The Morning Routine Nobody Talks About (But Every High Performer Uses) - 029

The most successful people in business aren't winning because they work harder — they're winning because of what they do before 8 a.m. In this episode, Bryan Buckley breaks down ten specific, research-backed elements of an elite morning routine, plus a bonus element that high-level athletes and executives use that almost no one in the business world thinks to apply. This isn't about hacks or a $400 blender. It's about designing the first hours of your day with intention so that everything that follows — every meeting, every conversation, every decision — is built on the strongest possible foundation. Bryan organizes the ten elements across three key questions every morning should answer:

Mind & Mental State — Am I mentally clear?

• Wake Up at a Consistent Time
• Avoid Your Phone for the First Hour
• Learn Something Small 
• Practice Mental Clarity

Body & Physical Foundation — Is my body ready?

• Hydrate Immediately
• Get Some Movement In 
• Fuel Your Body Intentionally

Focus & Intentional Action — Do I know what matters today?

• Review Your Goals
• Set Your Big 3 Priorities 
• Eat the Frog 

Bonus: Mental Rehearsal — Visualization — 2 to 3 minutes of intentional mental rehearsal activates the same neural pathways as physical execution; if you run the play in your mind before you walk in the room, you've already practiced it

Timestamps:

0:00 - The Real Advantage Before 8

1:35 - Why Your Morning Sets Everything

3:30 - Three Categories That Guide The Routine

4:25 - Sleep Timing Phone And Water

11:35 - Learn Daily And Clear The Noise

19:27 - Movement And Smarter Breakfast Choices

25:02 - Goals Priorities And Deep Work Early

32:35 - Visualization For High Stakes Moments

35:35 - The Implementation Gap And Recap

38:12 - Three Action Items And Next Guest

Download the free cheat sheet: here.

Resources to Use:

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30 Connection Questions for Stronger Business Conversations

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Transcript

The Real Advantage Before 8

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What if I told you the most successful people in business aren't winning because they're working harder. They're winning because of what they do before 8 a.m. Now, I'm not talking about hacks, not even biohacks, not even a $400 blender. 10 specific research-backed elements done consistently to set their brain, their body, and their intention before the world starts demanding from them. And here's the uncomfortable part. Most people are doing the exact opposite. They wake up, they grab their phone, scroll through the chaos, skip breakfast, skip water, skip silence, and then they wonder why their dales feel, well, reactive, scattered, and exhausted. Today, we're fixing that. I'm going to walk you through 10 elements of an elite morning routine. And a bonus at the very end, you're not going to want to miss. Now, these aren't theories, they're habits that compound. And by the time we're done today, you're going to know exactly what to add, what to cut, how to start, even if you've tried some of these before and they didn't stick. So let's get to it. Welcome to the Elite Business Connector Podcast, where we believe how you interact with people will make or break your opportunity to develop a real and influential connection. Now, whether you're a rookie or a rock star with people, you're at the right place right now. Let's do it.

Why Your Morning Sets Everything

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Welcome to the Elite Business Connector Podcast. I'm your host, Brian Buckley, husband of one, father of five, and on the mission to help you develop, deepen, and master your business communication and connection skills. And my promise to you, if you listen and subscribe, I'm going to bring my best content every single week to help you get better communicating and connecting in a business environment. Now, if you're in sales, you're in leadership, customer service, hospitality, or really any business where relationships matter, then you are in the right place. But today, we're zooming out because the first five minutes of your day may be the most important connection you make, and it starts with you. So here's the big idea for today's episode. How you spend your morning before your workday determines the quality of the effectiveness of the rest of your day. Let me say that again. How you spend your morning before your workday even begins determines the quality of the effectiveness of the rest of your day. The way you'll begin your day sets the biological, physiological, and intentional tone for everything that follows. And here's the key high performers, elite business connectors, they do not leave that to chance. They design it, they protect it, they repeat it morning after morning, week after week, month after month, until it becomes who they are, not just what they do. So today we're gonna walk through these 10 elements. And I'm gonna give you the what, the why, the research, and some real world examples for each one. We'll cover five, take a quick break, where I'm gonna tell you how to grab a free cheat sheet with all 10 elements, plus a sample morning routine, some extra additional resources, and then we're gonna come back and cover the final five. Ready? Let's start the clock. My brain works in categories. I naturally want to

