A little bit of background on my personal experience with Mornings first. I'm a BIG morning person. For the past 3 years (at least), I've been waking up at 5:00am or earlier. Last year, I actually woke up at 4am every day - so I could fit in a workout.

For me, waking up early is the secret to everything I've achieved. Seriously, looking back at the last few years, I can't believe that I have achieved what I achieved. Most of that work happened little by little during these mornings. 

However, there was a super practical reason for me to get up this early. That was the only time that made sense for me outside of work. I knew mornings were the best part of the day for me - I'm too tired to do anything more than sit in front of the TV and prepare for bed in the evenings, and there was a lot I wanted to accomplish. So I gave the best part of the day for me - the mornings - to myself.

When I became a nomad, I finally didn't have that pressure of having to wake up early just to get things done before work. I have the full day now, right?!! Well, I love mornings, so I keep waking up early anyway because I love it. Yes, 4am (or 5am at the latest) is still my wake up time, although that was different right at the beginning of my nomad journey as I was getting used to jetleg, change, etc. 

The problem became what I did in the morning. I don't have the pressure of having to be at work by a certain time to motivate me to get things done. So recently, my mornings way too often are me walking to my desk to get my phone, then walk back to bed, where I check email and Twitter and other social media for what ends up being an hour!

I knew I had to change that, so when I saw Miracle Morning mentioned in this 2015 review, I knew I had to read it.   

The book itself is super Sales-y. But it's written by a sales dude, so what do you expect?! Also, the first half of it is spent focusing on strategies to stop hitting the Snooze button (not a problem for me personally - I actually don't have an alarm. I've trained myself to wake up at 4am naturally). Did I mention the book is super Sales-y? He tries to sell his product over and over and over again in the book. 

But outside of all the annoying things, I can tell you one thing - if you do do the Miracle Morning, your life will change. So at least what he's selling is legitimate. It was also the motivation I need to change my morning a bit.

Before becoming a nomad, my morning was me getting up, working, eating breakfast while reading a bit, working more, working out, getting ready for work (shower, getting dressed, eating and reading some more).

I've updated my new morning routine to getting up, sitting in silence and visualizing my goals for a few minutes, doing 8 Minute Abs + 2 Minute Abs + 8-minute Buns workouts (I'll probably switch this up to yoga some days), eating breakfast, taking a shower, then working - the goal is to not check email or Twitter or even have external sound until the working part. In only a few days of doing this, I already feel a lot more like my old self! Determined, focused, productive, fit.