coaches, but without this evening routine, I would not have been prepared for what was to come.