Three Categories That Guide The Routine

SPEAKER_00 3:30

see the big picture, then how each element breaks down into hopefully clear sections. So here are three major categories for these 10 morning routine elements. The first category is mind and mental state, setting the mental tongue. The second category is body and physical foundation, taking care of the machine. And the third is focus and intentional action, directing your energy. So we're framing these three categories with three questions this morning routine answers. First question is, am I mentally clear? The second question is, is my body ready? And third is, do I know what matters today? Now, the order we'll be working through is not based on these specific categories, but more sequential to a natural morning flow and how I personally work through my morning routine. So let's break down each element individually.

Sleep Timing Phone And Water

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Content block number one or elements one through five. Element number one, wake up at a consistent time. So let's start with a foundation. Not when you wake up, but that you wake up at the same time every day. So what does that actually look like? Here's an example. Maybe weekdays, it's 6:30. Weekends, maybe seven o'clock, not 10:30. Not I'll sleep in, I deserve it. But within 60 to 90 minutes of your weekday time, that's the range. Here's why this matters so much. Your body runs on something called a circadian rhythm. It's a 24-hour internal clock that regulates your sleep, your hormones, your cognition, and your energy. And according to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, nearly every tissue and organ has its own circadian rhythm in our body. And they're all tuned to that daily cycle of day and night. When you keep that clock consistent, it strengthens. And when you blow it up every weekend, your body experiences what researchers actually call social jet lag. And research from a systemic review published in the Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism found that later sleep timing and greater sleep variety are both associated with adverse health outcomes. How I started this first routine was to reverse engineer my morning routine to determine well, how much time do I actually need for my full morning routine without being rushed, then determining what time I need to wake up every day. Curious, for me it's 6 a.m. This took some time, but helped me to accomplish the rest of these elements to set me up to succeed the rest of my day. Now you don't have to be perfect. You just need to be consistent. So here's the action item for element number one: experiment. Find out that consistent wake up time and stick to it. Oh, by the way, get yourself enough rest to make sure you can wake up at that time. Element number two, avoid your phone for the first hour. This one is going to step on some toes, maybe jump on them. Good. It should. We're talking about behaviors of high performers and elite business connectors. Here's what this looks like in practice: it means no email, no social media, no news, no text, not until at least after your first morning routine block is complete. Some of you just felt a ton of anxiety after hearing that comment. Well, that response, that's exactly the problem. So here's the science. Your cortisol, which most people think of as the stress hormone, which it is, but it's actually also your alertness hormone, which naturally peaks within 30 to 45 minutes of waking up. Research published in Frontiers in Neuroscience confirmed that this cortisol awakening response is modulated by the circadian system and prepares the brain for the anticipated challenges of the day ahead. It's a biological gift. Your brain, at its freshest. And what do most people do with it? They hand it over to Instagram or the news. A study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research found that people who are exposed to digital notifications within the first 30 minutes of waking showed 25% higher cortisol levels compared to those who delayed phone use. You're taking what should be focused alertness and converting it into kind of like fragmented anxiety. The practical fix, put your phone in another room the night before. Use a simple alarm clock if you need one. I use my watch. The goal is simple. You set the agenda for your morning, not social media, not the news, that's your inbox. The other reason we impulsively pick up our phone, well, that's just out of habit and not having another plan. I wake up, grab the phone, check whatever. I know when the news is in my inbox and it's the first thing that starts my day. I'm usually flooded with negativity, overwhelm, and everybody else's agenda once I get to the inbox and looking at that. And that's my first couple minutes of waking up. There's a better way. Well, I'm challenging you on this habit and giving you another plan. One that'll set your mindset in a completely positive direction. The phone will be there for you, but only after these key elements that high performers use before they begin their day. Astronaut, find a place to find hide-and-go secrets of your phone. So you break the grab and go look at it. Element number three, hydrate immediately. Now this one sounds almost too simple. That's why most people skip it. What does it look like? 12 to 20 ounces of water within five to ten minutes of waking up. You keep a glass or a bottle on your nightstand, no friction, no excuses. Wake up, grab some water, drink it. Well, why does it matter? Well, when you sleep, your body loses water through respiration and light perspiration. You wake up in the mild state of dehydration every single morning. And here's what it costs you. A review published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that being dehydrated by just 2% impairs performance in tasks requiring attention, psycho-mortis skills, and immediate memory. Think about that. 2%. It's not extreme hydration or dehydration. That's just a normal morning before you've ever had anything to drink. A more recent study from the American Journal of Human Biology confirmed that dehydration is associated with poor sustained attention, which is exactly the cognitive tool you need the most first thing in the morning. Here's a practical example. I keep a 16-ounce water bottle on my nightstand every single night. Before my feet hit the floor, that bottle is handled. Takes 45 seconds. The habit costs nothing. And it changes how my brain shows up for the next two hours. If that's a lot of water for you at first, then guess what? Use that five to 10 minutes to get that water down. That first eight ounces should be very, very easy if you get into the habit of that. When I don't do it, I feel very dehydrated just minutes later. And I do this habit all the time. Here is one of the tip. When I'm on the road, I take the 16-ounce water bottle Hilton gives me at check-in. One stays in my rental car and the other one stays on my bedroom nightstand. Here's a watered-down tip. I often hear that people don't like the taste of water. Well, personally, I didn't know it had a taste, unless it was well water, that is. Or the taste is just bland. I use liquid IV, sugar-free powders that break out the monotony so that maybe that's your secret sauce first thing in the morning. For me, it's later on the day because I drink 100 ounces of water for the day. That breaks it up. But for you, if that's what it's going to take to get water in you, just an idea. Try liquid IV. Make hydration your first win of the day. Action item. Location, location, location. Where you place the water is half of the battle. Put it in a spot that you can immediately not have to think about it. Wake up, grab the water, drink, move on. Element

