I’d like for you to consider the following.

What do you do when you wake up in the morning? Do you lie there and curse because the day started before you wanted the night to end? Do you drag yourself out of bed to get ready to do your work? Do you rush about to get ready and get on the road? Do you gulp down a pot of coffee? Do you throw something in your stomach or skip food altogether?

We all have what I call a rising ritual. The question is: does it set you up for a powerful day? For most of my life, I was not intentional about how I started my day. For the past 2+ years, I’ve been very intentional about it. I have an elaborate ritual that takes me about two hours, and I have a short version that takes me about 45 minutes. It makes a major difference when I do either of these rituals.

What goes into a rising ritual? Ideally, you are doing something to nourish your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies (see Practicing Self-Care in Every Moment), even within a short amount of time. For instance, when I’m pressed for time, I will do a 5–7 minute meditation, drink some cleansing drinks, do some power yoga, and have breakfast.

When I don’t follow one of my rising rituals, I feel disconnected, ungrounded, unbalanced, and I end up struggling throughout the day. Im not as mentally sharp. I don’t have as much energy, and my productivity level is not good. Some days, I end up having to write the day off altogether and start preparing to do better the next day.

What can you do when you wake up tomorrow to craft a powerful day?