When I can, I don't set an alarm – but I get up early.
I read nonsense on my phone while my brain comes online. About 15 minutes. Reddit or the New York Times.
Then, still in bed, I meditate for 30 minutes to an hour.
Lying on my back. Eyes closed.
No, I never fall asleep.
Unless I choose to, but then I roll onto my side and it's a conscious decision. Very rare.
("But ME, I can't just stay in bed! I have a job! Things to do!" – I know. Keep reading.)
The goal of my meditation: do nothing. Just be there.
When I'm overwhelmed by obligations and problems, I don't try to solve them.
I place my attention on how they manifest in the body: tension in the solar plexus, muscular restlessness, breathing.
Ideally, I don't get out of bed to do something: I push obligations to the background. Even the important ones. Even the urgent ones.
I'm not saying I always succeed.
Then I exercise.
The goal isn't to build muscle. It's an extension of meditation that includes the body.
Again, I start by doing nothing.
And I always come back to this: there is nothing to do.
No required movement. No routine. No decision.
Just standing, vertical, relaxed. Letting it come.
And action comes. On its own.
The moment I feel I'm forcing it or falling into habit... I return to nothing. Because there is nothing to do.
Yes, I know.
This is the part many people struggle with, and it's the heart of what I'm saying:
It sounds like an extremely privileged morning.
To recap: I get up when I want. I lounge in bed for an hour. Then I do "non-exercise".
And what follows is the same: I write in my journal over coffee without forcing any outcome. I let the next actions come.
Many will say:
"I'd love mornings like that! But I have a job! I have X, Y, Z to deal with!"
But that's exactly the point. That's the real insight – and there are actually two of them:
First, I'm extremely productive. More than before.
(And yes, I'm a dad, I run a business, and my accounting is up to date.)
Better: if I compare what I do now to what I used to do, back when I set an alarm and was buried in obligations from morning to night – I get more done now.
And I'm starting to make a better living – even though it's a tricky transition period.
I realized that obligations – not all of them, but a portion – were bad for both my health and my finances.
On the contrary: the decisions that have improved my situation in recent years have always come in presence, while I had something else to do.
An idea I sum up like this:
The right action, simple, executed at the right moment, can have more impact on my life than weeks or months of work.
If you're not convinced, read it again.
It's the foundation of everything else.
Decisive actions change everything. For the better.
The goal, then, is to find (and really, to pick) these actions.
But for that, you have to be present. Listening. Available.
So yes: clarity is my absolute priority.
Before looking busy. Before what seems urgent.
Second: it's harder than it sounds.
Rushing out of bed to handle daily obligations is actually the easy path. The routine.
No need to question anything.
That's what I did for 40 years.
We drown anxiety in action, hoping that one day, by accident, we'll find the one that solves all our problems.
But it never happens – or never for long.
What's really hard is facing anxiety without adding more agitation.
It's calming the part of you that wants to dive into useless action to silence the fear.
The morning I'm describing is designed to do exactly that.
But it didn't happen overnight.
At each new step, I had to face social pressure and inner judgment.
For example: I rarely take morning meetings.
I realized the hours after waking up are the most creative.
So they're devoted to the most important activities, the ones that lead to clarity:
Meditation, journaling, writing.
But it took a real inner battle to accept this new rule.
I found it extremely self-indulgent.
As if I were granting myself a privilege I'd pay for later. ("Don't come crying later!")
But the exact opposite happened.
Morning clarity multiplied everything, personally and professionally.
Every decision that allowed me to restructure my business came from there.
I said it: the transition is still tough financially. I'm in a period where I have to be very careful.
But the growth is there: I've gained more clients in the last six months than in the previous six years.
What I do takes on a much bigger place in people's lives – I get tons of extremely positive feedback.
I make a living doing what's easy and natural for me.
I eat better. I sleep better. I have less anxiety.
I have better relationships with people in general.
I'm not saying all of this is because of my morning routine.
But this routine is the clearest reflection of my decision to focus on what matters.
Of course, not every obligation can be dropped.
It's not always an easy trade-off.
What's certain: if you don't start, it'll never happen.
It's not about stopping everything overnight – definitely not.
It's about realizing that anxiety often disguises small tasks as absolute emergencies.
If you let it run the show, everything becomes serious. Everything becomes urgent.
Quickly, you're a prisoner of your obligations.
You never have time to look underneath.
Yet that's always where the solution is.
The real one. The one that will change everything.
And make all those obligations obsolete.