Learn Daily And Clear The Noise

SPEAKER_00 11:35

number four: learn something new. This one is about compound interest, not financial, but cognitive. Well, what does it look like? It could be reading five to ten pages of a book, listening to a short podcast segment. I know a good one called Elite Business Connector. Spend 10 minutes with something that grows you personally and or professionally. Here's the math. Just one page a day is 365 pages per year. That's roughly three to four books read in just 10 minutes a day. It's not discipline, it's simple math. Let me give you another example. Oftentimes I recommend people reading the Elite Roadwarder book. And when I do workshops for Elite Road Warder and people complain about not having enough time to read, I push back and I say, you've got one thing that I do in every single plight, every single person has. And that's when we sit down and we put that seatbelt on, we have to wait to get that approved electronic device until we're 10,000 feet in the air. So you know the challenge I give to business travelers? As soon as that seatbelt clicks, it's a trigger for you to pull out your elite roadway book and read it until when? Until you hear that ding. Do the same thing when you land. I can't tell you how many business travelers have come up to me and said, I've never gotten through a book. I tried that tip and just used that habit. And guess what? I've read your entire book. It's possible when you look through the margins, but it's a matter of doing that first thing in the morning. Now, you haven't burned through your cognitive fuels on emails and meetings just yet. It's daily incremental learning, applied at the right time, compounds in a way that random reading later in the day simply just can't match because you're so cognitively ready. So personally, here's my habit. Every year, my wife and I, we go through the one-year Bible and choose a different version to keep it fresh for us. After I drink my water bottle, I then go down to the kitchen, I make some hot matcha tea, then open my Bible and read for 20 minutes. But I'm an avid reader, so I read another 30 minutes: 15 on personal growth books, 15 on professional growth books. And I'm often asked, what books are you reading that I'm that I'm you should consider reading? Good question. I'll put a list in the show note episode as a cheat in the cheat sheet right there of some suggested books that you could start out in a number of different categories. Learning is a lifeline priority to me. And if you want to do something, you'll find a way. And if you don't, you'll find an excuse. A la Jim Room quote. Here's a pro tip. If you're in sales, many of you have drive time. Use that time slot to listen to a podcast like this one, and or download an audiobook like the first five minutes to learn while you're heading to a customer visit. It gets you in the right mindset to have a conversation with a customer, especially if it's dealing anything with our content of the first five minutes. Leverage that time. It's there anyway. Oh, by the way, a lot of you have two mutes anyway. Great time to use your listen and learn time there. Start some up. Stay consistent and let it compound. Action item. Find something to read and listen to that interests you and will make it easy for you to start and build this morning routine. Element number five. Practice mental clarity, meditation, or journaling. This is the element that most people say they want to do because it sounds trendy, but almost no one actually does. So let's change that. What does it look like? It can be five to ten minutes of journaling or simple breathing exercises. Four breaths in, hole for four breaths, four breaths out. It could be a free or a paid guided meditation app. Any of these are options. I'm often asked, hey, can you give me some recommendations? So I'll put in the resource five top five paid apps for meditation and also five free meditation apps. The point is, get your tape on. As in meditate. You see what I did there up being all clever, get your tape, meditate on. Gotta keep it coming back now. Come on now. You're not trying to achieve enlightenment in these moments of meditation, but you are trying to drain the noise before it directs your day. And the research here is robust. A systematic review published in Biomedicines found that mindfulness-based stress reduction enhances brain regions related to emotional processing and improves psychological outcomes, including to the extreme of anxiety and depression. And a study published in Frontiers and Psychology demonstrated that mindfulness significantly meditates and mediates emotional regulation and reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety in the general population. So here's the business application, though. High performers aren't meditating because it's trendy or enlightenment. They're doing it because unmanaged stress is a performance tax. Every worry you don't name before 8 a.m. has a tendency to show up uninvited in a meeting, on a call, in a decision, in a conversation that you may regret or may wish you could do over. Journaling and breathing are pattern interrupts. They let you step out of the emotional current before it carries you somewhere you didn't intend it to go. So here's my habit. I'm a five-minute meditator, imagine that five minutes, using breathing exercises. The four in or four hold, four out, four hold. It's simple, but it calms me down and clears my head. I double dip if I'm feeling stress or anxiety throughout my day, but I make sure it's part of my normal routine. And again, I'm often asked about meditation apps, so I'm going to give you some great recommendations within that cheat sheet at the end of the podcast in the show notes. But I'm also a person of prayer. And oddly enough, I use my shower time to take my focus off me and put it on to God. I then surrender the day ahead. Then I pray for each person in my family very specifically. And then also the concerns going in on my personal life. Something that I do every single day. If I'm working out, sometimes it's in the sauna or the steam room. Sometimes I'll do it again on a drive. But it's a matter, at least for me, it's a priority on the spiritual side. Action on it. Find something that will give you the mental clarity that you need. Experiment with meditation, breathing exercises, prayer, journaling. And I challenge you to really give it a shot over the next few weeks. This is worth the long-term investment. Start small, be consistent, watch for the compound effects. All right.

Grab The Free Routine Cheat Sheet

SPEAKER_00 18:11

We've covered the first five elements, and I want to pause right here because I know some of you are thinking, I need a breakthrough. Actually, that's probably not. Maybe thinking though, I really like all 10 of these in one specific location instead of trying to write them down. A lot of times I listen to podcasts on the road. I can't write them down. I go back to show up. I put together three, two, two, all ten elements. And instead of morning routine, it shows you exactly how they fit into it. Resource and show it. You can literally print it out, take it on your computer, put it on the bathroom, someplace to put it. High performance take full advantage of resources white pits. That's why I want to improve the quality of their day. And don't hesitate to leverage anything that will give them an edge. So make this your first action item to download this free resource from the show notes. Now, let's get back to it. Five more elements to go. And if you're good, I've got a bonus element at the end. Content blocks, six through ten of elements. Element

Movement And Smarter Breakfast Choices

SPEAKER_00 19:27

number six, get some move in it. I want to push back on a myth right here. You don't need a 90-minute gym session for your morning routine to count. That bar oftentimes is just too high. And it's the reason most people skip movement entirely. And they need to get their movement on. So, what does that look like in practice? It could be a five to 10 minute stretch. It could be a 10 to minute, 10 to 20 minute walk outside, could be 10 push-ups, lap around the block. Even that's enough to create some momentum. There are some research found that a single bout of exercise increases blood flow to frontal regions of the brain in both young and older adults, and that cognitive enhancements are accomplished by measurable changes in neural physiology. And for the business-minded among you, a review in Sports Medicine Open found that moderate intensity aerobic exercises bolsters our memory, our executive functions, mood regulation, and potentially increases our cerebral blood flow and production of brain-derived neurotrophic factors. It's a ton there. So what's the translation? Movement is not just for your body, it's also for your thinking. The brain you take into your first meeting is directly influenced by whether you moved the hours before. For me personally, I'm a balance between working out of the gym and at home. Then when I'm on business travel, the key for me is hitting that fitness center, even if for 20 minutes. And oftentimes I'm not going to bring my phone unless I want to listen to something. Why? Because I've got ADD, attention distraction disorder. And when I don't have it, sometimes my body and my mind get the break that it needs. I'm free to wander. So you need to make that decision of what you need to do when you're working out within there. Learn, as we talked about earlier, or is it a matter of giving your brain a break? Sometimes my movement on the road, and it's taking the stairs at the hotel. It's parking at the back of the parking lot. It's standing during meetings. It's going for a walk at the end of the day to clear my mind. You very easily apply those to your everyday, even if you're not on business travel. Practical example. Start with 10 push-ups or a 15-minute walk, or 10 minutes of dumbbells and a 10-minute walk. Do something. Now that combination, done consistently, is more valuable than a gym session that you do just twice a week and hate every minute of it. Make it small enough that you can say that you cannot say no, but you can say yes. Small wins build momentum. Momentum built identity. I had a quote in my book, The Elite Road War Six Energy Habits to Master the Business. Travel life. And one of the quotes was about move. And it said this do something, anything, just not nothing. That goes completely true of working out in the morning. Do something, anything, just not nothing. Now, some of you can do a full workout of cardio and strength training, but have let other more urgent things get in the way. Well, this is your awake call to get you back in that routine. Start small, maybe you got to start hard, but just start it. Maybe you need to cut your workout workout time in half just to get back into the swing of things. You know what to do. Here's the action item. Find what getting your move on means for you. Remember, do something, anything, just not nothing, and do it consistently. Element number seven, fuel your body intentionally. Here's the thing about breakfast. It's not necessarily about whether you eat it, it's about whether you're intentional about what you're doing and why. What does intentional fueling look like if you eat, finding something protein-based that fuels your energy and kickstarts your metabolism? A smoothie with a protein source. If you're doing intentional fasting, that's legitimate option two. The word here is intentional. You've chosen it on purpose. You're not just skipping breakfast because, well, you're running late. The key is this: avoid high sugar breakfasts that spike your blood glucose and set you up for a crash by 10 a.m. Those muffins and pastries that look like breakfast food, well, they're just dessert with a morning marketing campaign on it. Here's why this matters. Your brain runs on glucose. Stable nutrition supports, stable energy, stable cognition, and stable mood. The crash from a sugar spike that just affects your body, well, it's going to affect your decision making, your patience, and your presence in a conversation. It's just not worth it. Think about the sales profession who eats a donut at a gas station and with coffee on the way to their 9 a.m. meeting versus the one who wet eggs, water and 10 minutes of quiet first. They're walking to the same room, but they're not the same person and probably get different results. Another mantra from the Lead Road Water book was living by four letters. M T H C. Make the healthiest choice. Look at everything you consume, especially in your morning meal, and make it the healthiest choice. For me, I feed my mind, my heart, push my body, then refuel it. Fuel your body like you're preparing for performance because in the end of the day, you are performing in your day. Here's the point food is fuel and fuel is energy. And energy is what you need to be a high performer, an elite business connector. Action on it. Think about the first thing you put in your body every single morning. And own the mantra, M T H C. It's for a good cause, the success of your day and what high performers do every single day. Maybe you need to put a sticky note, M T H C, to help your member to make the healthiest choice.

Goals Priorities And Deep Work Early

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Element number eight, review your goals. This is the element that separates people who are busy from people who are productive. What's it look like? Two to three minutes of reading your goals. Short term and long term. That's it. Not a big strategy session, not a journaling deep dive, just a read-through. It's a reminder and it's a compass check. And here's the critical note. If you don't have clearly defined written goals, well, use this time to develop them. You cannot review what doesn't exist. Start there. Well, why does this work? Because without a daily reminder of where you're going, your day fills up with other people's priorities. Your calendars become their agenda. Your decisions default to urgency rather than importance. Reviewing your goals at the start of the day, well, it recalibates your internal compass before the world spins around you. Stephen Covey called a beginning with the end in mind. Tony Robbins calls it priming. I call it simply know your plan, then work your plan. For me, I live by the big three concept introduced by Michael Hyatt and the best year ever book in philosophy. I said at the beginning of the year, my big three goals for the year, big three for each quarter, big three for every month, then big three for the week. Maybe this philosophy is where you should start. It's a great thing to stop on a weekend. Take a couple of hours and develop your big three for the year or the quarter. Look at what matters before you look at what's loud. Focus on what is truly important, not urgent. Study after study shows high performers have very clearly defined written goals that they review every single day. And that's why this element is so important. It keeps what's important and not urgent in front of you. So when, not if life gets busy, you know exactly where to focus your time. Action on it. Start with defining your big three for the week, then the month, et cetera, then for the quarter and for the year. Element number nine: set your big three priorities for today. So here's where the rubber meets the road. You've reviewed your goals. Now you make the decision about today. What does today look like? Choose one must-do. This is your single most important thing that if you complete it, makes today a win. Then add just two secondary tasks. That's it. Not a 15-item to-do list, not a color-coded productivity matrix. Three things in order of importance. It goes back to the big three principle mentioned in the reviewing your goals element. And after you know your big three at a macro level, meaning the year, the quarter, and the month, and the week, then you can clearly define your big three for the day that allows you to accomplish your big three for the week, then for the month, the quarter, and the year. Amazing how that works, right? The research here is compelling. Roy Ballmeister, foundational work on decision fatigue, is the concept of ego depletion, established that willpower and self-regulation that only draw from a limited cognitive resource. This means every decision you make depletes that resource. And by the time you hit the afternoon, the quality of your choices has measurably declined. So, what's that mean? Setting your top priorities in the morning uses your peak mental clarity before your decision fatigue sets in. To do the most important cognitive work of your day and deciding what matters. Here's a practical example. Instead of sitting down at your desk and asking yourself, well, what should I work on? Or just getting to the phones and the emails, you already know. Your proposal first, your client call second, budget review third, for example, no friction, no deliberation, just execution. For me, once I have my focus in the right places after reading, working out, AK, some form of moving, fueling my body, MTHC, I'm in the right headspace to review my goals and then zero in on exactly what I need to accomplish today to build on yesterday to accomplish what I want for my week, my month, my quarter, and my year. Clearing the morning creates momentum all day long. So here's the action item. Start using the big three methodology with at least your most important focuses for the day. These five minutes will have much more impact on the success of your day than you even realize it. Last element, number 10. Do a high-value task early, aka eat the frog. That phrase comes from a quote often attributed to Mark Twain: Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing will happen to you the rest of the day that's worse. Brian Tracy popularized it as a productivity principle. And science backs it up. So what's it look like? It means 60 to 90 minutes of focused, high-value work before email, before meetings, before the noise. It could be writing, strategizing, solving the complex problem, creating the content, building the thing that actually moves your mission forward. Now, research on cognitive performance and circadian timing consistently shows that many people experience their peak cognitive window in the late morning, before decision fatigue accumulates and before social demands fragment their focus. A study published in Cognitive Benefits of Exercise noted that this time of day effects on cognition is well supported across multiple research designs. So here's the business reality: most high-value work requires sustained, uninterrupted focus. It requires creativity, analysis, and strategic thinking. These are not things that you can do well when you're context switching every four minutes between email and Slack, for example. You need a window. Protect that morning window. A book that's the ultimate guide, at least for me, on this premise, is called Deep Work by Cal Newport. Now, that would be the perfect book to read for the element on Learn Something More. See how these elements can all work together? Practical example. I had a client of mine, high-level sales director. He blocks 6:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. every morning on the weekdays, protected that creation time. No internal meetings before 9, no email before 8. And in that 90-minute window, he built more pipeline, wrote more strategic proposals, and advanced more deals than he'd had in the three months prior combined. The time was the same. The protection of it was new. What could that be for you? Well, for me, it's content creation. It's when I write my podcast, my LinkedIn newsletter article, my website when I'm writing my next book. I prepare new content for a keynote or a corporate workshop, et cetera. Often this time block sometimes is in the morning flight to do a sales training or corporate workshop. It's planned for when, not if, by my big three for my morning ahead. Eat that frog before the world wakes up and starts feeding you theirs. Here's the action item. Take a few minutes and really think about what is your highest value activity that will yield the most results for you. And that's the block you need to guard in the morning. Here's a hint. When you do your big three and determine your year, big three, quarterly, monthly, and weekly, this answer will be blatantly obvious. All right, you're good.

Visualization For High Stakes Moments

SPEAKER_00 32:35

I'm gonna give you one more bonus element here: mental rehearsal visualization. So this is what this is. This is the element that high performers, elite athletes, executives, military leaders, musicians use that almost no one in the business world thinks to apply. So what's it look like? It's two or three minutes of intentional mental rehearsal. You're visualizing a meeting that's going to go well. You're rehearsing a difficult conversation, how you open, how you respond, how you'll close. Imagine yourself delivering a clear, confident presentation. You're running the tape before the game starts. And here's why this is more than a feel-good exercise. Research in sports psychology and neuroscience has consistently demonstrated that mental rehearsal activates the same neural pathways as physical exhaustion. And a review in the Journal of Sports Psychology and multiple neuroimaging studies confirmed that when athletes or anyone visualize performing a task, the motor cortex, premortar cortex, and supplementary motor areas all activate in ways that mirror actual performance. Your brain, at an orological level, does not fully distinguish between a vividly imagined experience and a real one. It means that if you rehearse a difficult conversation in your mind, calmly, consistently, and confidently with clear language, you have actually practiced it, not perfectly, but more than you think. You're going to show up and it's going to go well. There's a story about Michael Phelps in the Olympics. He had practiced so many times his routine in the pool. He would shut his eyes and monitor every single second of that race. And one time, his goggles got knocked, water got into there, he couldn't see. And guess what he had to do? He swam that race and still finished in first place. Why? This mental visualization. He had lived that entire race the entire time. For me, before any keynote or corporate training or workshop or high-stakes call, I spend at least five minutes backstage mentally rehearsing the first five minutes. How I'll open. What observational questions that I'm going to ask? What will be my lead talking point? What I want the other person in the room or group of people to feel and experience. By the time I walk in, I've already run that entire play. And it changes everything. It calms me down. I've already visualized what's going to happen. This is top shelf, guys. This is going the extra mile to make somebody elite. It isn't magic, it's neuroscience, and it's now yours. So here's the last action item with this buy 10, get one free. Just take one minute before you move on to anything in your day. Simply close your eyes and visualize something within your day ahead. How do you want your day to look at the end? How a meeting, your sales calls, whatever, will go. Really think through the best

The Implementation Gap And Recap

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case scenario. So here are closing thoughts, some two-front honesty for you. Let me be real with you for a moment, and I mean both sides of the truth. Here's the honest encouragement side. These 10 elements plus the bonus are not complicated. None of them require necessarily equipment. None of them require a perfect schedule. None of them require you to wake up at 4 a.m. They do require intention and they require consistency. And when you stack them, even three or four of these elements, the compound effect on your energy, your clarity, and your business performance is real. I've seen it and I've lived it. And the research we walk through today confirms it. But here's the honest challenge. You already know some of this, maybe most of it. The gap is never information. The gap is implementation. And implementation starts not with a plan, but with a decision. And the decision that tomorrow morning is going to be different. Not perfect, different. It may start with you setting your alarm at a certain time, hiding your phone, putting your water out, and just getting those elements in to start your day strong. So let me leave you with three main categories in the full list that we had talked about at the very beginning. The first category was the mind and mental state. Set the mental tone. And our key question was: am I mentally clear for the day ahead? Then we talked about the category of body and physical foundation, taking care of the machine. And that key question was, is my body ready? Do we do that within our morning routine? And third was the focus in intentional action. Direct your energy. And the key question there is, do I know what matters today? Three very, very important categories. Which of the three are you doing? The goal ultimately is all three. And how do you accomplish those? Those are the three of the ten elements. One, wake up at a consistent time. Two, avoid your phone the first hour. Three, hydrate immediately. Four, learn something new. Five, practice mental clarity. It could be meditation, prayer, or journaling. Six, get your movement on. Something anything is better than nothing. Seven, fill your body intentionally. MTHC, make the healthiest choice. Eight, review your goals. Big three for the year, quarter, month, week. Number nine, set your big three priorities for the day. Ten, do a high value task early. Eat that frog. And the bonus item we gave was mental rehearsal visualization. Own your morning, own your day. So let's wrap up with the three

Three Action Items And Next Guest

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action items we always give. Before I let you go, here are the three that I want you to do in the next 24 hours. Action item number one, pick two elements from today's list that you're not currently doing. Just two. Write them on a post-it note, put it on your bathroom mirror, not 10, not five, just two. Starting tomorrow, those two are yours, then build on one each day. Action item number two. Download the free cheat sheet resource in the show notes. It has all 10 elements that are there, the three categories, the WIP research behind each one, sample routines, book ideas, meditation suggestions and apps. So much there. Use that of any episode, use this resource. Third action item. Set your alarm and your bedtime for tonight. So that tomorrow you can test each one of these elements before your first commitment of the day. Not eventually, tomorrow. So here's a sneak peek of the next episode, episode 28. Next week is our even-numbered episode, which means an interview with the subject matter expert. And this interview will be with Alan Stein Jr., a former acclaimed basketball performance coach who spent 15 years working with the highest performing athletes on the planet, including NBA stars like Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, and Kobe Bryant. He now transfers that knowledge to teach proven strategies that improve individual and organizational performance. And I've interviewed Alan Stein Jr. on past podcasts of mine, and he's always matches my energy, which I love. And he's also one of my top-performing interviews. You're going to love this interview. You're not going to want to miss it. Make sure you tune in. But this episode is officially in the books. In and out, nobody

Final Reminders And How To Reach Me

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got hurt. Don't forget to follow and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode. And I encourage you to download past episodes so you can listen at any time and not miss any episodes, past or present. If you're watching on YouTube, don't forget to subscribe and leave a comment. Let me know what resonates with you, especially which of these elements is the one you're going to attack next. All today's main points and links are in the show notes. And again, don't forget to grab that free sheet resource, The 10 Elements of a High Performer, with every element suggestions and a sample morning routine, books, apps, the whole nine yards. And if today's episode hit home for you, do me a favor, share with one person in your world who needs to hear it. Maybe it's a colleague, a teammate, friend, someone on your sales floor. This stuff works, but only if people know it and can apply it. And if you want to bring this content to your team, your conference, to your next company event, reach out. I'd love to have that conversation. You can find me on LinkedIn or Brian, BrianBeTHY at Brian BuckleySpeaks.com. As my Chicago Bears chant, good, better, best, never let it rest till your good gets better and your better gets best. Until next time, keep improving your communication, your conversation, and connection skills every day. As my dad used to say all the time, thanks for coming. But most of all, thanks for leaving. You got this now. I'm out. Now it's your time to do something with this episode. And always remember to leverage your first five minutes to build connection, trust, and influence. You got that.